Ex-Army Agent Claims MI5 Buried Kincora Evidence

By AM Sunday, August 3, 2014

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• "When I wasn't called to the Hughes inquiry I knew a cover-up was under way and I prayed for the time to come ... Now is that time."

  

Mick Brown with a piece on the MI5 cover-up of sexual abuse in the most notorious case of its kind in the North's history. It featured in The Mirror on 1 August 2014. 

 

MI5 COVERED UP the sexual abuse of boys in the notorious Kincora home, an ex-Army intelligence officer said yesterday.

 

Brian Gemmell, a former captain in the Intelligence Corps, has revealed he submitted reports to the head of MI5 in Ulster in 1975.

 

Breaking his silence, the 64-year-old insists "it was a lie" no intelligence officers knew of the matter, as reported in the 1982 Sir George Terry report.

 

Mr Gemmell's claims he officially briefed Ian Cameron, MI5's top man in Northern Ireland, will send shock waves through the Security Service.

 

It will also strengthen calls for the State's role in the affair that has haunted abuse victims for decades to be exposed as part of the Westminster abuse inquiry announced by Home Secretary Theresa May.

 

There have been long-standing allegations that spooks allowed the assaults to enable it to gather intelligence on unionist politicians but also to protect leading British establishment and security figures takping in the abuse of young boys at the home.

 

Former Army press officer Colin Wallace last week repeated that he and colleagues were frustrated by some superiors in their efforts to have the attacks investigated by the RUC.

 

In December 1981 three former Kincora staff now all dead, warden Joe Mains, his deputy Raymond Semple and house master and Orange Order member William McGrath, were jailed for sexually assaulting boys at the home.

 

From the outset of the Troubles suspected MI5 agent McGrath led shadowy loyalist group Tara and Mr Gemmell confirms he tried to expose the scandal after concerns raised by Tara's second-in-command Roy Garland.

 

Mr Gemmell claims the inquiry by Sussex Chief Constable Sir George Terry ignored vital evidence of the abuse.

 

Mr Gemmell took up his duties in late 1974 and served for two years, heading up the Army's loyalist desk during which he came upon the Kincora affair when in pursuit of information on Tara.

 

He said:

 

I was a lieutenant and then a captain in the Intelligence Corps, commanding about 27 27 staff, and an active contact of "the Political Advisor" [Ian Cameron] operating in certain matters under his direction and that of his staff.  The Kincora information was part and parcel of my Intelligence Reports (Intreps) on Tara. It was classified Secret and sent/taken by me to HQNI and handed over to MI5 staff there. Eventually, after a few weeks, Cameron summoned me to his office and rudely told me to break off all Tara contacts and investigation. He was angry and hostile. Why had he not responded like this when the reports first went in? I smelled a rat when there was no follow-up. I suspected a cover-up of some kind especially when 'Terry/Hughes' made no attempt to call me to give evidence. 

 

The Terry/Hughes inquriies were widely criticised at the time for their limited terms of reference, which some claimed prevented officers from speaking out. Last week it emerged some Kincora victims had also been made to sign "gagging orders". 

 

Mr Gemmell told how he knew the findings of the Hughes Inquiry were wrong when it was reported on the evening news it had found "no involvement of intelligence officers and no INT personnel had known anything about Kincora." 

 

He added:

I feel strongly about the abuse of innocents but I've never been anti-MI5 or anti-Establishment. Time has passed and a number of the conspirators have retired or died I expect. Post [Jimmy] Saville and Rolf Harris it seems there will be an ear to hear in the media, establishment or public about these things now. When I was not called to the Hughes Inquiry I knew a cover-up was under way and just waited for the time to come. Now, it seems, is that time. 

Mr Gemmell said he hopes a new regime at MI5 will allow the truth to come out. He added:

New blood in the Security Service may take a different view of things now and be prepared to own up to some of the deceit and failings of their predecessors. That will be progress and gives hope that speaking out again will be more fruitful.

 

 

SURVIVOR DEMANDS ACTION

 

 

 

An abuse survivor said now is the time to deal with the cover-up once and for all.

 

Margaret McGuckin, chair of Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse which represents some Kincora victims, said:

We intend to honour all the victims, alive and dead, some of whom died pitiful deaths as a result of the abuse. And those who feel they still don't have a voice. This will help us expose those who covered this up. 

 

Patrick Corrigan, Programme Director of Amnesty International Northern Ireland, which made the original call for the inclusion of Kincora in the inquiry announced by Theresa May, asid: "These are compelling new allegations which underline what Amnesty has said consistently since we called on the Home Secretary to include Kincora in the UK-wide inquiry. What we now need is a commitment from the Home Office that Kincora will come within the remit of the inquiry.

  

Furthermore we need to ensure that the inquiry panel will be able to access all the witnesses and files necessary to get at the truth of the allegations of a cover-up of abuse at this Belfast boys' home.