A new book has raised fresh claims that Queen Elizabeth II‘s cousin, Lord Mountbatten, sexually abused and raped multiple young boys at a children’s home before his death in 1979.
Lord Mountbatten, known as Dickie, was linked to the Kincora Boys’ Home in Belfast by former resident Arthur Smyth, who named Prince Philip‘s uncle as his alleged abuser in 2022, as part of legal action against institutions in Northern Ireland for breach of duty of care and negligence.
And in 2019, a secret dossier compiled by the FBI on British statesmen during World War Two and the Suez Crisis described King Charles’ uncle and valued mentor as a ‘homosexual with a perversion for young boys’, which made him an ‘unfit man to direct any sort of military operations’.
Now a new book by journalist Chris Moore, Kincora: Britain’s Shame – Mountbatten, MI5, the Belfast Boys’ Home Sex Abuse Scandal and the British Cover-Up, details allegations from four previous residents of the home against the aristocrat including Smyth, who has labelled the godfather of King Charles, the King of Paedophiles.
Sharing his story for the first time, Richard Kerr claims he was trafficked to a hotel near Mountbatten’s castle with a fellow teenager named Stephen, where they were allegedly assaulted in the boathouse. He also casts doubt on his friend’s apparent suicide later that year.
Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and the last viceroy of India, was killed on August 27, 1979 by an IRA bomb that was smuggled onto his boat. Two teenagers, his 14-year-old grandson and a 15-year-old boat hand, also died.
Kincora was an infamous boys’ home that closed its doors in the 1980s after allegations of routine sexual abuse of its vulnerable young residents, who have told how staff raped and assaulted them and trafficked them out to other men.
Despite reports of dozens of victims and multiple powerful individuals arriving at the children’s home in order to abuse the boys, just the three senior staff at Kincora – William McGrath, Raymond Semple and Joseph Mains – have ever faced any consequences.
Lord Mountbatten, known as Dickie, has been accused of travelling to the notorious former Kincora Boys’ Home in Belfast and having boys resident there transported around Ireland for his sexual gratification
The former Kincora Boys’ Home shut its doors in the 1980s after allegations of sexual abuse finally came to light
They were jailed in 1981 for abusing 11 boys, but police and British security forces have long been accused of orchestrating a cover-up of a powerful paedophile ring, whose members included politicians, judges and police officers. At least 29 boys are known to have been sexually abused at Kincora.
Former resident Arthur Smyth, who is one of the accusers featured in the book, said that Lord Mountbatten ‘charmed everyone’ but branded him ‘King of paedophiles’.
The book contains detailed accounts of four victims, and paints a picture of Mountbatten abusing and raping residents as young as 11 all in the space of the summer of 1977.
Some of the boys had no idea who their alleged abuser was until years later after hearing of his death on the news and recognising him.
Moore now claims much of the sexual abuse was known about, or at least suspected, by local authorities and MI5, but no action was taken because the British security service was using ‘monster’ McGrath as an intelligence asset due to his familiarity with far-right loyalist organisations.
Arthur Smyth ‘raped twice by Lord Mountbatten’, aged 11
Arthur Smyth was the first person who had been placed into care at Kincora to speak publicly about the sexual abuse he says he experienced at the hands of Lord Mountbatten.
He described how, in 1977, the ‘beast of Kincora’ – William McGrath – found Arthur playing on the staircase at the home and told him he wanted to introduce him to a friend of his.
Describing the room which McGrath took him to, Mr Smyth told Moore: ‘It was on the ground floor. It wasn’t the front room, it was somewhere near the middle. And it had a big desk and a shower. I’d never seen a shower in my life.’
He went on to describe how Mountbatten – who he knew as Dickie – told him to ‘stand on top of like a box or something’ and then ‘told me to take my pants down.’
Arthur Smyth has long claimed that Lord Mountbatten raped him twice when he was just 11 in Kincora itself
William McGrath, known as the ‘Beast of Kincora’, was one of three carers at the home jailed for sexual abuse – and was also an alleged MI5 asset
‘He then proceeded to lean me over the desk.’
Mr Smyth says Lord Mountbatten raped him, and did so again on a second occasion a week later.
He said: ‘When he had finished, he told me to go and have a shower. And I went and had a shower. I felt sick and I was crying in the shower. I just wanted it all to stop.’
By the time Arthur came out of the shower the man called Dickie had left and McGrath was there waiting to take him back upstairs.
It wasn’t until years later that he realised who ‘Dickie’ was, after he stumbled across coverage of Lord Mountbatten’s death.
Mr Smyth said that once he realised who had abused him, he felt sick that ‘somebody in high stature like this could do such a thing’.
He told Moore: ‘We all think that a paedophile is a bloke that you don’t know, that he’s weird-looking or he doesn’t look right, but he fooled everybody. He charmed everybody.
‘To me he was king of the paedophiles. That’s what he was. He was not a lord. He was a paedophile and people need to know him for what he was … not for what they’re portraying him to be.’
Kincora staff ‘trafficked boys to Mountbatten for sex’
Richard Kerr, pictured as a young man, says he was taken to Classiebawn Castle where Mountbatten abused him
Richard Kerr and Stephen Waring were both driven to Fermanagh by senior care staff member Joseph Mains, and from there taken to the Manor House Hotel where they were allegedly abused by Mountbatten (pictured)
In August of the same year, two more Kincora residents were abused by Mountbatten – but instead of coming to them, the royal family member ensured the home’s own staff brought victims across Ireland to him.
Richard Kerr and Stephen Waring were both driven to Fermanagh by senior care staff member Joseph Mains, and from there taken to the Manor House Hotel near the Mountbattens’ Classiebawn Castle, where they often spent the summer.
Mains would later be convicted of sexual offences against boys relating to his time at Kincora along which his colleagues, William McGrath and Raymond Semple.
Richard revalled how he and Stephen waited with Mains in a car park to be picked up by Mountbatten’s security guards, who arrived in two separate black Ford Cortinas and ferried the boys to the hotel in Mullaghmore in County Sligo, just a few minutes drive from the castle.
Richard told Moore how they were dropped off separately at Classiebawn before being taken individually from a guest reception room to the green boathouse, where they were sexually assaulted.
They then returned to the Manor House to meet Mains for the journey home.
Once they were alone back in Belfast, Richard and Stephen compared their experiences. Unlike Richard, Stephen recognised Mountbatten and knew they had been abused by a member of the royal family.
Quick-thinking Stephen managed to take a ring belonging to Mountbatten before leaving Classiebawn – perhaps as potential proof of who had assaulted him. But this would also prove to be the teenager’s downfall.
Teenager’s ‘suicide’ after Mountbatten ‘abuse’
Classiebawn Castle was owned by the Royal Family and was home to the Mountbattens, who frequently spent their summers there
Joseph Mains drove Richard and Stephen to a car park to be picked up by Mountbatten’s security officers – he was later jailed for sexual abuse of boys at Kincora
Stephen’s theft of Mountbatten’s ring did not go unnoticed – it was reported missing and police attended Kincora and took both Stephen and Richard in for interrogation.
The ring was eventually found by officers in Stephen’s bed area, and Richard claims Stephen was tricked into admitting the theft by police.
And far from questioning what two teenage boys, with no connections or privilege, had been doing alone in a room with Mountbatten, Irish police instead threatened the boys into silence.
Richard said: ‘The police made it clear to the pair of us that we were never to talk to anyone about this incident ever again.’
He told Moore how, over the next few years, he and Stephen were repeatedly visited by police officers or shady intelligence figures, who warned them again never to speak of what had happened to them.
It appeared that officers knew, or suspected, enough of what had occurred during that summer to try and prevent it ever reaching the light of day – and that Mountbatten was free to continue seeking sexual satisfaction from vulnerable young boys.
But things would take a turn for the worse for Richard and Stephen, after they were arrested for a slew of burglaries between June and October 1977.
Richard pleaded guilty to the charges against him and was allowed to continue working in the Europa Hotel in Belfast, where he was already employed, so he could repay the money he had stolen.
Stephen was sentenced to three years at Rathgael training school but escaped within a month, and caught a ferry to Liverpool along with Richard.
But while Richard travelled to visit and stay with his aunt Stephen quickly found himself in police custody in Liverpool, before police escorted him onto the ship making the overnight sailing to Belfast.
Moore found out that Stephen was sent back to Ireland alone, with no police escort, and during the crossing he apparently threw himself overboard and died.
Richard, who still maintains Stephen would never have taken his own life, did not become aware of his death until a few days later.
‘Stephen would never have thrown himself overboard,’ Richard said.
‘He would never have willingly jumped into the freezing November sea. He was street smart and a fighter.’
Penchant for ‘dark-skinned people’
Lord Mountbatten was killed by a bomb on his boat placed there by the IRA in 1979 (Pictured: Irish police search the wreckage)
Two teenage boys were also killed in the explosion, which the IRA claimed responsibility for
Teenager Amal – not his real name – was 16 when he was first taken to Classiebawn, the castle used as a summer retreat by the Mountbatten family.
He was taken there four times in the summer of 1977 – the same summer it is alleged Mountbatten abused the other boys – to provide the royal family member with ‘sexual favours’, Moore writes.
Amal’s accusations first surfaced in the 2019 book by Andrew Lownie, The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves, which caused a scandal upon publication.
He said the sexual encounters would take an hour and occurred at a hotel about 15 minutes away from the castle itself.
Each time, he is said to have performed oral sex on Mountbatten and, during one of the encounters, briefly met Kincora resident Richard Kerr.
Amal described Mountbatten as polite and told him he liked ‘dark-skinned’ people, especially those from Sri Lanka.
The lord is also said to have complimented Amal on his smooth skin. The then-teenager told Lownie that he knew of several boys from Kincora who were brought to Mountbatten on various occasions.
‘I hate these feelings’: Mountbatten ‘sad and lonely’, victim says
Kincora, located in Belfast, was demolished in 2022, but claims of abuse there continue to surface
Raymond Semple was the third member of staff at Kincora to face justice for the sexual abuse that occurred there
The second victim exposed by Lownie, known only as Sean, was a 16-year-old resident of Kincora when he was taken to Classiebawn in the summer of 1977.
He described being taken into a darkened room where he was joined by Mountbatten – although similar to the lord’s other victims, Sean did not know his identity at the time.
Sean said he spent an hour with Mountbatten, who undressed him and performed oral sex on him.
He told Lownie that Mountbatten appeared conflicted, on that occasion at least, about his taste for young boys.
‘He spoke quietly and tried to make me feel comfortable,’ Sean said.
‘He said very sadly, ‘I hate these feelings.’ He seemed a sad and lonely person. I think the darkened room was all about denial.’
Sean added it was only when he saw the news that Mountbatten had been killed by the IRA that he realised who his abuser had been.
‘Mountbatten is dead, but he still lives inside us’
The boys – now men – abused by Mountbatten and care home staff told Moore how the severe abuse they suffered continues to haunt them.
Arthur says what McGrath and Mountbatten did to him back in the summer of 1977 ‘still lives inside him’, leaving him with terrifying memories that have long outlasted the perpetrators.
Moore wrote: ‘Arthur’s tormentors are both now dead, but they live on in his memory and bring back how he felt as an innocent eleven-year-old boy.’
It’s a feeling echoed by other featured in the work, including Richard, who has never been able to accept his friend Stephen took his own life.
Many former residents described fear and paranoia over what they experienced, as well as frequent visits by police officers and secret service agents to ensure they would stay quiet.
Most difficult for many Kincora survivors is that Mountbatten, and many other influential figures they say they assaulted by, have never faced justice.
Multiple victims have attempted, with various degrees of success, to bring legal action against the British government, the Police Service of Northern Ireland and other public bodies that were supposed to protect them.
Instead, they say, their innocence was sacrificed for the sake of the royal family and low-level intelligence on loyalist forces.
Kincora: Britain’s Shame – Mountbatten, MI5, the Belfast Boys’ Home Sex Abuse Scandal and the British Cover-Up is published by Merrion
