It was September 2nd, 1973, and ten-year-old Brian McDermott was playing in Ormeau Park near his home in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He never came back home, and despite a massive search, his fate would be unknown until a week later.
On September 9th, the child’s burned and mutilated body was found in a sack in the River Lagan.
Over the ensuing years, the investigation largely focused on two distinct possibilities. The first of these was that Brian had been murdered by his older brother William, who was sixteen years old at the time of the slaying. The motive was thought to have been revenge for an earlier argument, in which Brian had allegedly hit his brother across the back with a stick.
Although William confessed to the crime in 1976, he later recanted, claiming the confession had been coerced. He was questioned again in 2004, after allegedly confessing his guilt to his ex-wife in 2003, but he was again released without charge. Apparently, the McDermott family largely believed William to have been responsible for the killing, however, and distanced themselves from him as a result. William subsequently changed his name and attempted to escape the stigma surrounding the crime. To this day, he still maintains his innocence.
Another branch of the inquiry posits that the murder of Brian McDermott might have been linked to the notorious child abuse scandal swirling around the Kincora Boys’ Home in Belfast. Allegations pertaining to a pattern of systematic sexual abuse at the home first began to filter out to the media in 1977, and several staff members, including the warden and assistant warden, were eventually convicted in the early 1980s.
In 1982, it was revealed that there had been a meeting involving then Northern Ireland Secretary of State Jim Prior, and the Lord Chancellor and attorney general, at which a connection between the Kincora affair and the murder of Brian McDermott was discussed. While rumors about a possible government cover-up concerning a high-ranking pedophile ring operating out of the home have endured for years, the allegations were officially dismissed in 2017, leaving the case of Brian McDermott open and unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 