A notorious loyalist paedophile attempted to snatch a schoolboy from a west Belfast street a year before two other children disappeared without a trace more than 50 years ago.
Child abuser and suspected state agent William McGrath has been accused of trying to abduct an eight-year-old boy months before the unexplained disappearance of Thomas Spence (11) and John Rodgers (13) in November 1974.
Believed to be an MI5 agent, McGrath was a founding member of the loyalist group Tara and is believed to have had links to the UVF and UDA.
He was a key figure in a child sex ring centred on Kincora Boys’ Home in east Belfast which is believed to have operated with the knowledge of MI5, which then blackmailed those involved in abusing children.
Last month police issued an appeal for information about the disappearance of Thomas, from Rockdale Street, and John, of Rodney Drive, more than 50 years ago.
The boys vanished after leaving their homes to walk to the bus stop on the Falls Road to catch a bus to St Aloysius School on Somerton Road.
Neither arrived and have not been seen since.
The PSNI’s Legacy Investigations Branch has said their disappearance is “still unexplained and potentially suspicious”.
Last year it emerged that another boy, Ciaran McCrory, was targeted by a man he now believes to be William McGrath.
Ciaran, who was aged just 8, lived at at Distillery Street, a short distance from where the other two children were from.
He has previously told veteran investigative journalists Chris Moore how he narrowly avoided the clutches of a man who tried to swipe him from the street as he played with friends half a century ago.
It was only while watching a trailer for the acclaimed 2023 documentary, ‘Lost Boys: Belfast’s Missing Children’, 50 years later that he recognised the man who attempted to swipe him as William McGrath.
Lost Boys investigated the disappearances of four boys, including Thomas and John, in Belfast in the 1970s along with the case of another whose burned body was recovered from the River Lagan.
Mr Moore, who is due to publish his new book ‘Kincora: Britain’s Unwanted Child’ next year, believes that had police known about the attempted abduction in 1973 “they would have been interested in speaking to Williem McGrath about what happened to Thomas and John”.
“Now we have a situation over 50 year later…the police made a song and dance about appealing for information for anyone to come forward,” he said.
“This is the same police that did not take part in Lost Boys.”
Mr Moore believes relatives of the missing boys have been failed.
“I just feel sorry for the families of these missing boys who never had the satisfaction of knowing what happened to them and will never receive the remains if they are, as we suspect, now dead,” he said.
“They never had a burial.”
Detective Superintendent Chris Millar, from the Legacy Investigation Branch said: “The investigation into the disappearance of 11-year-old Thomas Spence and 13-year-old John Rodgers in west Belfast in 1974 remains open with the circumstances around their disappearance still unexplained.
“We are committed to finding answers for the young boys families, and all credible lines of enquiry will be investigated when they are identified.
“This missing persons case remains within the current caseload of LIB for future review and it has not been affected by the enactment of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023.”
