Barrie Penrose
29 March 1987
The Sunday Times
Merlyn Rees, the former home secretary, called last night for a royal commission or similar judicial inquiry into allegations that MI5 attempted to destabilise the Wilson government in the mid-1970s.
Last week James Callagham, the former prime minister, and Ress increased pressure on Mrs Thatcher to investigate alleged 'dirty tricks' operations. Callaghan's surprise intervention followed a Sunday Times report about James Miller, a former MI5 agent who claimed that the security service helped to promote the Ulster workers' strike in 1974 in a plot to discredit and undermine the Wilson government.
Callaghan said The Sunday Times report broke new ground, outside the scope of the limited inquiry into MI5 activities he had instituted in 1977. Rees told The Sunday Times: 'In view of the allegations that are being made there is a need now for an urgent royal commission-style inquiry. '
New claims by Miller this week are likely to add further weight to demands for an inquity. Miller, an Englishman recruited by the security service in Northern Ireland in 1970, casts doubt on the conclusions of an official inquiry into the sexual abuse of inmates at the Kincora boys' home in Belfast.
The inquiry, chaired by Sir George Terry in 1983, who at the time was chief constable of Sussex, concluded 'there is no evidence that army intelligence had knowledge of homosexual abuse at Kincora'.
Rumours that Kincora was a sex 'honeytrap' used by MI5 to compromise intelligence targets, including Loyalist politicians and paramilitary figures, have appeared since the early 1980s. The stories have always been dismissed by the authorities.
However, Miller claims that the intilligence services had known about the activities at Kincora for a number of years, and believes the boys' home was used to entrap men who would be blackmailed into providing information.
Miller has revealed that his first task for the intelligence service was to spy on William McGrath, a former housefather at the Kincora home.
McGrath, who was jailed for his part in the abuse of 13 children in his care between 1973 and 1979, once headed the Tara Loyalist paramilitary organization. Miller says that McGartha's sexual tendencies were common knowledge inside Tara.
Miller said: 'My M15 case officer later told me to leave McGarth to them and I understand they used the information to recruit him as an informer. ' Last night McGarth confirmed that he knew miller but would not comment on any other aspect
Miller's claims are borne out by an official army briefing paper signed by Colin Wallace, a former army intelligence officer who was attached to M15 operations in Ulster during the 1970s. The document is dated November 8, 1974, a period when McGarth was employed as housefather in Kincora.
The paper makes clear that army intelligence had inside knowledge of young boys being sexually exploited at the home seven years before the Kincora scandal broke publicly Wallace's detailed four-page report was seen by several senior officers at army headquarters.
Headed 'Tara - Reports Regarding Criminal Offences Associated with the Homosexual Community in Belfast', the report was requested by Lieutenant-Colonel Brain Dixon, then chief of army intelligence who worked closely with M15 at the Royal Ulster Constabulary headquarters at Knock in west Belfast.
According to the document, 'allegations were made as early as 1967 and there is also evidence that assaults may have taken place as early as 1959'. It concludes: 'I find it very difficult to accept that the RUC has consistently failed to take action on such serious allegations unless they had specifically received some from of policy direction. Such direction could only have come from a very high political or police level. '
Despite Miller's and Wallace's specific warnings, McGarth was still employed as a housefather at Kincora between 1971 and 1979. And it was not until 1981 the he was jailed for four years on 18 counts of abusing boys.
In Ireland, Wallace has claimed he was eventually instructed to use the Kincora information as part of a black propaganda operation against prominent Loyalist politicians under the codename 'Clockwork Orange 2'. It was his operation, says Wallace, which was widened to include smear tactics against national politicians in all three political parties.
Last night, Rees, who was the Northern Ireland secretary in the mid-1970s, said he had no first-hand knowledge had no first-hand knowledge of Kincora. 'But it does tie in with conversations I heard at the time. This whole affair must be investigated. '
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