Vulnerable boys were trafficked from a children’s home before being abused by ‘very powerful’ figures in a Westminster paedophile ring, a victim has claimed.

Richard Kerr, 53, said he was one of three youngsters who were taken from the home in Belfast to London in the 1970s.

Once in the capital, they were allegedly molested by politicians and other Establishment figures at Dolphin Square and Elm Guest House – which are now under investigation by Scotland Yard.

Claims: Richard Kerr, 53, said he was abused by ‘powerful people’ in a Westminster paedophile ring

His account provides the first clear link between three alleged major VIP paedophile rings that operated in London and Northern Ireland.

And the claims will add weight to calls for the allegations about the Irish children’s home to be covered by the official abuse inquiry now being chaired by judge Lowell Goddard.

Mr Kerr told how he suffered abuse at Kincora children’s home in Belfast, where victims have accused MI5 of blocking police inquiries.

He said he and two other boys were then trafficked to London in 1977, where they suffered further abuse in two locations. He said he endured his most violent ordeal at Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London.

Boys – many in local authority care – are alleged to have been abused by figures including the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith, Cabinet ministers, clergymen, pop stars, spies, judges and members of the royal household.

Site 1: The Kincora children’s home in Belfast. Mr Kerr said he was one of three youngsters who were taken from the home to London in the 1970s

‘I was tied up here. I do remember that. I don’t know why I was tied up, but I was tied up with my hands behind my back,’ he told Channel 4 News.

‘They took photographs. Other men were there. Other men came into the room. It wasn’t just this one man.’

Site 2: Location of the former Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London

Mr Kerr, who now lives in Dallas, Texas, made a highly emotional return to London last month to visit the scenes of his alleged abuse for the first time in over three decades. He claimed he was also taken to the exclusive Dolphin Square apartment complex in Pimlico, where police are investigating allegations that a Conservative MP murdered a young boy.

He said: ‘I remember going in with this guy. He told me to sit down and relax and explained about his [drinking] glasses.

‘He had Waterford Crystal and he wanted me to have a brandy, and we had a small one. And then we had a sexual encounter.’

Scotland Yard has said allegations surrounding the murder of three boys by a VIP paedophile ring linked to Dolphin Square are ‘credible and true’.

One alleged victim, known only as Nick, has already claimed he saw a Conservative MP strangle a 12-year-old boy around 1980 and that a Tory Cabinet minister watched as another boy was murdered the following year.

Mr Kerr, whose full interview will be broadcast by Channel 4 News at 7pm tonight, said the two boys from Kincora children’s home who were taken to London with him both went on to kill themselves. He said his abusers included politicians but he still had fears about naming them.

‘I need to know that I can have faith in our government,’ he said. ‘But right now, when they’re not willing to bring Kincora into Westminster, the message that sends to me is that there’s some kind of cover-up, and there has been.’

Abuse victims were granted leave in February to bring a legal challenge to the Government’s refusal to include Kincora in the remit of Justice Goddard’s wide-ranging abuse inquiry.

Site 3: Dolphin Square luxury flats complex in Pimlico, London. Police are investigating allegations that a Conservative MP murdered a young boy there

The children’s home in east Belfast was run by William McGrath, the head of an extreme Protestant loyalist group called Tara and an alleged MI5 informant. He and two other members of staff – William Semple and Joseph Mains – were jailed in 1981 for sexually assaulting boys in their care.

But Mr Kerr, who was sent to live at Kincora in 1975 aged 14, said two plain clothes policemen visited him before the trial and warned him not to talk.

In February, lawyers for the victims told the High Court in Belfast that MI5 was aware of the abuse but allowed it to continue to protect those responsible from prosecution.