After signing over millions, Sinn Féin wouldn’t talk to donor for ‘security reasons’

Days after Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O’Neill said there was “nothing to see” about a vast gift from a reclusive Englishman, fresh questions have emerged about what happened before the donor died.
Sinn Féin vice president Michelle ONeill has said theres nothing to see here  but fresh questions keep emergingSinn Féin vice president Michelle ONeill has said theres nothing to see here  but fresh questions keep emerging
Sinn Féin vice president Michelle ONeill has said theres nothing to see here  but fresh questions keep emerging

It has now been revealed that William E Hampton, the man who left almost all his assets to Sinn Féin, had serious mental health issues, once chopped off his penis in the middle of the road, was threatened in Ireland by unknown individuals and had been left fearful after being assaulted in England.

It has also been revealed that in 2000, three years after the will was made, he said that Sinn Féin would not speak to him “for security reasons” – despite the fact that Sinn Fein, unlike the IRA, was a lawful organisation and was in fact in government in Stormont at that point.

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Last Wednesday, Ms O’Neill was asked on BBC Talkback about the will. Dismissing questions around a donation which is astronomically large in the context of Northern Ireland politics - where even large donations are generally only a few thousands pounds - Ms O’Neill said: “I think there’s a lot of people trying to make something out of the story that isn’t there...I understand that it’s a juicy story, but there’s nothing to see here.”

But a series of revelations have pointed to a highly irregular situation behind the donation. Yesterday BBC investigative reporter Kevin Magee reported that Mr Hampton could have left a fortune far larger than initially thought, something which would give Sinn Féin a massive advantage over its electoral rivals.

Dave Morton, 71, a friend of Mr Hampton’s, from Suffolk, told the BBC that “from what we could make out in his letters we received, Billy seemed to have the impression that he should have got £7 million.

“He was not stupid. He was well-educated and if he thought that, I would not be surprised if he was not close.”

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The BBC also reported that in a letter written from France, where he was living in 2000, Mr Hampton said: “Having had mental problems, everyone thinks I am barking mad, a silly Billy goat, and don’t believe a word I say or write. Sorry, it was England that kicked me into the hands of Sinn Féin.”

He went on to say: “I am much less paranoid than normal, and do not suffer from a persecution complex at all here in France...Sinn Fein will not speak to me now for security reasons.”

Sinn Féin did not explain what it thought that comment meant.

The Times reported that Mr Hampton had fixed electrical appliances and ran a market stall called Bill the Drill in Strood, Kent.

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It reported that “while living in Rainham, Kent, a neighbour accused him of having an affair with his wife. Incensed at the accusation, Hampton marched into the road with a kitchen knife and sliced off his own penis” after which he was admitted to a mental health ward where he met Rosalind Morton, who was suffering depression.

Mr Hampton left her £5,000 in his will. She told the paper: “He was a lovely man but he had his issues.

“He had no allegiance to Sinn Féin and I believe he left it to them in an act of mischievousness, he thought he was getting one over on the British government.”

The Irish Independent reported that Don Joyce, who lives close to where Mr Hampton once lived in Fenstanton and was good friends with him, said that Mr Hampton had told him that he was forced to leave Ireland over an incident which he believed involved criminal activity.

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Mr Joyce said: “He was definitely threatened, he had to get out of Ireland quick.

“He didn’t tell me all the things but I knew he had to get out of Ireland quickly and then he went back to Ireland which was a bit strange.”

Mr Joyce also told the paper that Mr Hampton was attacked outside his family home not long after he returned from Ireland, adding: “He got beat up and put in hospital but I don’t know who beat him up. Someone came on purpose. He must have been here six months to a year,” Mr Joyce said.

He said that the attack had “worried” both him and Mr Hampton.

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Earlier this month it emerged that Mr Hampton was “of no fixed abode” – yet had significant assets in England, Singapore, New Zealand and elsewhere – when he made the will in 1997, just a month before the IRA ceasefire.

The will, which was made in Cootehill in Ireland in the presence of a solicitor who is now dead, named two individuals who had previously held senior IRA positions as its executors. The executors were Joe Cahill, one of the Provisional IRA’s most senior figures, and Dessie Mackin, who was convicted of IRA membership during the Troubles. At the time when the will was made, both men were Sinn Féin’s treasurers.

The Electoral Commission has said that it has no concerns about the money and had no intention of launching an investigation.