The last Viceroy of India, late Lord Louis Mountbatten, has been accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy on two occasions in the 1970s at a boy’s home in Belfast in Northern Ireland.
The victim, identified as Arthur Smyth, has alleged that the incident took place at the Kincora Boy’s Home in 1977. According to Smyth, it was only 2 years later in 1979 that he finally learnt about the identity of his perpetrator.
Lord Louis Mountbatten was a member of the British royal family and the uncle of the incumbent King Charles III. Smyth, now 56, lives in Australia and has filed a lawsuit against State bodies including the police for failing to protect the children in Kincora.
Kevin Winters of KRW Law-LLP, who will represent the victim in court, said, “I commend Arthur’s resilience in taking this case and indeed his bravery in going public for the first time. Understandably many abuse survivors for reasons of obvious sensitivity choose to remain anonymous.”
Though allegations have long circulated, this is the first time accusations of paedophile abuse against Lord Mountbatten—King Charles’ great-uncle—will be aired in court.
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) October 16, 2022
Statement from law firm acting on behalf accuser Arthur Smyth, who says there was an institutional cover up: https://t.co/W9ElM8WGyn pic.twitter.com/48SQKUjPoH
“Arthur’s decision to reveal his identity must be set against this backdrop. It is borne out of anger at systemic State cover-up on abuse at these institutions…That decision hasn’t been taken lightly,” he pointed out.
Winters added, “He understands only too well that it will be a deeply unpopular case with many people coming as it does within weeks of the passing of The Queen. However, litigation involving mental, physical and sex abuse isn’t undertaken to deliberately offend sensitivities.”
“It’s taken for many reasons including exposing perpetrators and the institutions or other agencies which helped suppress the truth…It has been an incredibly difficult journey for our client to reach this point in his life wherehe feels confident enough to make his case and to do so in a public forum,” he concluded.
In September this year, pre-action letters were issued to several institutions including Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Business Services Organisation, UK Secretary of State, the Chief Constable of PSNI and The Department of Health in connection to the case.
Lord Mountbatten had lust for young boys: FBI
In August 2019, The Daily Mirror cited declassified Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files and reported that the former Viceroy of India was a ‘homosexual with a perversion for young boys.’
The alleged files were unearthed by historian Andrew Lownie who used Freedom of Information laws to obtain research material for his book ‘The Mountbattens: Their Lives & Loves.’
The Daily Mirror quoted Lord Mountbatten as saying, “(We) spent all our married lives getting into other people’s beds.” According to Lownie’s book, Lord Mountbatten’s favourite place was a gay brothel frequented by naval officers.
Lord Mountbatten, who was assassinated in 1979 by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), was also spied on by the US for over 3 decades.
Citing one Anthony Daly, he claimed, “Mountbatten had something of a fetish for uniforms — handsome young men in military uniforms and beautiful boys in school uniform”.
In an interview in 1944, American author Elizabeth de la Poer Beresford said, “…Lord Louis Mountbatten and his wife are considered persons of extremely low morals.”
“…Lord Louis Mountbatten was known to be a homosexual with a perversion for young boys…He is an unfit man to direct any sort of military operations because of this condition…His wife was considered equally erratic,” the FBI memo quoted her as saying.
In yet another federal document, dating back to May 1968, the homosexuality of Lord Louis Mountbatten was discussed alongside that of one diplomat Anthony Nutting and former British PM Anthony Eden.
In recent times, historian Andrew Lownie had also tried to unearth the personal letters exchanged between India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten, albeit unsuccessfully.
The infamous Boys’ Home in Belfast
In 2017, an investigation conducted by the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry found as many as 39 boys were sexually abused at the Kincora Boy’s Home by its housemaster, William McGrath.
The probe was conducted by retired Judge Anthony Hart, who concluded that the police (Royal Ulster Constabulary) investigation into the scandal was “inept, inadequate and far from thorough”. He added that many victims could have been spared if there was a proper investigation
Reportedly, three former staff at the Boy’s home, namely, McGrath, Raymond Semple and Joseph Mains, were incarcerated in 1981 for sexually abusing a total of 11 boys. The home was being run by a Protestant paramilitary organisation member.
However, the Judge had dismissed claims that a homosexual brothel was being operated at the Kincora Boy’s Home and that British security agencies were somehow blackmailing the accused paedophiles to spy on influential politicians.
“Our inquiry has not found any credible evidence to show that there was any basis for the allegations that have been made over the years about the involvement of others in sexual abuse of residents at Kincora or anything to show that the security agencies were complicit in any form of sexual abuse in Kincora for any purpose,” he concluded.
