Kincora Boys' Home

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The Kincora Boys' Home was a children's home in Belfast that was the scene of a notorious child sex abuse scandal.

The scandal first came to public attention on 3rd April 1980, when three members of staff at the home, William McGrath, Raymond Semple and Joseph Mains, were charged with a number of offences relating to the systematic abuse of children in their care over a number of years. All three were later convicted.

Allegations later emerged that the Royal Ulster Constabulary had been informed of the goings-on at the home for years previously, but had not moved to prevent it, because the manager of the home, William McGrath, was also the leader of an obscure loyalist paramilitary group, called Tara, and was being blackmailed by MI5 into providing intelligence on other loyalist groups.

A "private inquiry" was set up in 1982 by James Prior, the Northern Ireland secretary to deal with these allegations, but it collapsed after three of its members resigned.