Image
© Reuters/Olivia HarrisWestminster Abbey in central London.
Vulnerable young boys were taken from a children's care home in Belfast in the 1970s, trafficked to London and abused by powerful figures who were part of a Westminster pedophile ring, a victim has claimed.

Richard Kerr, a victim of child sex abuse at the Kincora care home for boys, told Channel 4 News he also suffered abuse at London's Elm Guest House and Dolphin Square.

The 53-year-old's harrowing account of what he endured as a boy links the three alleged pedophile ring locations for the first time.

Dolphin Square is a luxury London-based apartment complex popular with British civil servants and MPs. Kincora boy's home in Belfast, Northern Ireland, was the site of systemic child abuse. Elm Guest House was once a gay brothel where youngsters are also believed to have suffered abuse.

Kerr said he was one of three teenage boys who were hand-picked from Kincora House in the 1970s, and trafficked to London.

Once the youngsters arrived in the capital, they were allegedly abused by politicians and other elite establishment figures at Elm Guest House and Dolphin Square. Kerr told Channel 4 News the two young boys who were trafficked alongside him have taken their own lives.

The 53-year-old alleges he suffered the most violent abuse at Elm Guest House in Barnes, southwest London.

Young boys, many of whom were being cared for by the state, are suspected to have been abused there by the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith, cabinet ministers, pop stars, spies, clergymen, judges, members of the royal household and others.

Reflecting on one ordeal at Elm Guest House, Kerr said he was tied up with his hands behind his back.

"They took photographs. Other men were there. Other men came into the room. It wasn't just this one man," he said.

Kerr, who is now based in Dallas, Texas, made an emotional return to London last month to revisit the scenes of his alleged abuse for the first time in over 30 years.

He said he was also brought to the Dolphin Square apartment complex in Pimlico, London, where police are investigating allegations of a young boy being killed by a Conservative MP.

"I remember going in with this guy. He told me to sit down and relax and explained about his [drinking] glasses," he said.

"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."

Scotland Yard says allegations surrounding the murder of three young boys by a pedophile ring linked to Dolphin Square are both "credible and true."

One victim, known as Nick, previously claimed he witnessed a Tory MP strangle a 12-year-old boy in 1980, and that a Conservative minister looked on as another youngster was murdered in 1981.

Kerr's account offers the first concrete link between three infamous alleged pedophile rings that operated across London and in Northern Ireland. His claims compound calls for allegations regarding the Kincora boy's home to be investigated by Britain's official inquiry into child sex abuse being chaired by Judge Lowell Goddard.

Kerr, whose interview with Channel 4 News will be broadcast on Tuesday evening at 7pm, said some of his abusers were politicians but he was fearful about publicly identifying them.

"I need to know that I can have faith in our government," he said. "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."

Victims of abuse at the Kincora boy's home were granted permission in February to challenge the government's refusal to include historic child abuse allegations relating to the care home in Britain's far-reaching inquiry.

Kerr, who resided at the home from the age of 14, said two police officers dressed in plain clothes visited him prior to the trial and warned him to remain silent.

In February, lawyers representing the victims told the High Court in Belfast that British security service MI5 had knowledge of the abuse but had turned a blind eye to it to protect those who were responsible from prosecution.

A separate review is being conducted into what occurred at Kincora. Home Secretary Theresa May said in March this inquiry will share information with that being headed by Justice Goddard.