By David Burke.
Introduction.
In the early 1970s, Colin Wallace tried to expose the horrific sex abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home. For doing so, he was driven out of his job at British Army HQ at Lisburn by a series of dirty tricks, perpetrated by MI5. He had served as Senior Information Officer at Lisburn and as a Psychological Operations Officer.
Ian Cameron, one of the most senior MI5 officers in Northern Ireland, ran the operation. The Director-General of MI5, Sir Michael Hanley, was directly involved. Declassified files reveal how the dirty trick plot unfolded. See: Operation Clockwork Orange Vol 1 [WebBook.]
Boys from Kincora were trafficked to England. One of them, Richard Kerr, was taken to Manchester where he was abused.
Five boys were murdered.
The murders are linked to the Kincora scandal.
Surely, Andy Burnham would like these murders to be solved?
Surely, it doesn’t matter to Burnham that Kincora was part of an MI5 blackmail operation?
Surely, it doesn’t matter that the killers of these boys were MI5 and MI6 agents?
Contents
1. Trafficking boys from Belfast to Manchester.
The members of the Manchester branch of this Anglo-Irish child trafficking ring were never arrested. While many of those involved are dead, it is in the nature of such networks that new people join and the abuse of children continues.
Manchester has experienced significant cases of child sexual abuse in the years since Richard Kerr was trafficked to the city. The Rochdale ring is one of the most infamous cases, highlighting systemic failures on the part of government officials and the police to protect of vulnerable children.
In June 2026, Richard Kerr, a former resident of Kincora, was given £100,000 by the Crown plus his legal costs to settle an action he took against the UK state for the abuse he suffered while a minor. See this webbook, exclusive to this website, for further details: Kerr
An abuser called Eric Witchell delivered Kerr to two men who exploited him in Manchester. The abuse occurred at the Rembrandt Hotel and elsewhere. The two men
‘had other boys living with them. They took photographs of us tied up, with our clothes off, to put in boys’ magazines. They said they were sending some to Amsterdam’.
The notorious paedophile, Sir Cyril Smith MP, was one of those who abused Kerr in Manchester.
Kerr was also abused in London. Incidents took place at the Philbeach Hotel in Earl’s Court; at Dolphin Square; and Elm Guest House, which was frequented by Cyril Smith, Jimmy Savile and others. He was abused by a barrister at Elm Guest House, too.
2. Andy Burnham once said he was ‘frustrated’ that Westminster politicians had ‘taken no interest’ in sex abuse perpetrated in Manchester. Burnham is now the most powerful figure in Westminster.
Andy Burnham should be concerned about this, inter alia, as he served as Mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017 to June 2026.
While serving as mayor, Burnham claimed he would back a ‘limited’ national inquiry into child grooming gangs to compel people to give evidence so ‘those who may have charges to answer are held to account’.
Burnham said a series of local reviews into abuse in Manchester, Rochdale and Oldham, which he commissioned were ‘limited’ compared to what a public inquiry could achieve.
Burnham alleged that he was ‘frustrated’ that Westminster politicians had ‘taken no interest’ in the issue when those reports were published. Burnham is now the most powerful figure in Westminster.
Colin Wallace has information which could still help expose trafficking rings. The police are not prepared to act. Wallace is prepared to furnish his evidence to Burnham and his officials.
3. Burnham is likely to rebuff Wallace to protect the reputation of MI5.
Wallace’s case has been raised in Westminster. The Calcutt Inquiry vindicated many of the issues surrounding it. Paul Foot wrote a book about the miscarriage of justice he suffered in the 1980s when he was framed for manslaughter. The Court of Appeal overturned that travesty of justice. A Home Office pathologist was exposed as a perjurer.
Despite his protestations, Burnham is likely to rebuff Wallace, inter alia, to protect the reputation of MI5.
Over the decades, Wallace has written to one British prime minister after another to expose the full extent of MI5’s use of dirty tricks, political assassination and child trafficking in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. They have all washed their hands. Some have not even acknowledged his letters, let alone address the issues he raised.
Burnham now faces the same test. Wallace wrote to him on 24 July. He has yet to even acknowledge the letter.
Every indication is that Burnham will become yet another leader captive to the intelligence services — too afraid to confront them, too willing to let the truth stay buried.
Burnham has a choice: act on Wallace’s evidence, or become the latest in a long line of politicians who chose silence over justice for abused children.
4. An army of whistleblowers and a collection of declassified documents relating to William McGrath, Tara and Kincora.
Wallace is merely one of many ‘insiders’ who blew the whistle on the rape of children at Kincora.
William McGrath, the ‘housefather’ at Kincora, was a paedophile. He was also the commander of a Loyalist paramilitary group called Tara. McGrath was an MI5 and MI6 agent. He supplied boys to paedophiles and pederasts so MI5 and MI6 could blackmail them.
The document reproduced below was generated by MI5 in June of 1971, and shows that the Head of the RUC’s Special Branch, Assistant Chief Constable David Johnston and David Eastwood, MI5’s Director of Intelligence at British Army HQ, Lisburn, knew about McGrath and Tara.
Knowing about McGrath and Tara is one thing; establishing that the intelligence services were aware of the child abuse being perpetrated by McGrath is another thing altogether.
Are there documents which show that?
Yes.
The next document demonstrates that MI5 knew about the abuse perpetrated by William McGrath.
The quality of the document is poor but the crucial extract reads as follows:
‘3. It is reported that the former commanding officer of the Tara Brigade – McGRATH – had been accused of assaulting small boys and that he could not account for any cash that had been handed over to him over a period of a year.‘
The Hart report confirmed that MI5 knew that an MI5 agent called James Miller told MI5 that William McGrath was assaulting young boys at Kincora long before the scandal erupted into the public domain in 1980.
Judge Hart performed all sorts of contortions to downplay this fact in his egregious 2017 report.
In 1973, a one-page document (reproduced above) was circulated by Colin Wallace to a select number of reporters to neutralise the threat posed by TARA and expose McGrath’s distasteful exploitation of children. One of those involved in the operation was Hugh Mooney, a Trinity College Dublin graduate and ex-Irish Times sub-editor, who worked for the Information Research Department (IRD), the UK’s black propaganda department which was based at Riverbank House in London.
Hugh Mooney’s handwriting appears on the 1973 document. According to Hugh Mooney, the document was written by Mike Cunningham. It was furnished to Wallace at the British Army’s HQ at Lisburn.
At this time, Wallace and the British Army were not aware that MI5 and MI6 were running a vile blackmail operation targeting the rapists of children at Kincora and other homes. This would generate a lot of trouble for Wallace later when Ian Cameron of MI5 would derail his career. Cameron did this because Wallace was persisting in his attempts to end the child rape at Kincora.
Mooney left HQ NI at the end of 1973, so the 1973 one-page Tara information sheet must have been created before then.
As the next document establishes, in 1992 Mooney wrote to the Information Department of the Foreign Office recommending that they admit it was genuine:
Wallace was also acting on orders from General Peter Leng, Commander of Land Forces Northern Ireland, to circulate the 1973 one-page document to journalists.
It links McGrath to sexual blackmail.
Wallace retained a copy of the 1973 document. It described how the ‘OC’ or Officer-in-Command of Tara was
‘William MCGRATH. He is a known homosexual who has conned many people into membership [of Tara] by threatening them with revealing homosexual activities which he himself initiated. He is a prominent figure in Unionist Party politics and in the Orange Order’.
Also that McGrath
‘uses a non-existent evangelical mission as a front for his homosexual activities and also runs a home for children on the 236 Upper Newtonards Road, Belfast (Tel: B’fast 657838)”.
This was the address and telephone number of Kincora.
When Wallace’s superior, Peter Broderick, was given the document in 1973, he scrawled the words ‘Clerks IP’ across the top. ‘IP’ stands for Information Policy, the unit Wallace worked for. In 1990, Broderick spoke frankly to the renowned journalist Paul Foot about the document. On 8 February of that year, Foot reported in The Daily Mirror that,
‘This week, for the first time, Peter Broderick, Wallace’s boss at the time – 1974 – confirmed to me that he saw the document (The TARA press brief used by Wallace to highlight McGrath’s homosexuality and his role in running a children’s home) and wrote on it. “That is certainly my writing”, he told me. “I saw the document and approved it’.”
Peter Broderick confirmed these facts to Barry Penrose of The Sunday Times on 11 February 1990.
The page also bears the handwriting of Lt Colonel Adrian Peck, who was head of PSYOPS at HQNI in 1973 and early 1974, i.e. GSO1 Information Policy.
A number of journalists have confirmed that they either saw the one-page or received a briefing from Wallace in 1973 about Tara based on the information that was contained in it.
Kevin Dowling of The Sunday Mirror was one of them. He gave the Hart Inquiry ‘a copy of a telex he had sent to his editor in 1973’ as a result of information furnished to him by Wallace. The telex stated that ‘according to Mr. Wallace the CO [i.e. Commanding Officer] of Tara was William McGrath and a homosexual’ and that ‘McGrath apparently uses a non-existent evangelical mission as a front to entice young Protestant men into homosexuality. Once in they are potential blackmail victims and soldiers of Tara’.
In 1982, Dowling provided the police with a statement outlining what he discovered about the scandal. It is reproduced below
Ian Paisley is mentioned in the document. On 13 March 1977, The Sunday Times published an article entitled: ‘The Army’s Secret War in Northern Ireland’ by David Blundy. It reported that at a British Army briefing in 1974
‘at which a Sunday Times reporter was present attempts were made to link Paisley with the Protestant para-military group called Tara, a small, obscure and ineffective group as Ulster’s para-military organisations go. The Sunday Times has a copy of an Army intelligence summary on Tara which contains accurate details about its organisation. .. One member, which the summary names, is called a “homosexual and has conned many people into membership by threatening them with revealing homosexual activities which he had initiated’”.
Another document confirms British Army knowledge of Tara:
The Kincora scandal did not enter the public domain until 1980.
5. Agent Royal Flush.
MI5 did nothing to stop the abuse at Kincora for a number of reasons, one of which was that McGrath and others around him were MI5 agents. The next document is an MI5 telegram dated 29 April 1980, which shows that MI5 was running a second agent inside Tara. At the time, McGrath was facing criminal charges. Although not mentioned, the agent was codenamed ‘ROYAL FLUSH’. He was a DUP member nominated to stand for election on its behalf in the 1970s. He later became a secondary school teacher.
‘ROYAL FLUSH’ is still alive.
‘ROYAL FLUSH’ and McGRATH were lovers.
‘ROYAL FLUSH’ liked to dress as a woman.
The reference to ‘SNUFFBOX’ is to MI5’s telex address.
‘ROYAL FLUSH’ is described as someone who:
… SOME CONSIDERABLE TIME AGO (1966) HAD A SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH McGRATH WHO IS OF COURSE CURRENTLY ACCUSED OF HOMOSEXUAL RELATED CRIMES. ALTHOUGH THIS RELATIONSHIP (AND ONE OTHER WITH A THIRD UNNAMED PERSON WHICH WAS ADMITTED) WAS NOT SUCH THAT WOULD ATTRACT THE FULL ODIUM OF THE LAW IF. [REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH’] IS TELLING THE TRUTH), CLEARLY [REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH’] IS AWARE OF THE VULNERABILITY OF HIS POSITION. AT LEAST THE OTHER TWO WELL KNOWN POLITICIANS ARE AWARE OF THE [REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH -] MCGRATH RELATIONSHIP SINCE McGRATH TOLD THEM. THE IMMINENT ARREST OF [REDACTED] (OUR TUR) WILL HEIGHTEN HIS AWARENESS WE FEEL
[REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH’] ALSO REVEALED SOME TIME AGO (?1976) TO MCGRATH THAT HE, [REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH’] WAS IN CONTACT WITH THE QUOTE SECURITY FORCES UNQUOTE. THE REVELATION WAS MADE IN SUCH A WAY THAT MCGRATH WILL HAVE ASSUMED THE CONTACT NOT TO BE A TRANSIENT ONE. McGRATH NEVER REFERRED TO THIS ADMISSION BUT CLEARLY WE CANNOT BE SURE THAT HE HAS KEPT THE INFORMATION TO HIMSELF WE HAVE THEREFORE REVIEWED OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH [REDACTED – presumably ‘ROYAL FLUSH].
McGrath told several people around him that he was a British intelligence agent.
Since ROYAL FLUSH was an MI5 agent, and admitted as much to McGrath, he may have known or guessed that McGrath was one too. Hence, he felt safe in making the admission to McGrath.
Obviously, McGrath took no action against ‘ROYAL FLUSH’ because he was an MI5 agent, too.
6. Ian Cameron of MI5.
Ian Cameron of MI5 was fully aware of McGrath and Tara. Note the content of this document, dated 22 April 1976:
7. General Sir Peter Leng, Commander Land Forces Northern Ireland, issues an order to expose the child abuse at Kincora.
Wallace was serving with the British Army as these events unfolded. He was acting on instructions from General Leng, to expose the scandal even though it was properly an RUC matter. Leng confirmed to a Sunday Times journalist that he had been aware of the scandal. A story to this effect was published in the first edition of the Sunday Times but pulled from later editions. The editor was Andrew Neil.
The Sunday Times article was written by Barrie Penrose. The picture below is a copy of the final edit that Penrose transmitted to his paper. A hard copy of the printed version is difficult to find, as it only appeared in the first print run.
The crucial passage stated that:
‘Leng says he urged police action as early as 1974. He recalled writing a memo saying, “this is police business, not ours” However, although serious criminal offences were taking place at the boys’ home home nothing was done until eight years later when prominent Loyalist para-military figures were jailed for their part in the abuse of 13 childrenbetween 1973-9.’
8. Mike Taylor, a fearless whistleblower.
Penrose also interviewed Michael Taylor, an official at Lisburn who had handled military intelligence files. Taylor revealed that they were
‘detailed enough (in 1973-4) to name the boys and name the people who were committing the offences.’
Sadly, Mike Taylor passed away in July 2026.
Mike Taylor was one of those who was interviewed for ‘The Lost Boys of Belfast’ film, which was completed in 2021. It was originally commissioned by BBC NI but the corporation never broadcast it. It can be viewed on Youtube. (See the link to Youtube below.) It has been seen by more than 550,000 viewers.
The interference by senior management at BBC NI has been a feature of the Kincora cover up for decades. See BBC.
The latest MI5-BBC scandal to have emerged is described by investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg of The Grayzone as follows:
‘Leaked emails reveal Britain’s domestic spying service attempted to recruit a high-ranking BBC board member as a key agent of influence, at a time when the British state broadcaster was embroiled in a bitter legal and journalistic battle with MI5.‘
A typed copy of the November 1974 Wallace Memorandum can be read here:
Surely, Prime Minister Burnham does not want to become part of the cover up of these unsolved murders?
More information about the murder of Brian McDermott can be found on this website: Kincora’s darkest secret.
9. Ian Cameron shafts Colin Wallace.
The British Army was not involved in the Kincora scandal. MI5, however, was central to it. Ian Cameron of MI5 was monitoring the efforts of Wallace to expose McGrath and Tara on behalf of General Leng with alarm. MI5’s response was to destroy Wallace’s career. A book length analysis of this is available on this website starting with this link: Operation Clockwork Orange Vol 1 [WebBook.]
10. Brian Gemmell, Fred Holroyd and Roy Garland.
Brian Gemmell was yet another British military intelligence officer who blew the whistle on Kincora. While serving in Northern Ireland, he passed information to Ian Cameron of MI5. Gemmell was ‘Royal Flush’s’ handler. Gemmell was aware that McGrath, (Royal Flush’s former lover) was an MI5 agent too.
Captain Fred Holroyd served as a Special Military Intelligence Unit (SMIU) officer in Northern Ireland. His notes reveal that Ian Paisley knew about Kincora.
Roy Garland, the former deputy commander of Tara, reported the scandal to the RUC. The Police Ombudsman Northern Ireland has confirmed that this is so.
11. Keir Starmer’s tenure at 10 Downing Street ended, thanks in large part to Peter Mandleson and Jeffrey Epstein. Burnham needs to attack, not ignore paedophiles and their associates.
All of this information and more was – and remains – available to 10 Downing Street. So far, Burnham has shown no interest. He has not even acknowledged Wallace’s letter.
There is yet more evidence about MI5 and MI6’s exploitation of Kincora in addition to that disclosed by Wallace, Leng, Peck, Broderick, Mooney, Taylor, Gemmell, Holroyd and Garland. Interested readers can explore the issue further by opening the following link: https://coverthistory.ie/category/kincora/
Wallace also exposed the practice of collusion in murder by the UK state. See: Dublin-Monaghan bombings. [WebBook]
In addition, he exposed the vilification of a range of Labour politicians in the 1970s, as well as of former Taoiseach Charles Haughey.
Parliament has been misled over these issues.
Thus far, Burnham has displayed no concern about the rot at the centre of Britain’s ‘Deep State’. He should be wary. Peter Mandelson was a politician who moved in all the right circles, including the Bilderberg Conference network. He knew the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein very well.
The British Labour Party suffered enormous political damage due to the Mandelson-Epstein affair after Prime Minister Keir Starmer ignored Mandelson’s links to Epstein. That choice led to a dramatic loss of confidence in Starmer’s leadership and was a key factor in his downfall.
Burnham should use his premiership to eradicate the influence of the Deep State. It is, unfortunately, a virtual certainty that he will let the cancer spread instead. His first test will be his response to Wallace.
12. The 10 Downing Street correspondence.
The letter dated 24 July 2026, from Wallace to Burnham, is reproduced below:
Kier Starmer did not respond to this letter:
Wallace wrote to Simon Case, Britain’s Cabinet Secretary in 2022. He is still awaiting an acknowledgement.
Mrs Thatcher received the following letter in 1990:
David Burke is the author of four books published by Mercier Press.
