Donaldson’s unionist mentors are alleged child abusers

The shock resignation of DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson after being charged with rape and other sexual offences has renewed long-standing concerns in the north of Ireland over the links between political unionism and paedophile networks.

A web of unionist politicians, loyalist paramilitaries and powerful figures in British society, operating through boys’ homes such as Kincora in Belfast, has never been fully investigated.

Village magazine has continued to report on the historic links between prominent unionists and the Orange Order to an ‘Anglo-Irish Vice Ring’. It noted that one of Donaldson’s key mentors was former UUP leader James Molyneaux, who was alleged to be involved.

“James Molyneaux MP was one of the most significant figures in Unionist politics during the Troubles,” it wrote.

“He was first elected as a Westminster MP in 1970 for the then dominant Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and served as its leader 1979-1995. He was also an Orangeman and a member of the Monday Club, a right-wing pressure group which was associated with the Tory Party.

“According to Robin Bryans, the well-informed Kincora Boy’s Home whistle-blower, Molyneaux was part of the paedophile gang which preyed on vulnerable boys in care in Northern Ireland.”

The Kincora scandal erupted in 1980. When Molyneaux, described as a “closeted gay” was interviewed about the systematic abuse, he failed to disclose his links to William McGrath, the ‘Housefather’ of the Kincora home where scores of boys were abused.

It is believed both Kincora and another school in Enniskillen were used as homosexual brothels by many prominent figures, including Molyneaux and top British royal, Lord Mountbatten.

Donaldson has also professed his admiration for Enoch Powell (pictured, left, with Donaldson right), a notorious racist and alleged child abuser. From Birmingham, he was a Tory MP and British Minister before becoming UUP MP for South Down from 1974 to 1987.

Donaldson has described Molyneaux and Powell, as “two of the greatest names in Unionism in the 20th century” who he was “proud to work alongside”.

But Powell’s appetite for sadomasochism has also been well documented.

Richard Kerr was a resident at Williamson House, another State run institutional home in north Belfast. He recalls that a trafficker and an accomplice came to take him away to be abused by Powell on a summer’s day in either 1973 or 1974, when Powell was 61 or 62.

Kerr was taken to Barry’s Amusements, a theme park in the seaside resort of Portrush, County Antrim, when he was aged 12 or 13. Powell took Kerr away on his own to a guest house near Portrush where he had booked a bedroom. Powell beat him with a leather belt and buckle and engaged in a variety of sexual abuse and rape.

British intelligence services protected those involved in the abuse at Kincora because some were MI5 agents. Former Kincora resident Arthur Smyth revealed he was sexually abused in the home in 1977 when he was just 11. He said the perpetrator was the Queen’s cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten.

A new documentary, ‘Lost Boys: Belfast’s Missing Children’ has reignited concerns over the disappearance of children in the 1960s and 1970s. Evidence it reveals suggests they were abducted by members of the same Kincora paedophile ring.

The anti-Catholic Orange Order is the one organisation which links the perpetrators of the crimes at Kincora, including the men convicted of operating the systematic abuse.

Following news of the charges against Donaldson, it issued a statement. A spokesman for the ‘Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland’ said: “Jeffrey Donaldson’s membership has been suspended, in accordance with the rules of the Loyal Orange Institution, pending the outcome of the legal process. No further comment will be made.”

In a letter to party officers, Donaldson, made a ‘knight of the realm’ in 2016, has said he will be “strenuously contesting” all charges against him, but has since made no comment. If found guilty, he faces a potential life prison sentence.

Urgent Appeal