NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
22 OCTOBER 2014
Witnesses in historic child abuse cases should be forced to give evidence as victims deserve more than promises of co-operation from Government agencies, MPs have heard.
Scandals including Rotherham, Rochdale and the brutal paedophile ring who abused boys from the Kincora home in Belfast are linked by allegations of an MI5 cover-up, Alliance Party MP Naomi Long said.
And it would be “utterly naive” to expect former security and intelligence service officials to voluntarily give evidence if they could face prosecution, Ms Long said.
She reiterated demands for the Official Secrets Act to be temporarily suspended to ensure full evidence emerged in connection to the Kincora investigation.
Ms Long added the Government-commissioned UK-wide probe into historic abuse – chaired by Lord Mayor of London Fiona Woolf – should also have statutory powers to compel witnesses to give evidence, as she warned state institutions had previously failed the victims.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.