failed to carry out an effective investigation. Debates on Kincora were held in the Northern Ireland Assembly on 22 March and 9 November 1983. In January 1984, another inquiry, under Judge William Hughes with W.J. Patterson and Harry Whalley, was set up by James Prior. Judge Hughes's Committee of Inquiry into Children's Homes and Hostels submitted its 355-page report on 31 December 1985. Amongst its 56 recommendations, which related mostly to the operation of children's homes and child care regulation, was one (46) that every criminal allegation made by a resident should be referred to the police. Another (4) was that the legal position regarding the exclusion of homosexuals from employment in residential child care should be established although the committee concluded that "the weight of opinion is against a policy of exclusion". According to the report, the 12 February 1982 The Irish Times referred to a BBC programme, "Scene Around Six", saying there was a "prostitution ring operating from the Kincora home" was stated as unwarranted and sourced inaccurately to a witness who was never resident in Kincora and who had been abused by his uncle. That witness said "I have no knowledge of any important or influential men involved in any sex with me or any other boys." Hughes concluded presciently that, "The events giving rise to this Inquiry...can no longer be regarded as exceptional. They must perhaps be recognised as earlier symptoms of a general malaise permeating the United Kingdom." Joshua Cardwell, an east Belfast Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (UPNI) councillor and Stormont MP who formerly chaired the Belfast Corporation Welfare Committee responsible for children's homes, committed suicide in 1982 after making a statement to the RUC in March over Kincora. Cardwell told the police of one conversation with the Belfast Town Clerk who had mentioned an imprecise allegation of homosexual conduct, but said that no complaints had ever come his way. The Hughes report concluded "There is no evidence that Councillor Cardwell took steps to prevent an investigation or suppress the matter. Nor is there any evidence that the Ministry of Home Affairs became aware of allegations or rumours of relating to homosexual misconduct at Kincora." Later revelations In April 1990 a writer called Robert Harbinson (also known as Robin Bryans) stated in the Dublin-based magazine Now that Lord Mountbatten, Anthony Blunt and others were all involved in an old-boy network which held gay orgies