Pensioner quizzed about boys missing for 27 years ago

A pensioner was being questioned by the RUC last night after officers launched an intensive search for the bodies of two boys feared killed by a paedophile 27 years ago.

Police sealed off two houses in west Belfast in readiness for a full search of their backyards.

RUC officers involved in the excavation of mass graves in Kosovo were brought in to assist in the operation.

The possibility that the two missing boys have lain buried not far from their homes for almost three decades has shocked local people. Those who grew up with the boys said it was rumoured they had gone to Australia, or to sea, or had joined a circus.

A 69-year-old man who lived locally during the 1970s has been arrested and is being questioned by the RUC on suspicion of murder. An RUC spokesman said: "He is helping police with the investigation. He had been known to the police for a period of time."

The two boys – Thomas Spence, 11, and John Rodgers, 13 – were both considered to have learning difficulties. They vanished after leaving their homes to catch a bus to a special school across the city on 26 November 1974.

The two houses that police are investigating are in Rodney Drive, the street where John Rodgers lived. Thomas Spence lived not far away. The boys would now be aged 40 and 38.

John's adoptive mother, Alice, who is now 80, has never given up hope of finding him. She has made regular appeals for information about his whereabouts, most recently last year on the 26th anniversary of their disappearance.

The boys disappeared during one of the worst years of the troubles, when more than 300 people were killed. A month before they vanished a woman was shot dead in her home in Rodney Drive. Against such a backdrop, their case did not attract much national attention, but they were remembered in their own local area.

The occupants of the two houses have moved out while the search takes place, while the block has been sealed off by police to all but local residents.

The terrace houses have small gardens and backyards. In a scene reminiscent of the investigation of the serial killers Fred and Rosemary West, police first erected protective screening around the areas to be searched.

The RUC assistant chief constable Alan McQuillan said there had been no trace of the boys since 26 November 1974. "On that day they effectively disappeared off the face of the earth," he said.