A victim of historical abuse in Ireland on confronting his attacker twenty years on

By Saoirse McGarrigle - The Journal - 10.08.2025 - [IRELAND] - [Michael Shine] A MAN WHO was raped by a former social worker and court clerk embroiled in the notorious Kincora Boys’ Home scandal has spoken publicly for the first time about the abuse he suffered.

John McMahon – now aged 70 and living in America – secretly taped and confronted his abuser, Ken Larmour, decades later, and attempted to bring him to justice.

Kincora – a Belfast residential home for boys located close to the Stormont parliament buildings – was closed in 1980 over allegations of sexual abuse. More cases have come to light over the following decades.

John was abused by Larmour over three-and-a-half years from 1968 at his family home in Ardee and at Larmour’s apartment in Belfast. John never attended Kincora but Larmour had connections to the home through his role as a social worker and to staff there through a hard-line loyalist group active at the time.

He learned in the 1990s that his abuser had been on the radar of detectives during investigations related to Kincora.

Historic police files show that Larmour had once been accused of orchestrating a false alibi and of using his role as a court official to try to get suspected child killer Alan Campbell acquitted of sexual abuse charges.

During a 1995 phone call with John, Larmour admitted to the abuse, describing it as “just one of those things”.

He also tried to blame it on his own “insecurity and uncertainty”.

John secretly taped the call in the hope that it would help expose his abuser’s crimes – and the audio (below) is being published for the first time today.

In the call, Larmour snubbed allegations of abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home, insisting that there was “never the slightest grain of proof of it”.

“There was an awful lot of hype put into it and a lot of innuendo, which I think really had no substance in fact,” Larmour insisted.

In his interview with The Journal, John explained Larmour’s interactions with homes such as Kincora, noting that it was part of his job as a social worker to call to group homes for boys – or ‘hostels’ as they were called at the time.

“He was connected to William McGrath through Tara Lodge loyalist political organisation in the summer of 1968 when I was first abused,” John said. McGrath was one of three senior staff at Kincora jailed in 1981 for abusing boys.

The extraordinary admission of sex with a thirteen year old boy made by Larmour in the 1995 phonecall was sent to the RUC the same year, but the DPP in Northern Ireland decided not to prosecute – a decision that has haunted John for more than three decades.

John was told that the passage of time and the nature of the phone evidence were likely to hamper the chances of securing a conviction. Connections to notorious paedophiles

Today we can also report for the first time a shocking connection between the assaults by Larmour and two of Ireland’s most prolific paedophiles, disgraced surgeon Michael Shine and Fr Ronald (Ronnie) Bennett.

Shine – the convicted sex offender who’s now facing claims of abuse from more than 370 men – was the doctor that nuns at the Gormanston Franciscan College in Co Meath, where John was a student, called in to treat the schoolboy after he presented to the infirmary with “pain and bleeding”.

John, 13 at the time, had contracted gonorrhea as a result of being raped by Larmour.

He recalls being administered an injection that “hurt like hell,” but says that, unlike other patients of the now disgraced medic, he was not sexually assaulted by Shine.

Support and advocacy organisation Dignity4Patients confirmed to The Journal that it was already aware the disgraced doctor had interactions with boys at Gormanston and insisted that Shine’s time at the school must be examined as part of a wider public inquiry.

The group is lobbying for a Commission of Investigation into the former surgeon’s abuse.

Reflecting on his interaction with Shine, John says it should have sparked an investigation at the time.

“Being infected like that at the age of 13 or 14 today would be viewed as a highly explosive issue and you would be asking – what did the school do about it?”

He said that people should have asked questions about why a 13-year-old student had presented with a sexually transmitted infection, but that at the time “there was no follow-up”.

John was a student at Gormanston from September 1968 to June 1973. During his time at the school he was also sexually assaulted by paedophile priest Fr Ronald (Ronnie) Bennett shortly after Larmour’s reign of terror had begun.

Bennett would ultimately be convicted of sexually abusing boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

John was not part of the criminal cases, but in 2014 he came face to face with Bennett at a sit down meeting facilitated by the religious order in order to allow John the opportunity to confront his abuser.

“I was able to stand up as an adult and confront him. That in itself was an opportunity that very few people get,” John said.

It has now emerged that Ken Larmour and Fr Ronnie Bennett were connected.

Larmour was a social worker in Belfast and during the late 1960s and early 1970s he helped Bennett to organise to bring “troubled youth” from Belfast to Gormanston.

“They were helping each other,” John explained.

“Ronnie through Larmour’s contacts in Belfast organised swim meets in Belfast. The circles intersect in informal ways.”

Previously a fee-paying school, Franciscan College Gormanston moved into the free public education system in 2014.

Responding to queries on whether the religious order was aware that Shine had been brought to Gormanston to treat boys, and whether any other victims of Bennett had also asked to meet with the priest following his conviction, the Franciscan Province of Ireland said it was committed to maintaining the highest standards in responding to complaints of abuse and had cooperated fully with the recent Scoping Inquiry team in reporting allegations of historical abuse.

That Scoping Inquiry report – published last year – recorded 19 allegations of abuse against two individuals at Gormanston. The names of alleged abusers were not published in the report, which covered 308 schools around the country.

In response to the query about later meetings with Bennett the order said: “Some victims/survivors of abuse have expressed their appreciation of having a restorative justice response, and we will continue to work restoratively in accordance with the wishes of any victim/survivor.”

John does not believe that Larmour, Bennett or Shine were operating as part of an organised paedophile ring, but he insists that “paedophiles recognise each other in their own way and they usually put themselves in a position of control”.

For Bennett that position of control was his role as bursar at the school, while Shine was an esteemed medic and Larmour used his roles as a social worker and, later, within the legal system, to his advantage. ‘Most paedophiles can see somebody a mile away’

John explained how Larmour maneuvered his way into the McMahon family when he was brought to their home by a prospective land buyer to give his legal opinion on the sale of the property.

The abuse started in July 1968 after Larmour’s friend bought the family’s house in the Co Louth town of Ardee, John said.

“My dad was in hospital for five years starting in June of ’68 and we lost our home – had to sell off – kept a little land to put a mobile home on.

“Most paedophiles can see somebody a mile away.

“The guy who was buying our house, whose name is irrelevant, but he is from Belfast, came in with his friend and legal advisor. That was Ken Larmour. My mother was very trusting and naïve.

“Larmour convinced her that he was an expert on troubled youth, teenagers, and that I was very vulnerable and that he would take me under his wing.

“A week later I was sent up to Belfast for the weekend where the initial rape occurred on the very first night I was there.

“I had gone to bed and went to sleep and woke up and Larmour was behind me.”

The abuse continued for three-and-a-half years.

“My mum was not complicit. She was just very naive. She was scared because her husband was in trouble. He was an alcoholic and the alcoholism brought on strokes.

“He had something like seven or eight strokes over the next four years. He never made it out of hospital after the summer of 1968. He died in 1972.” Larmour became what John described as “a part time neighbour” because he would frequently travel from Belfast to Ardee to stay with his friend who had bought the McMahon family home.

John’s mother retained a small parcel of land adjacent to their original home where they relocated to, with just a brick wall dividing the property.

“Larmour was like a father to me. It may sound sick to you, but that’s where it becomes more and more complicated for a kid,” John explained.

During their regular trips to Belfast, Larmour attempted to impress John with his connections to prominent figures in society at the time.

He was introduced to Ian Paisley Senior during one visit in either 1971 or 1972 and was able to “observe his theatrics on the Stormont floor”. John also met the leader of the nationalist SDLP Gerry Fitt through Larmour, and recalls “Fitt had an office down the road from Larmour’s flat”.

John is clear that there is no suggestion that either of the high-profile politicians were involved in sexual abuse – but looking back at those Belfast outings he now interprets Larmour’s behaviour as part of a premeditated grooming process. ‘I left Ireland and I closed all of these doors’

While John endured a tragic family life during this period, he recalls how his life changed forever on the night that he met his wife Donna Berman at a local farm where he was working as hired help.

Today the couple have been married almost fifty years and he describes her as an “incredible human being”.

The couple left Ireland together in 1978 and raised four children together in the US, where John had a long career in product development and sales.

“I left Ireland and I closed all of these doors,” he said.

But at the age of 40, when the couple’s son turned 13, painful moments of his own teenage years rose to the surface.

He recalls how he woke up early in the morning and went to take a shower, where he described having “a total meltdown” and “reliving the rape”.

“Bawling like a wounded animal, my wife thought I was dying,” he said.

“I was 13 when I was first raped in July 1968. My son turned 13 in May 1995 and I saw myself in him.”

John said it helped him realise “I was just a child, not an adult” when the abuse happened.

He said that he sought counselling and as part of this it was recommended that he should put pen to paper and write a letter to Larmour that was not intended to be sent. It was supposed to be simply an exercise of expression “in a safe space”.

“And then it got me thinking maybe I should confront him.

“So I did confront him, but I did so in a very mild, friendly way. I phoned him and I recorded the conversation and 18 minutes into the conversation I then said ‘so why did you have sex with me when I was 13?’

“I didn’t use hard words. I had been very friendly with him before that and he said that it was a stage that he was going through and that there was something about me that made him do it.” The recording was on cassette and has been digitised since.

John adds: “It’s rare to have somebody actually in their own words…the audio quality isn’t great, but it’s clear.

“I sent that tape to the RUC in Belfast, along with a transcript of the entire conversation, so they could hear it in his own words, that he admitted to it.” Investigation

John studied Law in UCD after school so understood the criminal justice system and was confident that he had supplied detectives with the necessary information to pursue an investigation.

He had found old diaries that he had kept from his teenage years. In these he had recorded the days that he spent in Belfast. One entry refers to Larmour buying John a new pair of glasses at a jewellers in Belfast and a receipt for this transaction was available.

He praises the now deceased detective superintendent Roy Suitors who he said took his claims seriously and worked to corroborate them, even trying to track down the record of purchase of those glasses.

Ultimately the DPP chose not to prosecute. In a diary entry from 1996, when he was told of the decision, John notes the DPP had concerns about the strength of the phone evidence and said it could be argued that Larmour was going along with the line of questioning. The passage of time and the fact that John now lived in the US were also factors, according to John’s diary entries.

He was also told that Larmour had been taken to a police station and questioned for eight hours as part of preliminary investigations.

Larmour died two years after his phonecall with John, in 1997. The Kincora link

During his interactions with the police during the 1990s, John learned that Larmour’s name had already come up during investigations related to Kincora.

The Kincora investigation files are the source of the revelation that Larmour was accused of using his role as a court official to get the suspected child killer Alan Cambell acquitted of sex abuse charges.

John recalls meeting Campbell one night at Larmour’s flat: “They were friends. Alan was likely 20 or 22 in 1969 or early 1970. It was an innocent visit. Alan stayed for a few hours. He sat on the couch there with three teenage boys. Alan and Ken mentored boys.”

Campbell, a radical pastor with extreme anti-Catholic views, was charged with abusing a boy in November 1970, long before Kincora was exposed in the early 1980s.

Details of this night are documented in a police file produced by detective chief superintendent George Caskey, who between 1980 and 1985 led the RUC’s investigations into the abuse scandal at the Kincora Boys’ Home in East Belfast, following extensive reports that children were being abused by staff and trafficked to external abusers.

In Caskey’s 1982 report, which is described in the subject line as ‘Kincora Boys’ Hostel – Police Enquiry Phase 2′, there is a section on page six entitled ‘The Campbell Case’.

While Larmour’s name and address are redacted, sources have confirmed that Larmour is the individual referred to. The Journal also viewed a copy of Larmour’s death certificate, which shows that his address corresponds with that referenced in Caskey’s report.

The senior RUC officer wrote that he had reviewed documents that claimed that “Campbell who is still a regular worshipper at Martyrs Memorial, picked up a Kincora boy and took him to a flat belonging to [REDACTED] in the Shore Road area where he interfered with him. The boy made a complaint and Campbell was charged.”

The boy alleged that he had been picked up by Campbell on a bus in Wellington Place, Belfast, on the night of 3 November 1970 and was taken to a flat where he was indecently assaulted by Campbell.

It was alleged that Campbell told the boy: “I’ll stick a knife in you if you tell anybody.”

The Caskey Report goes on to say that the tenant of the flat was a 38-year-old who was employed at Belfast Magistrates Courts, which Larmour was.

The victim, who is assigned the code name KIN 43 in the report, was re-interviewed on 25 November of that same year and “gave further details of the flat”.

The report states that when Campbell made a written statement under caution at Glenravel Street police station on 26 November 1970 he denied the offence, but his friendship with Larmour, who had at that point been Clerk to the Courts for more than a year, was discussed.

Campbell stated that Larmour was admitted to hospital the previous month and had given Campbell a key to his flat to “enable him to carry out menial tasks”.

It was during this period that the assault happened.

The report goes on to detail how Campbell subsequently sought advice from Larmour on how to manage the police interview. He did this because Larmour had a better understanding of a criminal investigation as a result of his position in the court.

Campbell suggested getting an alibi for the time of the assault from a then-unionist councillor named Margaret Miskimmin.

Councillor Margaret Miskimmin represented Ian Paisley’s Protestant Unionist Party (PUP), a forerunner to Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party, on the loyalist Shankill Road.

Larmour set up the gathering – to take place in his own apartment. He asked Campbell to bring Councillor Margaret Miskimmin and anyone else who was at her home on the night in question “so that he could see how well they stood up to examination”.

Later during trial, she told the Crown Court that Campbell had attended a meeting with her at exactly the same time as the alleged sexual assault at Larmour’s flat.

The Caskey report states that it is apparent that Margaret Miskimmin “told lies to the police” and she did this “in order to support Campbell’s defence”.

Larmour had also been suspected of manipulating court records to ensure Campbell was cleared.

Ultimately, the case against Campbell collapsed and he remained free to abuse other young people for years afterwards.

In 2023, a member of the now-disbanded Ireland’s Heritage Orange Lodge told the Sunday World: “Margaret never really knew what she was letting herself in for when she agreed to give Alan Campbell an alibi in court. But it wasn’t just Campbell who put pressure on her. Others were involved also.”

Campbell was identified in declassified RUC files as the prime suspect in the 1973 disappearance and murder of ten-year-old Brian McDermott, and is thought to be linked to the abduction of four other schoolboys connected to the Kincora abuse ring.

Brian McDermott was reported missing in September 1973. After a six day search, the dismembered and charred remains of the 10-year-old were found in a sack in the River Lagan.

Campbell was also described as a close associate of William McGrath, the Kincora housemaster who was later jailed for a series of brutal sexual assaults on boys. Both men were members of the loyalist paramilitary group Tara, which Larmour was also associated with.

The late journalist Henry McDonald, who co-authored books on the UDA and UVF, said it was his “firm belief” that Campbell was an “agent provocateur” for the intelligence services during the Troubles.

Campbell, known for his hardline loyalist views, claimed that Ulster Protestants and white South Africans were descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, chosen by God to inhabit their own lands.

Strong unionist views

Ken Larmour also held strong unionist views and was outspoken on political matters.

An archived RTÉ News report from 1988 shows Larmour speaking as part of a group called ‘Campaign for a Devolved Parliament’.

It held a press conference calling on politicians to negotiate a power-sharing alternative to both the Anglo-Irish Agreement and direct British rule.

During the clip, Ken Larmour addresses reporters and strongly criticises the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

The purpose of the campaign was not to go before the electorate as a political party, but to attempt to influence those who do.

Never spoke again

In his 1995 phonecall with John, Larmour had insisted that there was no substance to claims of abuse at Kincora and went on to say that reporters covering the fallout from the controversy had “put two and two together and got nine”.

By the time of their conversation McGrath and two other co-accused had already been handed jail sentences for abusing eleven boys at the home.

Looking back, three decades on, John describes the call as ending in “a friendly tone”.

Larmour had promised to talk with him again and expressed a willingness to answer any further questions that he had about that time.

But when John attempted to speak with him again just a month later, Larmour changed his story and rejected John’s allegations.

“He was denying everything, which I knew he would. He had time to think.”

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article and were abused in state run medical and health facilities, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday, 10am to 4pm.

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https://www.thejournal.ie/john-mcmahon-abuse-ken-larmour-6770361-Aug2025/

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Dignity4Patients Commentary:- While not every pedophile operates within a ring, the recent article in The Journal reveals a broader pattern of institutional failure where "duty of care" was abandoned, especially in religious and state-run settings where children were meant to be protected.

Questions that should have set off alarms remain unanswered: why did a surgeon get called to a school to treat a 13-year-old with gonorrhoea? How was that not a red flag of abuse? Why wasn't it reported to any higher authority?

Experiences like this add weight to the ongoing call from Dignity4Patients for a full statutory Commission of Investigation into Michael Shine—the abuses he committed and the systemic cover-ups that enabled them.

Survivors deserve truth, transparency and justice."