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Investigate Ed Murray, Amnesty International asks Northern Ireland police

caption: Then-Seattle Mayor Ed Murray speaks Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.
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Then-Seattle Mayor Ed Murray speaks Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Amnesty International has asked Northern Ireland's police force to investigate whether former Mayor Ed Murray abused children when he lived there in the mid-1970s, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

Murray spent a year in Belfast after graduating from high school.

The Telegraph reports that during that time, Murray “brought a group of 30 Catholic and Protestant children” on a two-week holiday to Wales.

Patrick Corrigan, who oversees the Northern Ireland branch of Amnesty International, called on the Police Service Northern Ireland to comb through old police reports.

Unlike the United States, the United Kingdom does not have a statute of limitations for sexual abuse cases. The Police Service Northern Ireland said they do not publicly reveal investigations into individuals.

Corrigan made this request after a fifth man came forward to accuse Murray of child sexual abuse. The man, Murray’s cousin, said he was 13 when the abuse occurred. Murray had moved in with his cousins after leaving Belfast. He and the boy shared a bedroom.

Murray has been surrounded by scandal since April when child sexual abuse allegations prompted a lawsuit against him in Seattle.

The lawsuit has since been withdrawn, but the accumulation of more accusations led to Murray's resignation as mayor this week.

The former mayor continues to vehemently deny the allegations.

Murray has often referenced his connections to Ireland.

“All four of my grandparents were born over there and I’ve gone probably a dozen or more times in my life,” Murray told The Seattle Times in 2013 when he was running for mayor. He added that he worked in a “peace program” in Belfast.

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