BBC could be left with legal bill of up to £4.2m after Gerry Adams libel case

The libel trial could end up costing 'many millions'
The BBC has been compelled to pay Gerry Adams €100,000 (£84,000) in damages after a jury decided that a story linking him to the murder of a British agent was defamatory – but the total legal bill facing the corporation could be as much as £4.2m.
The staggering sum has prompted criticism from unionists including the leader of the DUP who said the corporation has 'significant questions' to answer about how it ended up in the position of being on the hook for 'many millions' of pounds.
The BBC itself has reported that the legal bill for the case is understood to be between £2.5 and 4.2m according to sources with knowledge of the case.
That would make it one of the most expensive cases the corporation has ever fought.
The five week trial centred on a BBC NI Spotlight programme broadcast in 2016 and an accompanying online article focusing on the murder of Denis Donaldson in Co Donegal back in 2006 just months after he admitted his role as a police and MI5 agent – the story was based on an anonymous source who claimed the killing was sanctioned by the political and military leadership of the IRA with Mr Adams giving 'the final say'.
The 76-year-old – who has always denied any involvement in the shooting and described the allegation as a 'grievous smear' – welcomed the verdict as he read a statement in Irish and English to reporters outside the High Court in Dublin on Friday.
Mr Adams said the case "was about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation" as he accused the BBC of upholding 'the ethos of the British state in Ireland'.
He also claimed the BBC is 'out of sync in many, many fronts with the Good Friday Agreement' and suggested that 'political interference' prevented the broadcaster from settling sooner.
Within hours of solicitor Paul Tweed saying his client was 'very pleased with this resounding verdict' and that the award 'speaks for itself', the daughter of Mr Donaldson called for an 'urgent public inquiry' into her father's assassination.
Jane Donaldson accused the Adams trial of trivialising her family's pain by reducing the events that inflicted so much damage on her family to 'a debate about damage to his reputation'
'Daddy's murder and surrounding circumstances devastated our family, ' she said.
"The plaintiff prioritised his own financial and reputational interests over any regard for retraumatising my family.
'We are still no closer to the truth. No-one spoke for my family in court. We supported neither side in this case.'
Mr Adams did stress in his statement that he was very mindful of the Donaldson family during the trial urged the Irish Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan to meet with them as quickly as possible.
"There's an onus on both governments and everyone else, and I include myself in this, to try and deal with these legacy issues as best that we can,' he said.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson was also quick to react and focused his thoughts on 'the innocent victims who suffered at the hands of the IRA - ruthless terrorists who were victim-makers for many years'.
"I would struggle to find a victim of IRA violence who has changed their view of Gerry Adams,' he said.
But the East Belfast MP was also critical of the BBC.
"While journalists must always be able to scrutinise and investigate in the public interest, the BBC have significant questions to answer,' he continued.
"How have they found themselves in a situation where allegations were insufficiently evidenced with the consequence that license payers money will now be spent on both damages and reputed legal costs running into many millions?"
The head of BBC NI was at pains to point out that the organisation 'has insurance and makes financial provision for ongoing and anticipated legal claims' while he defended the 'careful editorial processes and journalistic diligence applied to' the offending programme.
"it was accepted by the court and conceded by Gerry Adams' legal team that the Spotlight broadcast and publication were of the highest public interest,' he stressed, while warning of 'profound' implications to the jury's decision.
'As our legal team made clear, if the BBC's case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it is hard to see how anyone's could, and they warned how today's decision would hinder freedom of expression'.
The High Court heard four weeks of evidence from 10 witnesses, including Mr Adams and BBC NI reporter Jennifer O'Leary.
The jury found words used in the programme and accompanying article meant Mr Adams sanctioned and approved Mr Donaldson's murder.
They also found the BBC did not report the allegations in good faith before settling on the €100,000 award.
The 11-person jury came reached the decision after six hours and 49 minutes of deliberations.
SDLP MLA and leader of the opposition at Stormont, Matthew O'Toole, said Gerry Adams 'is entitled to petition a court and a jury has given its verdict' as he too said the BBC will have questions to consider.
"But today I'm thinking of the thousands of victims of the IRA, loyalists and the state who will never get a single day in court, let alone justice," he posted on X.
Meanwhile TUV leader Jim Allister said "the people of NI know that Gerry Adams stood front and centre in justifying and defending thirty years of brutal IRA terror" regardless of the verdict.
'His active role at the heart of the Republican terror machine is well documented — not merely in hearsay, but in the detailed testimonies and investigations contained in multiple authoritative books on the IRA," he added.
"These include the works of Peter Taylor, Toby Harnden, Ed Moloney, and Eamon Collins — all of which remain available and uncontested in the public domain.
'For the countless innocent victims of IRA violence, the one abiding consolation is this: Gerry Adams will one day stand before a higher court than any convened in Dublin.'
Here's how the day played out:
Today 03:31 PM
The BelTel podcast
Gerry Adams wins his defamation case against the BBC
A jury in Dublin has awarded Gerry Adams €100,000 in damages.
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Today 03:05 PM
TUV leader says Gerry Adams will 'stand before a higher court'
North Antrim MP Jim Allister said "regardless of the verdict" delivered by a jury in Dublin on Friday, "the people of Northern Ireland know that Gerry Adams stood front and centre in justifying and defending thirty years of brutal IRA terror".
'His active role at the heart of the Republican terror machine is well documented — not merely in hearsay, but in the detailed testimonies and investigations contained in multiple authoritative books on the IRA," he added.
"These include the works of Peter Taylor, Toby Harnden, Ed Moloney, and Eamon Collins — all of which remain available and uncontested in the public domain.
'For the countless innocent victims of IRA violence, the one abiding consolation is this: Gerry Adams will one day stand before a higher court than any convened in Dublin.'
Today 02:11 PM
Sam McBride on Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams is a man of towering ambition who'd no moral qualms about securing his goal through murder
Gerry Adams is one of the world's most enigmatic, most controversial, and most consequential living political figures.
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Today 02:08 PM
DUP leader says BBC faces 'significant questions'
DUP leader Gavin Robinson says the BBC faces "significant questions" amid reports that costs of fighting Adams' libel action will be "many millions". The East Belfast MP also said his thoughts today are with innocent victims who suffered at the hands of "ruthless" IRA terrorists.
"The Dublin jury decision relates to a specific allegation broadcast and published online by the BBC about Gerry Adams," Mr Robinson said.
"Our thoughts today are with the innocent victims who suffered at the hands of the IRA - ruthless terrorists who were victim-makers for many years. I would struggle to find a victim of IRA violence who has changed their view of Gerry Adams.
"While journalists must always be able to scrutinise and investigate in the public interest, the BBC have significant questions to answer. How have they found themselves in a situation where allegations were insufficiently evidenced with the consequence that license payers money will now be spent on both damages and reputed legal costs running into many millions?"
Today 02:00 PM
Donaldson's family said Adams trial 'trivialised our tragedy'
Speaking on behalf of the immediate family, Denis Donaldson's daughter Jane said the trial 'trivialised our family tragedy'.
The case centred on claims contained in a BBC Spotlight programme that Mr Adams had sanctioned the killing of Mr Donaldson, a Sinn Féin official who spied for British authorities.
The statement issued following the outcome of the trial said that "by reducing events which damaged our lives to a debate about damage to [Mr Adams ] reputation" the trial had "trivialised our family tragedy."
"Daddy's murder and surrounding circumstances devastated our family," the statement added.
The statement continued: 'No-one spoke for my family in court. We supported neither side in this case. Although the plaintiff claimed sympathy for my family, his legal team objected to me giving evidence to challenge the account of his witnesses."
In the statement the family said they "are still no closer to the truth."
They added that the case had demonstrated the need for a public inquiry into the death of Mr Donaldson.
Today 12:43 PM
Court report: Gerry Adams awarded €100k in damages after winning defamation action over BBC programme
Gerry Adams has won his High Court defamation action against the BBC and has been awarded €100,000 in damages.
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Today 12:28 PM
Images from outside Dublin High Court following verdict
BBC journalist thanks sources used in documentary
BBC journalist Jennifer O'Leary, who worked on the Spotlight programmed at the centre of the case, thanked the sources she relied upon for the broadcast.
'I said in the witness box that I had nothing to hide, only sources to protect and I want to thank them for trusting me,' she said.
'I also want to acknowledge and thank our witnesses in court – Trevor Ringland, Senator Michael McDowell and Ann Travers – who spoke so courageously. And there are thousands of Ann Travers across this island and in Britain - victims and survivors of the Troubles AND the years after the peace agreement who carry the burden of their grief and trauma with incredible courage.
"They are the people I'm thinking of – all of them. Thank you.'
Today 11:47 AM
'I've always been satisfied with my reputation': Gerry Adams reacts to case outcome
Gerry Adams was asked about what the outcome of the case means for his reputation.
He replied: 'I've always been satisfied with my reputation.
'Obviously, like yourself, we all have flaws in our character, but the jury made the decision and let's accept the outcome, and I think let's accept what the jury said.'
Today 11:34 AM
Adam Smyth, director of BBC Northern Ireland, expresses disappointment in the outcome
Speaking to media outside court, Mr Smyth said: 'We are disappointed by this verdict.
'We believe we supplied extensive evidence to the court of the careful editorial processes and journalistic diligence applied to this programme, and to the accompanying online article. Moreover, it was accepted by the court and conceded by Gerry Adams' legal team that the Spotlight broadcast and publication were of the highest public interest.
'We didn't want to come to court but it was important that we defend our journalism and we stand by that decision.
'Our past is difficult terrain for any jury and we thank them for their diligence and careful consideration of the issues in this case.
'The implications of their decision, though, are profound. As our legal team made clear, if the BBC's case cannot be won under existing Irish defamation law, it is hard to see how anyone's could, and they warned how today's decision would hinder freedom of expression.
'Of course, a case of this importance, duration and complexity involves significant expense. In common with other media organisations, the BBC has insurance and makes financial provision for ongoing and anticipated legal claims.'
He added they will take some time to consider the implications of the ruling.
Today 11:25 AM
Paul Tweed says Gerry Adams is 'very pleased with this resounding verdict'
Solicitor Paul Tweed said his client Gerry Adams is 'very pleased with this resounding verdict', adding the award of damages 'speaks for itself'.
'The jury, 12 people from different walks of life, having listened to extensive evidence during the course of the past four weeks, has come to the unequivocal conclusion that the subject allegation was highly defamatory,' he said outside court.
'It therefore follows that the BBC Spotlight team at the time should not have included it in their broadcast. Not only had the false allegation regarding our client been the focus of the Spotlight documentary, but it had been utilised to sensationalise and publicise their programme.
'Furthermore, the fact that the false allegation has been left online for almost nine years has, in my opinion, done much to undermine the high standards of accuracy that is expected of the BBC.
'This case could and should have been resolved some considerable time ago.'
Today 11:24 AM
Gerry Adams said this case was 'about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation'
Outside court, Gerry Adams, who spoke in both Irish and English, said this case was 'about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation'.
Mr Adams told reporters: 'From my perspective, taking this case was was about putting manners on the British Broadcasting Corporation.
'I know many, many journalists. I like to think that I get on well with the most of them, and I wish you well, and I would uphold your right to do your job.
'But the British Broadcasting Corporation upholds the ethos of the British state in Ireland, and in my view it's out of sync in many, many fronts with the Good Friday Agreement.
'It hasn't caught on to where we are on this island as part of the process, the continuing process, of building peace and justice, and harmony, and, hopefully, in the time ahead, unity.'
Gerry Adams said there is an onus on everyone, including himself, to deal with these legacy issues.
He said: 'I'm very mindful of the Donaldson family in the course of this long trial, and indeed of the victims' families who have had to watch all of this.
'I want to say that the Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan should meet the family of Denis Donaldson as quickly as possible, and that there's an onus on both governments and everyone else, and I include myself in this, to try and deal with these legacy issues as best that we can.'
Today 11:15 AM
What was the jury's verdict?
A jury at the High Court in Dublin found in Gerry Adams favour on Friday, after determining that the programme had defamed the former Sinn Fein leader. It also found the BBC's actions were not in good faith and that it had not acted in a fair and reasonable way.
The jury determined that Mr Adams should be awarded 100,000 euros, which the jury heard falls on the medium scale for defamation.
The jury had been tasked with determining whether the words in the BBC spotlight programme and accompanying article, on which Mr Adams brought the complaint, mean that he sanctioned and approved the murder of Denis Donaldson.
Today 11:11 AM
What was the defamation case about?
In the BBC programme broadcast in September 2016, an anonymous source given the pseudonym Martin claimed the shooting was sanctioned by the political and military leadership of the IRA and that Gerry Adams gave 'the final say'.
Mr Adams said the allegation was a 'grievous smear' while the BBC has described the legal action as a 'cynical attempt to launder his reputation'.
The high-profile republican sought damages of at least 200,000 euro (£168,000) from the BBC.
However, the British public service broadcaster had argued it would be a 'cruel joke' to award the former Sinn Fein president any damages.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Belfast Telegraph

29 minutes ago

• Belfast Telegraph

Nigel Farage shares many similarities with the late Ian Paisley… but they're miles apart on Irish unity

Reform UK leader previously predicted a united Ireland would happen one day Nigel Farage is well known for his love of a tipple, but there'll be no shortage of republicans raising a glass if he becomes prime minister. Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar is right. The Reform UK leader moving into Number 10 would significantly increase support for Irish unity among those in the middle ground. A Reform government would be like the Tory 'bad boys of Brexit' on speed.

The Herald Scotland

an hour ago

• The Herald Scotland

Kincora horror: MI5, Mountbatten and sex abuse of boys during Troubles

The Belfast care home for boys was the site of a notorious paedophile ring. The central figure was a loyalist paramilitary called William McGrath. He was a house master at Kincora as well as an agent for the British intelligence service MI5. Moore, an award-winning BBC investigative journalist, has just published a new book alleging that MI5 colluded in the rape of children from the Kincora home as part of a long-running intelligence operation. He has also interviewed former Kincora residents who say they were sexually abused by Lord Mountbatten, the close relative of the royal family. Moore met with The Herald on Sunday to discuss his new book 'Kincora Britain's Shame: Mountbatten, MI5, the Belfast Boys Home Sex Abuse Scandal and the British Cover-Up'. (Image: Chris Moore, an award-winning BBC investigative journalist) One hour before the meeting, news emerged that a victim of abuse at Kincora, Garry Hoy, now aged 63, had received an undisclosed settlement after claims that paedophile house master William McGrath was protected from prosecution due to being an MI5 agent. Moore says the finding has huge significance as it is an effective admission by the government for the first time that McGrath was an agent of the British state while carrying out his crimes. At least 29 boys were abused at Kincora from the day it opened in 1958 to 1980, when McGrath and two other staff 'wardens', Raymond Semple and Joseph Mains, were jailed. McGrath received just four years. McGrath – a prominent member of the Orange Order and an evangelical preacher – was a leading far-right loyalist who had set up his own paramilitary organisation called Tara. He was also linked to powerful unionist politicians like Reverend Ian Paisley. Moore says British security sources told him that 'at the time intelligence on the Protestant community stretched to a number of cards in a shoebox'. He explains that at the start of the conflict in Northern Ireland, known as The Troubles, 'the British had no real intelligence on Protestant paramilitaries. They wanted to get on top of that. They also wanted to know which unionist politicians were allied to the men with guns'. Evidence of McGrath's involvement with MI5 first emerged, according to Moore, in 1975, when a British military intelligence officer called Captain Brian Gemmell came across reference to McGrath in army files. Perversion Gemmell, who Moore interviewed, spoke to a source in Tara who suggested McGrath was working for MI5. Gemmell also uncovered claims of McGrath's 'sexual perversions'. Moore says that Gemmell became 'worried about the safety of the children at Kincora and wanted his intelligence report about the potential sexual abuse danger McGrath posed to underage boys to be given to the police'. However, MI5's chief in Northern Ireland is said to have summoned Gemmell. Moore quotes Gemmell claiming: 'He was rude to me. He told me that the kind of information that I submitted was not proper intelligence, that we had nothing.' Gemmell was told to 'drop the investigation into Tara'. (Image: Chris Moore's revelatory new book on the scandal) Although married, McGrath was homosexual. Moore says of MI5: 'If they could find a means of putting pressure on individuals who were from the unionist community, if they were homosexual, that would be a nice bit of leverage that they could use to make sure that person would comply with what MI5 wanted.' Moore says the notion that MI5 did not know that McGrath was committing sexual offences against children is 'difficult to believe'. He cites a report from the Irish desk of MI5 dated April 14, 1972, under the heading 'Extreme Protestants', in which it is stated that McGrath 'had been accused of assaulting small boys'. Tara was involved in smuggling arms from apartheid South Africa into Northern Ireland via The Netherlands. One of the Kincora victims who Moore interviewed, Richard Kerr, explained how he was raped from the age of eight. He told of being taken to bars in Belfast where he was abused by men. 'It's grim beyond belief,' Moore adds. McGrath was a sexual sadist who inflicted extreme violence on the children he abused. One victim told Moore how he was left bleeding and crying after being 'brutally raped' by McGrath. The victim has since been awarded compensation from the authorities. Kincora, Moore believes, was 'part of a much larger operation to secure information about what was going on in the loyalist community, what the connections were between unionist parties and loyalist gunmen'. In 1975, Moore explains, 'allegations by a young teenager that he was being sexually abused' eventually led detectives to start looking into Kincora. A police officer was tasked with surveillance. 'He took pictures of men going in and out. He was able to establish through car registration numbers the identity of some of the men – for example, two Justices of the Peace. 'He saw two police constables going in. These men were going in and out of Kincora at a time when they had no reason to be there. He saw businessmen going in and, most important of all, he saw two officials from the Northern Ireland Office.' It would later emerge that 'they were also MI5'. Postings at the Northern Ireland Office were used as cover for MI5 officers stationed in Northern Ireland, Moore explains. Surveillance MOORE has interviewed the police officer who carried out the surveillance. The officer was later told by his superiors to 'forget Kincora. That's what he did because he followed orders. At the same time across the city, the army intelligence officer Brian Gemmell was asking MI5 'should we not get the police to go in and investigate'. He too was told, forget about Kincora'. Had the police been instructed to do their job properly in 1975, Moore believes, 'five years of sexual horror and torture would have been removed for the boys in Kincora'. It's important to note that action on Kincora was only taken after reporters in Ireland brought the issue to public attention in 1980. (Image: Kincora abuse survivor Gary Hoy outside the former boys' home) Once the allegations emerged, McGrath and the two other 'house wardens' were charged and eventually prosecuted and jailed. Joseph Mains received six years, and Raymond Semple five – both longer terms than McGrath, who died in 1991. After the three were jailed, the then secretary of state for Northern Ireland Jim Prior began moves for a public inquiry. However, says Moore, 'MI5 was fiercely opposed to the plan'. Moore says that documentation shows that MI5's legal adviser 'was fighting a battle on two fronts… one attempting to press the government to drop its plans for a powerful judicial inquiry into Kincora, and the other justifying why MI5 officers should not be interviewed by police even if they are aware of criminality'. A note by MI5's legal adviser, dated May 9, 1983, detailing a meeting with the Home Office legal department, read: 'I explained that as a result of stupid investigations by the RUC [Northern Ireland's then police force], we now had an interest in the Kincora inquiry… An inquiry with the power to call witnesses could cause problems.' An internal MI5 memo by its legal adviser read: 'If terms of reference were too wide one might well find the Tribunal having to examine the conduct of intelligence operations in Northern Ireland… The consequences of this would not be confined to the operation of the intelligence services but might well expose operations whose purpose was to obtain intelligence about the activities of prominent Protestant politicians.' Moore adds: 'This is how MI5 went about convincing Margaret Thatcher's government to ignore Prior's plans to have a proper judicial inquiry. And it appeared to work. 'The consequence was a watered-down public inquiry in which [a retired English judge] was given very narrow terms of reference restricting him to social care matters and systemic failures in the social services. MI5 won the day and… the inquiry was kept safely away from other state issues linked to Kincora that needed to be exposed and investigated.' He adds: 'MI5 and the British government worked together to make sure the people of Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales had no idea what was going on. The British government protected MI5. But the problem with protecting MI5 is that there are enough people who know the truth and are prepared to take a risk to tell it.' Moore says that a telex sent in June 1982 by a very senior MI5 officer referred to the possibility of creating 'false files' in anticipation of lines of inquiry which police might seek to follow in subsequent investigations. Read more Neil Mackay: Gangsters are terrorising Scotland, but do our politicians care? Neil Mackay: Nazi salutes and why you should believe the evidence of your own eyes Neil Mackay: English nationalism will be the death of the union Neil Mackay: We're not an island of strangers. But I'm now a stranger in my own land Sacrificed MOORE says the revelation meant 'it's difficult to believe a single word MI5 says. This shows they were embarrassed. One has to suspect the embarrassment of the intelligence service could indicate that they knew boys were being raped and sexually abused, but chose to put national security and the integrity of the state above the integrity of young men from broken homes or who had lost parents'. He adds: 'They could be the sacrificial lambs so that we as a nation could keep up with what was going on in the loyalist community. It beggars belief.' Moore says the Northern Ireland Office destroyed files linked to Kincora. 'They said these files were related to newspaper coverage of Kincora. I don't believe that. I think there were other motives.' He notes that existing Kincora files have been 'locked away' until 2065, or even in some cases to 2085. 'I can't get over this,' says Moore. 'It's crazy. Maybe I'm being cynical but by the year 2085, nobody is going to be alive to remember. So another secret goes away.' Perhaps the most shocking claims made in connection to Kincora focus on Lord Mountbatten, a close member of the royal family circle, great-uncle to King Charles, former admiral of the fleet, and the last Viceroy of India. (Image: Lord Louis Mountbatten) In total, says Moore, allegations have been made by five men that they were sexually abused by Mountbatten as boys – three were Kincora residents. Moore has interviewed three of the alleged victims. The testimony of two appear in the book. He was contacted by a third after the book had been written, so could not include his claims in time for publication. Moore says he 'struggled to believe' the claims against Mountbatten until he met a man called Arthur Smyth, who he interviewed in Australia. As a child, Smyth's family lived in 'abject poverty', before finally collapsing in 1977. A judge told Smyth: 'I'm going to put you in care somewhere that you're going to be safe.' He was sent to Kincora, aged 11. At first, Moore says, Arthur loved the home, where he got 'three meals a day and could play in the garden. His joy came to an end the day he was brutally raped by McGrath'. Smyth had been separated from his sister and desperately wanted to see her again. McGrath told him to comply with his orders or he would never be reunited with her. 'It was particularly cruel,' says Moore. 'I hate any form of cruelty.' As the abuse continued, Smyth was later introduced to a man who McGrath called 'Dickie'. McGrath told Smyth 'to do the same for the man as you do for me'. He was ordered to undress and 'was then raped by this man Dickie, he says', Moore explains. 'This happened a second time in a week.' Smyth told Moore that he'd bottled up the truth for decades but could no longer hide what happened after his grandchildren were born. 'I tell my kids and grandkids to be honest. If something is bothering you, stand up for your rights – I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't stand up for my rights,' Smyth said. Assassination It was only when Smyth saw TV news reporting the assassination of Mountbatten by the IRA that he realised it was the same man who had raped him. Mountbatten was killed when Republican terrorists planted a bomb on his boat at his Irish estate. Moore also interviewed Richard Kerr, another survivor, who now lives in America. Kerr agreed to be 'interviewed openly on camera' for a BBC investigation. 'What he revealed was extremely significant. For the first time in public, a former Kincora resident let it be known that some boys were taken out of the hostel to provide sexual services to men.' Kerr told Moore that he was taken to a house in Belfast where he was abused by a soldier. Kerr was also abused at hotels, including at the seaside resort Portrush and at the famous Europa Hotel in Belfast, where he said he was 'plied with drinks'. (Image: Richard Kerr, who was just eight when he was first sexually assaulted) Kerr arrived at Kincora, aged 14, in 1975. He told Moore that he and another Kincora boy, Stephen Waring – who would later kill himself – were driven to Mountbatten's home called Classiebawn Castle near Mullaghmore in County Sligo in the Irish Republic. The man in charge of Kincora, warden Joe Mains, drove the boys as far as Fermanagh on the Northern Ireland side of the border. Mains was instrumental in the paedophile ring being run out of Kincora, Kerr explained to Moore. 'Joe took our pictures to show to his clients so that they could see his boys at a glance and pick out the boy they wanted. These pictures were taken when we were naked.' Richard Kerr, Moore says, claims that he and Stephen Waring 'were requested' by Mountbatten 'to attend him at his home'. Mains drove to a hotel car park in Fermanagh where two men arrived and drove them to Classiebawn. 'They were taken individually from a guest reception room to the boathouse where they were sexually assaulted and then returned,' Moore claims. Back in Belfast, it emerged that Stephen Waring knew who the assailant was while Kerr 'had no idea until he told me… I just knew he was just another high-profile 'client' like the businessmen, politicians, doctors and lawyers'. On August 9, 1977, Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh travelled to Northern Ireland for a two-day visit for the Jubilee celebrations. Moore says: 'The diaries of Lord Mountbatten reveal that he and others in his party travelled north from Classiebawn on August 7 to stay for three nights.' Moore also met with the author and historian Andrew Lownie who wrote a book on Mountbatten. In 2019, the Garda [Ireland's police service] refused Lownie's request to view security logs of Northern Ireland-registered cars which travelled between Belfast and Classiebawn. Trafficking LOWNIE wanted to access the files to pursue inquiries into the trafficking of boys from Kincora to Mountbatten. Lownie revealed recently released FBI files which alleged American intelligence had information that Mountbatten was a paedophile. Lownie says he spoke to boys who had been trafficked to Mountbatten including a boy known as Sean from Kincora, and a boy called Amal who was allegedly trafficked from London to Sligo. Richard Kerr's friend Stephen Waring committed suicide shortly after he was allegedly abused by Mountbatten. He absconded from Northern Ireland, but was picked up by police and put back on a ferry to Belfast. 'Waring was reported as having jumped overboard midway. His body was never recovered,' Moore says. Richard Kerr, however, 'did not believe his friend Stephen would end his life like that, and Stephen's death and the manner of it spooked him'. In addition to Richard Kerr and Arthur Smyth, Moore interviewed a 'third man living in the Republic of Ireland' after he finished writing the book. He told Moore that he had also allegedly been 'a survivor of abuse' by Mountbatten. This man had not been in Kincora as a boy. 'His abuse took place in London by Mountbatten,' Moore adds. 'There are at least five people who claim they were sexually abused by Mountbatten,' Moore says. 'Mountbatten is dead. I cannot stand over whether he was an abuser or not, but I have to say, I've spoken to three people who claim they were sexually assaulted by Mountbatten. I think that's good enough to raise questions about his conduct.' Another victim Moore interviewed, Clint Massey, said 'he heard English voices at Kincora'. Massey is now dead. But like Massey, Arthur Smyth also claimed he heard English voices downstairs on a night he says he was drugged, tied up and abused. Moore says that Britain's secret service was established in part to 'protect the monarchy'. He asks: 'Is that still going on today? Is that what happened with Mountbatten?' (Image: Joe Mains ran Kincora from 1958 to 1980) Moore has chosen not to name many of the high-profile public figures who were identified to him as paedophiles who abused boys at Kincora as he has not yet got enough evidence on them through multiple sourcing as he has with Mountbatten. Some are dead, some are still alive. Many are known to the public. 'They were other important people in the establishment,' he says. 'However, I cannot stand over any of the claims yet. I would hate to allow someone who is a child abuser to sue me, so I've been very careful.' The key question for Moore is whether MI5 'turned a blind eye in order to maintain a flow of intelligence deemed too important to lose, despite the heinous actions of its agents'. Moore says that he had a discussion over lunch once with the former chief constable of the RUC Sir John Hermon. 'I put it to him that McGrath was an agent of MI5. He said, 'oh no, that can't be because I would have known about it.' However, a year later, Hermon met with Moore and said: 'I owe you an apology because I've checked. McGrath was working with MI5.' Paisley ANOTHEr high-ranking police officer who investigated Kincora once told Moore to 'keep going' with his investigations as he was 'annoying the right people – in London. He was talking about MI5. He told me that MI5 had obstructed his investigations'. A source for Moore in the Northern Ireland Office unexpectedly cut contact with him at one point after he started asking questions about MI5. When Moore was finally able to ask his source why he'd cut contact, the senior civil servant told him that an 'MI5 officer took him into a room and suggested that he break all contact with me and stop asking dumb questions if he wanted to keep his job and pension'. Another source in the RUC cut contact with Moore as well. The policeman's boss had told the officer he was aware he was speaking to Moore. A BBC executive, Moore claims, had given information on the contact between Moore and the policeman to a high-ranking officer. 'That horrified me,' says Moore. On another occasion, Moore learned that a BBC executive had also leaked that he was in possession of the identities of 'four under-secretaries' from the British government who were suspected of involvement in Kincora. 'Someone in the BBC was leaking to the security service,' Moore claims. Moore later discovered that an MI5 officer who had been photographed going into Kincora in the 1970s had been fined for exposing himself at a railway station in London. McGrath had links to one of the highest-profile politicians in Northern Ireland's history, Ian Paisley. McGrath, says Moore, had a 'close association' with Paisley. He also had links to James Molyneaux, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, and senior figures in the Orange Order. In 1982, as journalists began asking questions about Paisley's links to McGrath, Paisley staged a pre-emptive press conference, Moore explains. 'It was a tactic he had used successfully in the past: identify an issue with potential for causing embarrassment and stage a loud media event with theatrical bluster in order to intimidate the press.' Two Irish journalists, Moore explains, had spoken to a woman who was a missionary in Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church. She had claimed that, prior to 1980, she had alerted Paisley to 'McGrath's corrupting sexual influence on young men attending evangelical meetings'. Before the story could be published, Paisley staged a press conference at his church. 'When asked at this conference how well he knew McGrath, Paisley tried to distance himself by saying he 'knew of him when he ran a place called Faith House'… That suggested his knowledge of McGrath began and ended in the 1950s. This was simply untrue.' (Image: Reverend Ian Paisley)Lies MOORE says that McGrath's family were 'members of Paisley's Martyrs Memorial Church. Moreover, I would later discover that he had officiated at the marriages of two of McGrath's children some years earlier, something he conveniently appeared to have forgotten. Nor did he seem to recall how McGrath had once accompanied him to a meeting with Northern Ireland prime minister James Chichester-Clark'. Moore adds: 'Paisley sat in that news conference and told us lies – f*****g porkies.' Today, Kincora no longer exists. It was knocked down shortly before Moore started writing his book. Anyone who lived through the Troubles, though, knows its name. The scandal haunts memories. However, Moore worries that as time passes and the conflict becomes history, what happened at Kincora may be forgotten. 'There are young people nowadays who don't know about Kincora,' he says, 'or the significance of Kincora, the lies and obfuscation of MI5 and the British government. 'Kincora tells you that MI5 is above democracy, it is above democratic rule. They do what they want, that's clear from the secret state documents which show how they influenced the Conservative government away from allowing any investigation of MI5 and their relationship with Kincora. 'Such an inquiry would have proved that the residents of Kincora were let down time after time. It shows you the lengths to which the mother of all parliaments will go to keep itself clean from the sexual assault of children which lies at the heart of this all. 'Society failed Kincora's boys. They were poor and they were vulnerable. It's deplorable that the state, and those responsible for protecting the state, should lose all integrity and allow young boys to be raped and go through mental torture, life-changing events that will never leave them. 'In return for their squalid little intelligence operation, MI5 got to listen in to what politicians on the unionist side were doing with loyalist paramilitaries. It's disgusting.' MI5, Moore says, 'has questions to answer', not just about running McGrath as an agent, and allegations of covering up what was going on at Kincora, but also whether any of its officers offended against children. There's another strand of this story which has yet to be properly aired and which Moore is investigating: the so-called Lost Boys of Belfast. Four boys vanished in Belfast in the late 1960s and early 1970s and were 'never seen again'. The dismembered body of a fifth boy was found in the River Lagan. One man who Moore interviewed said that, in 1973, he was a child playing in the street in Belfast when McGrath tried to snatch him. 'He managed to get away,' says Moore, 'but McGrath may well have been the man who abducted some of these boys.' Moore says all he ever wanted to do over the 45 years he's spent investigating this horrific case was 'highlight the suffering of children' and attempt to get justice for them. Reporting on such terrible events took its toll on him, though. Thirty years ago, as Moore was covering another story of sexual abuse, this time an investigation into a notorious paedophile priest, he realised he needed therapy. 'I stopped covering the Kincora story for a time,' he says, 'but the need to tell the truth for the survivors just kept dragging me back.'

New Statesman​

2 hours ago

• New Statesman​

Grooming gangs, social cohesion and hard truths

Getty Images Trust in the institutions that are meant to protect us is built slowly but shattered quickly. Over the past decade, report after report has revealed the same shocking story: that thousands of vulnerable girls were groomed and abused by gangs while the institutions charged with their safety looked the other way. Baroness Casey's investigation, which prompted the PM's U-turn on a new statutory inquiry, is just the latest in a series of findings that lay bare the scale of that betrayal. She describes a 'collective failure' on the part of the British state. Victims were failed not once but repeatedly. This sustained failure by governments and authorities to confront the problem failed victims first and foremost, but the consequences have reverberated across society. Part of the responsibility for that failure must lie with a culture that chose to prioritise social cohesion and community relations over justice for victims and punishment of perpetrators. Social cohesion is something we should all care about – society cannot function without it – trust in neighbours, communities and government is the backbone of a civilised society and last summer's unrest was a stark reminder of how fragile social cohesion can be, and how quickly it can unravel. But community relations should never have been a rationale to prevent proper investigation of the gangs – and the refusal to tackle the issues that enabled grooming, with clarity and honesty, should also provide a stark warning that in fact community cohesion can only be preserved by confronting uncomfortable truths head-on, however difficult that may seem. Going back to August 2014, the Jay Report revealed not only the extent of abuse in Rotherham but also highlighted a critical missed opportunity: the failure of authorities to work openly and honestly with the communities involved. Professor Alexis Jay noted in her report that 'throughout the entire period, councillors did not engage directly with the Pakistani-heritage community to discuss how best they could jointly address the issue.' Had the authorities acknowledged who was perpetrating these crimes and engaged with the communities concerned openly and frankly, the vast majority of whom were as horrified by the actions of some Pakistani men as everyone else, we might have built stronger communities rather than fracturing them. After all, what could be more corrosive to public trust than either deliberate obfuscation or wilful ignorance in tackling one of the most universally condemned crimes imaginable, an approach that was at least partly motivated by avoiding hard truths about the preponderance of offenders from a particular community. In focus groups where the gangs operated this sense of anger and mistrust is palpable. People speak with deep frustration about how vulnerable working-class girls from their communities were ignored, dismissed, or 'adultified' by those meant to protect them. For some, this confirmed the belief that their communities simply didn't matter to the authorities – and perpetrators did. And when these concerns are dismissed as politically motivated or shut down in the name of political correctness, they don't go away. Resentment doesn't fade when it's ignored. It festers. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe This breakdown of trust doesn't stop there. Valid concerns, left unaddressed, feed real conspiracy theories. It allows the conversation to be dominated by those who want to use it to sow division, as Louise Casey herself says the alternative with 'the racists is giving them more ammunition'. In the long term, attempts to avoid confronting issues to prevent inflaming community tensions are toxic to the very cohesion they aim to protect. The task now for the Government is to rebuild trust. Time will tell whether the measures announced by the Home Secretary help to do this, but it is a crucial first step that the failures of the British state and the underlying factors are being discussed openly in Parliament. The Government's challenge is convincing the public that truth and justice will be fully pursued, and that nothing like this can happen again. In practice, this must also mean putting an end to a type of politics that dismisses real concerns because we don't 'trust the motives' of those raising them. Most of those campaigning on grooming gangs have done so out of genuine concern for the victims and justice; others have done so for political or prejudiced reasons – but ultimately the Government should have been guided by doing what was right for victims and their communities – regardless of whether they agreed with some of where the calls came from. The challenge for other politicians is to avoid reducing this into an opportunity for political point-scoring. For the public this isn't about one party or another – and our polling makes abundantly clear they see this as failure shared across successive governments. The truth is an end in itself, and above all, we owe it to the victims to, as Casey puts it, 'grasp this as a society.' But beyond justice for the victims, we should take from this a lesson that social trust depends on pursuing the truth, no matter how much it hurts or what we might find. Bad things grow in the dark , and sunlight is an incredibly effective disinfectant. The darker the issue, the more sunlight is needed. [See also: Keir Starmer's grooming gang cowardice] Related