POLICE in Enniskillen were informed of inappropriate sexual activity in public toilets at Nugent’s Entry during the 90s involving local businessmen and mounted a surveillance operation but nobody was ever arrested or prosecuted, The Impartial Reporter has learned.
A business owner claims observing highly regarded men and even young boys frequent the Council-run toilets at least twice a week and recalls contacting the RUC on at least three occasions after growing concerned about the ages of those using the public amenities. 
“I saw the same faces again and again, I recognised four of the businessmen. When I saw parents waiting at the top of the entry on high street and their children running down to use the toilets I was concerned in case they walked in on something. I phoned the police three times and they took it seriously once. 
“Nobody was ever charged or anything,” said the source.
The claim comes months after a man broke his silence to allege that he was sexually abused by businessmen in the toilets when he was a schoolboy and one week after Fermanagh and Omagh District Council said it “did not hold any record” of reports of child sex abuse at the facility.
Two police sources have also alleged that officers launched a surveillance operation on the men entering and leaving the toilets and took photographs of them for two weeks.  The former officers, both of whom served in the RUC, have contacted this newspaper to claim the operation was carried out in the late 90s [possibly 1996/`97] on the toilets after suspicions that married men were meeting up for sex during the day.
“There was a circle cut in the side of the cubicle and one of them used to stick their penis through and get the other to touch them,” said a source.
“Two officers [provides their names] worked on it and photographs were taken. People in business were involved, not just your average man on the street. Word spread that they were being watched,” he said.
Police knew what was going on but evidence was hard to obtain with the concern over a breach of privacy, said the source. 
A second source said: “The men were approached and told to stop what they were doing, none of them were prosecuted. It was thought to have been a homosexual ring.”
Meanwhile the business owner claims the men, whose names have been given to this newspaper, were usually seen on Friday and Saturday afternoons for up to four hours.
“It was a regular thing, it wasn’t just me, we could all see it. A businessman beside me noticed it too. You kept thinking ‘that doesn’t seem right’. It went on for months and months. There was one man who stood beside where Benetton was previously with a view to the entry. He stood in that doorway all afternoon to see who was going down, then he’d go down. 
“I can’t say what was going on but they were definitely in there for long periods of times. There was one young boy, I think he was at the Tech. Once he arrived that was when you could see all the activity taking place, one man after another into the toilets.  It was all definitely organised.”
Messages written in speech bubbles were etched on the walls and indicated appointments and times. 
“The messages said ‘I will meet you here next week, same time,’ another said ‘I’ll meet you at 3.30pm, or whatever. That was every Friday afternoon -- every Friday afternoon.”
After contacting police twice and nothing being done, the business owner made another phone call back in the 90s and within half an hour officers arrived at the toilets. 
“They entered the toilets and pulled out six men. One of the men was in his 80s, he was a very old gentleman,” said the source. 
Immediately after police had apprehended the men an officer walked into the business owner’s property and in front of the individuals requested a statement.
“I had already told them on the phone that I did not want to get involved. I said I was doing my public duty. The next day he came back to say just to update you ‘we are not pressing charges, there won’t be a case, we couldn’t prove anything because there were six men behind three cubicle doors.”
The business owner always thought the toilets were a meeting place for homosexuals then three months ago a man claimed he had been abused in the cubicles when he was a schoolboy as part of a suspected paedophile ring. 
“The assault happened in the toilet, in the cubicle and I came outside and I was actually physically sick on the floor. I wasn’t really sure what had just happened to me, I was 12 so I wasn’t really that aware of things,” he told this newspaper.
“That has shocked me,” said the business owner. “I thought it was just homosexual men, everyone knew that’s where they went. It is really upsetting to think that was going on in there. This is why I reported it to police because I was afraid that something like that was happening. It is sickening, it is awful. I know it was a different time, I think people were naïve. But this was the job of the police, to protect children.”

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