Theresa Villiers rejects Kincora abuse inquiry request

Kevin Winters, a solicitor representing the men, said it appeared that Kincora was at “the centre of a sex ring of institutional abuse” used by members of the British establishment and senior figures within the loyalist community in Northern Ireland.

Mr Wallace previously told how he spoke out about the abuse four decades ago – but no action was taken. “We feel that it is the right forum to investigate the despicable events that took place at Kincora”.

Three senior staff at Kincora – William McGrath, Raymond Semple and Joseph Mains – were jailed in 1981 for child abuse, but there have been suggestions of a mass cover-up by MI5, which was rumoured to be protecting high-ranking paedophiles in the military, Civil Service and politics.

Surely Her Majesty’s Government must now extend the investigation into this bad abuse, to Northern Ireland and include the evil Kthat was the institutionalised abuse at Kincora.

Campaigners for Kincora’s inclusion in the UK-wide inquiry have highlighted that the Northern Ireland-specific probe does not have the powers to compel security services witnesses to give evidence or produce documents.

The papers included a file about former Northern Ireland minister and Conservative MP Sir William Van Straubenzee which also “contained references to the Kincora boys home”.

Amnesty repeated its call for the Goddard inquiry to incorporate Kincora after new British government files relating to the home were discovered.

The papers had been stored by the Cabinet Office.

In January the Government released details of a file prepared for Mrs Thatcher’s office on the “unnatural sexual” behaviours of one of the men Sir Peter Hayman.

On Wednesday it was revealed that new documents, which should have been found during an earlier inquiry, had been discovered by a more in-depth search of government archives.

The contents of the freshly-located files have not been made public but the Cabinet Office has provided brief descriptions.

Peter Wanless, head of the NSPCC, and Richard Whittam QC, who carried out the original inquiry into the handling of historical allegations that prominent figures were child abusers, said the emergence of the papers was “not helpful” in terms of public confidence.

Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland Programme director Patrick Corrigan, said: “If Theresa May knew these papers existed, how could she exclude Kincora from the Goddard Inquiry?”

David Cameron has said police should be able to investigate child abuse allegations against high-profile politicians “without fear or uncertainty” of how high up in Government they can go.

“Kincora should be investigated alongside claims of establishment involvement in child abuse rings in other parts of the UK”.

“The Westminster inquiry does have those powers – it is absurd that the government continues to exclude Kincora from that inquiry that actually does have the powers to finally reveal the truth”. “It is not too late for the government to reconsider its position”.

“There were a number of references across the papers we saw that reinforced the observation we made in our review that issues of crimes against children, particularly the rights of the complainant, were given considerably less serious consideration than would be expected today”, they said.