Did the great-uncle of King Charles III. (73) abused a young boy at the notorious Belfast children's home, Kincora, in the 1970s? This question will now be clarified before a court. As reported by the Irish public broadcaster RTÉ, among others, former resident Arthur Smythe has accused Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900-1979) of sexual assault. Mountbatten, the uncle of the late Queen's husband Prince Philip (1921-2021), died in an IRA bomb attack in 1979 along with three other people.

Kevin Winters, attorney for Prosecutor Smythe, said in a statement to the broadcaster: The allegations against Lord Mountbatten are the subject of a civil complaint against state agencies responsible for the care of the children in Kincora. Specifically, Smythe claims to have been abused twice by the Royal Family member. It is the first time that a court has dealt with these allegations.

Smythe, who has lived in Australia for many years, has expressed the allegations several times - but so far anonymously, which made a public complaint impossible. In an interview with the Sunday Life newspaper, he said he was molested by Mountbatten in 1977. Only after his death did he find out through media reports who his tormentor was.

The "Kincora Boys' Home" has been in the headlines for decades. The first allegations arose in the early 1980s that adolescents there had been systematically abused. Three former employees were jailed in 1981 for abusing eleven boys. In 2017, a public inquiry into the incidents there took place. In the course of this, numerous authorities, including the police, were suspected of having systematically enabled abuse or knowingly not pursued it.