A man who claims to be a victim of the Westminster paedophile ring claims he is still “in some fear” after he was “intimidated” by police. Richard Kerr alleges he was trafficked to the capital in the 1970s where he was sexually abused by “some powerful people.”
Mr Kerr will make the allegation of a cover-up during a pre-recorded interview on Channel4 news tonight. He claims to have been a teenager when the abuse took place, at the time he lived at Kincora Boys’ Home in Belfast, but was taken to London.
Kincora Boys’ Home has already seen a number of staff successfully prosecuted for child abuse. Kerr is the first person to link the home to the Elm Guest House in West London and the Dolphin Square apartments, a stone’s throw from the Houses of Parliament.
Kerr recalled one incident at Dolphin Square when he was attacked by a man. According to the Belfast Telegraph, he told Channel4: “I could have been 16, 15, 17 … I remember going in with this guy. He told me to sit down and relax and explained about his glasses.
“He had Waterford Crystal and he wanted me to have a brandy and we had a small one. And then we had a sexual encounter in here.” On another occasion he says he was subjected to violence when he was tied up and photographed at the Elm Guest House. When it was raided in 1981 the police found whips and chains, that they believed had been used for sexual purposes.
Although Kerr is very open in the interview, he refused to name his abusers: “I’m still in some fear. Even though I’m willing to take the courage.”
He also expressed his scepticism with the authorities: “I need to know that I can have faith in our government but right now, when they’re not willing to bring Kincora into Westminster, the message that sends to me is that there’s some kind of cover-up and there has been.”
He continued: “They came to my home and they removed stuff from my drawers, and they put me in a car and they took me to the police station and they interrogated me, put me in a cell for seven hours and as they removed me from my cell.
“They made it clear to me that I’m not to talk about this and that I’m lying and not to tell lies, and I felt they were giving me a warning. The case was coming up… and they didn’t want me to come to the trial.
“First of all, they intimidated me by bringing me to a station and putting me in a cell. They wanted to make it clear that I’m not to say anything. They also said to me that if you tell any lies, if you talk about this, that we can put you away. So at that moment I stopped wanting to volunteer what my experience was in Kincora.”
Despite years of inaction over abusers like Sir Jimmy Savile and Sir Cyril Smith, the police are now believed to consider accounts like Kerr’s as “credible”. Scotland Yard has begun a major investigation into abuse and murder by some of the most powerful men in the country.
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