A VICTIM of child abuse at a notorious Belfast boys’ home today won the right to challenge the British government’s refusal to hold an inquiry into the crimes committed there.

Gary Hoy, a victim of the 1970s paedophile ring that attacked children at Kincora, was given the green light at a hearing at Belfast High Court and a judicial review into the decision will be held in June.

Three Kincora staff members were jailed in 1981. But it has long been alleged that prominent figures of the British Establishment were involved, and that state security services covered up the abuse.

Westminster Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers said that the case should be handled by a Stormont-commissioned probe, but campaigners said that wouldn’t have the power to extract evidence from the security services.

Both the British Parliament’s home affairs committee and Amnesty International have called for Kincora to be investigated by Westminster’s wide-ranging child abuse inquiry, now headed by New Zealand judge Lowell Goddard.