Child abuse allegations against Queen's cousin Lord Mountbatten to be heard in Belfast court
17 October 2022, 14:02
Legal proceedings have been initiated against a number of institutions in Northern Ireland alleging that the Queen's cousin Lord Mountbatten abused a boy at a notorious Belfast children’s home in the 1970s.
Arthur Smyth, a former resident of the Kincora home, has waived his anonymity to make the allegations against the earl, a great uncle of the King.
Lord Mountbatten was killed along with three others when the IRA detonated a bomb on his boat in Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, in 1979.
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Mr Smyth’s solicitor, Kevin Winters of KRW Law, said the civil action alleging negligence and breach of statutory duty was being taken against several state bodies.
He said he had filed a summons which would be issued in the High Court on Tuesday.
Mr Winters said: “Central to the case are our client’s allegations of abuse by the late Lord Louis Mountbatten.
“Understandably many abuse survivors for reasons of obvious sensitivity choose to remain anonymous. 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.
“He alleges to have been abused twice as an 11-year-old by the deceased royal.
“It’s the first time that someone has stepped forward to take allegations against Lord Mountbatten into a court.
“That decision hasn’t been taken lightly.
“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.”
The Kincora home opened in Belfast in May 1958, and closed in October 1980 after a sex abuse scandal.
The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry found that 39 boys were abused at Kincora and in 1981 three men were jailed for abusing 11 boys.
