In 2017 Village published a series of articles highlighting allegations of British Establishment complicity in child abuse in Ireland, particularly the crucially flawed Hart Report which was published in Northern Ireland (NI) a year ago.
Judge Hart was tripped up by false evidence fed to him by MI5, MI6 and others for their own devious reasons. The problems manifest in his report make it an imperative that all of the activities of the Anglo-Irish Vice Ring (A-IVR) be re-investigated by the London-based Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) which enjoys far greater powers of witness compulsion than Hart did.
First, the IICSA should look afresh at the Kincora scandal on account of its multiple links to Westminster figures such as Sir Cyril Smith MP and Sir Peter Hayman of MI6, both of whom abused Richard Kerr, a former Kincora resident. Another former MP who is still alive abused Kerr while he was still at Kincora. He too should be included in these inquiries. In addition, the IICSA should examine the territory which Hart did not explore and call witnesses who were either overlooked or refused to co-operate with him.
The trouble with the files
Last month, Britain’s National Archive stated that it was withholding a file on Kincora from publication. We believe this vindicates our criticisms of the Hart Report. Hart was given solemn assurances by the UK intelligence, security and political communities that they would provide him with all the relevant files on Kincora for his work. It now appears that this one was not disclosed to him. If indeed it wasn’t, what is in it that is so sensitive that it was withheld from Hart? If, however, it was furnished to Hart, what influence did it have on his deliberations? Since we do not know what is in the file, these questions cannot be answered. In the absence of clarity, Village believes it is far more likely that the file was withheld in its entirety from the Hart Inquiry.
In addition to the criticism Village published during the last year, we can now add that Hart missed the significance of some important information which was furnished to him. He was supplied with a copy of an interview with Hugh Mooney, a former ‘Information Adviser’ to the General Officer in Command of the British Army in NI which was published in The Sunday Correspondent. In it Mooney stated unambiguously that Colin Wallace, who worked at the British Army’s HQ at Lisburn as a PSYOPS officer, had told him about the abuse at Kincora. ‘I do know he mentioned it. He was dropping it in and feeling his way. He kept pushing it. But I could never understand why. I thought it was totally irrelevant to our concerns. I did get the feeling he was pushing this’. Hugh Mooney left NI in December 1973. Hence, Colin Wallace must have told him about the scandal before that date i.e. seven years before Hart concluded that the British Army knew about the abuse. This was also two years before Richard Kerr entered Kincora. Hugh Mooney did not appear at the Hart Inquiry.
At page 88 of his report Hart stated that, ‘We are satisfied that it was not until 1980 [after the media exposed the Kincora scandal] that MI5, SIS, the MoD and the RUC Special Branch became aware that [William] McGrath [of Kincora] had been sexually abusing residents of Kincora when that became a public allegation”. Unfortunately, Hart made this finding despite knowing that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had destroyed all the PSYOPS files at Army HQ in Lisburn in 1981, or at least alleged that it had. Colin Wallace is clear in his memory that a number of the missing files concerned McGrath, his paramilitary organisation Tara and Kincora.
The IICSA will begin its probe into VIP abuse next month
The IICSA was established in 2015 by Theresa May in her then capacity as UK Home Secretary. She pointedly refused to include Kincora within the remit of the IICSA despite being requested so to do by former Kincora victims.
The IICSA came into being as a response to a plague of child-abuse cases linked to VIPs and the British Establishment, including that of Jimmy Saville. Since the instigation of the IICSA, an array of independent campaigning websites has pursued the story tenaciously while the mainstream UK media has largely steered away from any meaningful coverage of it. Its focus has, instead, been on reports about personnel changes on the staff of the IICSA. Meanwhile, elements of the pro-Establishment press, especially the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail have seized a number of opportunities to undermine claims about elite complicity in the abuse. They have been supported by a handful of Tory Party grandees who have spoken out on radio and TV.
Next month the IICSA will finally begin its probe of allegations about Westminster and VIP abuse; at least that is what is intended.
On the basis of past performance, the Telegraph, Mail and their allies in the Tory Party will seize upon a series of stories which Village has long argued are nothing more than fictitious and entirely malicious plants designed to distract attention from the truth; worse still, designed to bring credible witnesses into disrepute by tainting them all with the same absurdist brush. A purported ‘witness’ known only as ‘Nick’ has, for example, poisoned the waters of credibility with absurd claims about sadistic murders – some with preposterous and laughable Occult overtones. ‘Nick’ was wheeled out by pro-Establishment commentators to undermine the findings of the Wiltshire Police last year that the late Edward Heath had abused young boys. We can expect to hear a lot more about ‘Nick’ & Co., in the coming months from the Telegraph, Mail and multifarious Tory grandees.
Irrespective of what the IICSA ultimately determines, Village believes that much of the truth has already entered the public domain and there is no reason for this process to cease. The rest of this article will illustrate how the Anglo Irish branch of the VIP/Westminster vice-ring operated in practice.
The phone call from Joss Cardwell
During the summer of 1977, Richard Kerr, a resident at Kincora Boys Home in Belfast, was summoned by the man in charge of his welfare, Joseph Mains. Mains, who ran Kincora, told Kerr that Joss Cardwell had called and wanted him – Kerr – and another Kincora resident, Steven Waring, to proceed down to Belfast Harbour.
Joss Cardwell was a paedophile as was Joe Mains. Cardwell was also Chairman of Belfast Corporation Welfare Committee and in overall charge of Kincora and other homes such as Williamson House in Belfast. He was also a key figure in the Anglo-Irish Vice Ring (A-IVR) which Village has been writing about for the last year. Many of the participants in the A-IVR are still alive and have never been brought to justice.
Kerr knew exactly what Cardwell’s ominous edict entailed for him: he would be going to England to be sexually abused yet again. On this trip, he would be delivered into the grubby hands of a TV star in London.
Kerr knew Caldwell as ‘Joseph’ Cardwell and – as Village reported last year – recalls how he wore a ‘funny’ hat and drove a blue minivan which he used to take boys out of Kincora. Some of these trips terminated at the Adelphi Hotel in Portrush where the boys were abused.
The basement in Liverpool where 11-year-old boys were held captive
Stephen Waring and Richard Kerr boarded the ferry to Liverpool. In Liverpool they were met by Michael ‘A’. Kerr was familiar with him from Manchester where he had been abused at the Rembrandt Hotel. Michael ‘A’ was in the company of a man called Derek.
The group headed to a premises in Liverpool near Lime Street train station. By now it was well into the morning of the following day. The boys were ushered down a flight of steps into a basement with mattresses strewn across its floor. Approximately five others boys were being held. They were aged between 11 and 13. Kerr and Waring were kept with them for three or four hours.
A degrading train journey to London
Later that morning, Michael ‘A’ and Steven ‘J’ brought the two Kincora boys to the train station. The other – younger – boys did not travel with them.
Steven ‘J’ served the A-IVR in a number of ways, one of which was to take salacious photographs of the boys ensnared in the vice-ring. Stephen ‘J’ also knew Joe Mains and Eric Witchell who was the first member of the A-IVR to have abused Kerr – while he was only 8 at Williamson House. During the 1970s Witchell resided in both Liverpool and Belfast. Witchell was later put in charge of Williamson House where Kerr resided before being sent to Kincora in 1975.
Witchell and Cardwell supplied boys from Williamson House to abusers favoured by the A-IVR. Kerr was one of these boys. Village has the names of others. Some of them went on to commit suicide.
On this trip, Kerr and Waring reached Manchester with their two escorts, alighting and switching to another train. They were confined inside a first-class compartment on the final leg of the journey – which would take them to London – and were abused by Michael ‘A’ and Steven ‘J’ en route. The abuse was perpetrated in a clandestine manner and was manual.
The UK TV star
After they reached London, the boys were were separated and Kerr was brought to the Wimpy Bar in Piccadilly Circus. Piccadilly was notorious for the presence of so-called Dilly boys, unfortunate urchins who had been groomed, bullied and manipulated into becoming male prostitutes. Kerr was escorted to the upstairs floor of the Wimpy Bar and placed behind a table. There were two men inside the Wimpy Bar who were running the Dilly Boys at the time. Kerr recalls that one of them was the late Jack Murry, a well dressed Englishman who smoked cigars and wore glasses. He does not know who the second man was.
Later, Kerr was ordered to go back downstairs and delivered to a TV star who was waiting outside for him. The man, who was much taller than Kerr, beckoned him to follow and walked approximately two feet ahead of Kerr in case anyone saw them together.
Kerr and the TV star walked up to a very well known street. The man opened a door on street level with a key. The door led immediately to a flight of stairs. He was brought upstairs. The man had a small room on the left-hand side of the stairs. It was sparsely furnished. Kerr was then abused in a degrading manner.
The adult gave Kerr £20 and he was then ushered downstairs, put back on the street and told to find his own way back to the Wimpy Bar.
What the adult did not realise was that Kerr was seething with resentment at the men who abused him and had perfected the practice of memorising detail about his abusers. He sometimes even managed to take photographs away with him as proof of their identity. Some of the photographs were of cars with their registration plates clearly visible and are now in the possession of Village. On this occasion, although the room was barely lived in, he managed to remove an item which he has described to Village.
Kerr later recognised the man from a guest appearance on the then hugely popular ‘Minder’ TV show, one of the actor’s numerous TV appearances in hugely successful BBC and ITV programmes, some of which were made for children. Richard Kerr does not wish to reveal the identity of the TV star at this point in time.
Where are they now?
THE TV STAR is alive and plying his trade as an actor. He has contributed to the activities of numerous charities including at least one involved with child welfare. He has stated that some rape victims are liars who are only after money.
JOSEPH MAINS went to prison in 1981 for the sexual abuse he perpetrated at Kincora. Last year the Hart Report disclosed that MI6 records indicated that Mains was a friend of SIR MAURICE OLDFIELD, a notorious pederast who served as Chief of MI6 1973-78 after having served as Deputy Chief 1967-1973. Oldfield was appointed MI6 Chief by TED HEATH, another child abuser.
JOSS CARDWELL committed suicide in March 1982 after being interviewed by the RUC about Kincora.
ERIC WITCHELL – who is still alive – was convicted of child abuse at Williamson House (but not for his abuse of Kerr and many others). He served a prison sentence for his crimes. No police force anywhere in the UK seems interested in investigating the countless crimes associated with his membership of the A-IVR for which he was not arrested.
MICHAEL ‘A’ and STEPHEN ‘J’: it is not known if they are alive.
THE WESTMINSTER MP: While still a resident at Kincora, Richard Kerr was abused by an MP who is still alive. This occurred while he was sent on a separate trip to London but mention of him in this article is timely because he should be questioned by the IICSA.
RICHARD KERR is alive and lives in Dallas, Texas. The Kincora scandal came to light because of his courageous efforts as a teenager. He disclosed what was happening to him to his social workers – who are still alive – despite intimidating death threats made by Joseph Mains. Kerr’s social workers tried to get the authorities in Belfast to intervene but met a blank wall because of the malign influence of Cardwell and a legal official in Belfast Corporation who helped suppressed the scandal. The lawyer was an associate of Mains. Eventually, the social workers went to a journalist in the Republic of Ireland who was able to break the story in the Irish Independent in January 1980.
STEVEN WARING committed suicide in November 1977, a few months after the trip to England described in this article. Waring jumped to his death from the Belfast-Liverpool Monarch Ferry. His body was never recovered. Despite the passage of 40 years, an inquest into his death has yet to be convened.
By Joseph de Búrca
