Special Branch blocked two enquiries into Smith from other police forces
Director of Public Prosecutions refused to prosecute Smith in 1970 despite huge dossier
Child porn found in boot of Smith's car yet he escaped justice again
Smith knighted on recommendation of former Liberal leader David Steel
Family upset allegations made when Smith is not around to defend himself
As MPs and child abuse charities call for a full inquiry into Smith’s paedophile activities over more than 40 years, six victims said that they would issue writs for damages if it could be shown the LibDems had known about Smith’s abuse but failed to try to stop him.
Former Children’s Minister Tim Loughton called for Smith to be posthumously stripped of his knighthood following devastating revelations about his depravity in a book by Rochdale Labour MP Simon Danczuk, being serialised by the Daily Mail.
Cyril Smith with children from Rochdale who he had invited down to the Houses of Parliament
And Greater Manchester Police announced they are carrying out a new investigation into abuse at a residential school in Rochdale where Smith carried out regular attacks on boys.
Further explosive revelations from the book in today’s Mail include:
- Details of how Special Branch and Lancashire police thwarted at least two inquiries into Smith by detectives from other forces
- Files of incriminating evidence were confiscated and suppressed by officers working for the Lancashire Chief Constable
- The leader of Rochdale’s Liberal Party tried to bully local detectives into dropping inquiries into Smith in the 1960s
- The Director of Public Prosecutions refused to prosecute Smith in 1970 despite receiving an 80-page dossier from police
- Child porn was found in the boot of Smith’s car near Northampton, but he was released without charge after ‘a phone call was made from London’
Fiend: Cyril Smith's crimes were covered up by his high-ranking friends
Portrait of a child abuser: Like his friend
Jimmy Savile, Cyril Smith used his charitable works as a cover for his
fiendish activities. Biographer Simon Danczuk believes that the Liberal
Party is still in denial about the monster who was in their midst
Richard Scorer, a solicitor at Slater and Gordon representing six men who claim they were molested by the MP as boys, is investigating how much senior Liberals knew.
He said: ‘We are examining who knew what about the MP, and that includes the Liberal Democrat Party and Rochdale Council, and we are actively considering all possibilities in relation to those potential defendants.’
Mr Danczuk, who interviewed many of Smith’s victims for his book, said it was ‘only right and proper’ that they should seek compensation from ‘those who neglected to listen to them’.
The Labour MP added: ‘I think consideration should be given to some sort of inquiry in terms of what Smith was up to. There is still a lot of denial around – not least in the Liberal Party.
‘Witnesses could be called to bring evidence, while others could face questions in terms of what they knew and what action they did – or did not – take about this prolific abuser.’
Tim Loughton, a Conservative former children’s minister, called for a wide-ranging inquiry into historic child abuse, looking at Smith’s activities alongside those of Jimmy Savile and paedophiles in the NHS, children’s homes, churches and schools.
Tim Loughton, MP (left), a former children's
minister wants to see a wide-ranging investigation into the activities
of Cyril Smith, similar to that carried out on his friend and fellow
paedophile Jimmy Savile (right)
He said the Lib Dems seemed to have ‘turned a blind eye’ to the allegations, and called for Smith to be stripped of his knighthood.
‘Very clearly this chap did some nasty things and we need to get to the bottom of how exactly this went on and how it was that the Liberals made him a knight.
At present it is not possible to strip public figures of an honour after death because they cease to hold the gong when they die.
The Liberal Democrats need to put their hand up and say what happened then,’ he said.
Smith was knighted on the recommendation of former Liberal leader David Steel in 1998, when rumours about the Rochdale politician's sexual activities were already rife in Westminster.
Party allies: Cyril Smith was recommended for a knighthood by David Steel, former Liberal Party leader
David Steel became Liberal leader in 1976 after Jeremy Thorpe was forced to resign after he was accused of conspiracy to murder his former gay lover.
Lord Steel, at 38, was one of the youngest party leaders in British political history and in March 1977 he formed the LibLab pact to keep James Callaghan's minority Labour administration in power.
Andrew Bridgen, the Tory MP for North West Leicestershire, added: ‘A public inquiry would get to the truth. It’s transparency and the truth which conquers all.
‘I’m not convinced that organisations that have allowed this to happen on their watch have changed.’
Man of the people... if only the people knew:
Sir Cyril Smith was a popular figure nationally, one of the most
recognisable political figures in Britain in the 1970s, often appearing
on light entertainment shows like Blankety Blank and Heroes of Comedy
discussing his friend Bernard Manning
Martin Digan, a whistleblower who exposed abuse by Smith and others at Knowl View residential school in Rochdale, said the local council had also carried out a massive cover-up.
‘They were culpable. They failed to take action and instead hid the evidence in a safe at the council,’ he said.
Peter Saunders, the chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said there needed to be a wide-ranging Royal Commission looking into cover-ups of historic child abuse.
He said: ‘There absolutely should be an inquiry [into Smith’s abuse]. The reason I don’t think there will be one is because there are too many others who have been involved with the outrages and are still alive and kicking, and would not want to be associated.’
Liberal front bench: Cyril Smith (right) shares a
joke with Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe. Thorpe was forced to
resign as leader in 1976 after he was charged with conspiracy to murder
his former gay lover. He was acquitted on June 22, 1979
Peter Watt, the NSPCC’s director of national services, added: ‘No matter what the situation, any complaints about child abuse should be investigated and people in positions of power should not be immune from this.’
One of Smith’s victims called for the Liberal Democrats to carry out a full inquiry.
Kevin Griffiths, 65, said: ‘Nick Clegg needs to tackle this because a failure to act 40 years ago led to the abuse of dozens and dozens of boys by one of their leading MPs.’
A Lib-Dem spokesman said yesterday: ‘Cyril Smith’s acts were vile and repugnant and we have nothing but sympathy for those whose lives he ruined.
‘His actions were not known to or condoned by anyone in the Liberal Party or the Liberal Democrats. It would be inappropriate to comment further on any potential legal action.’
And John Pugh, the Lib Dem MP for Southport, told the Observer: ‘I am as shocked as the next person by these revelations. I can confirm that they were not widely known until recently.’
But there is growing evidence that senior figures in the party did hear rumours about the crimes.
As far back as April 1979, a press officer working for then Liberal leader David Steel, now Lord Steel of Aikwood, gave a statement about Smith’s alleged abuse to a local newspaper, the Rochdale Alternative Press.
After learning that the title intended to print details of a police investigation into complaints against Smith, Lord Steel’s spokesman said at the time: ‘It’s not a very friendly gesture, publishing that. All he seems to have done is spanked a few bare bottoms.’
One former Liberal MP, Michael Meadowcroft, who was in Parliament from 1983 to 1987, has said that ‘whispers’ that Smith ‘liked boys’ did the rounds of Westminster over the ensuing years.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen (left with wife Jackie)
is calling for a public enquiry into Smith; former Liberal MP Michael
Meadowcroft (right) says that whispers that Cyril Smith liked little
boys did the rounds at Westminster for years
Lord Steel, who put Smith forward for his knighthood, has yet to comment on the Daily Mail’s recent revelations and it remains unclear what steps he took to confirm that the obese politician was telling the truth.
Special Branch officers would watch as Smith cruised known pick-up spots looking for young rent boys during Liberal Party conferences in Blackpool, it was claimed yesterday.
Police were also allegedly aware that he secretly took vulnerable schoolboys on holiday with him and his mother to Lytham St Annes in Lancashire so he could abuse them.
Sir Cyril Smith’s family said yesterday that they were ‘saddened and concerned’ by the claims about him.
In a statement to the BBC, Smith’s 82-year-old brother Norman and other relatives said they were upset that the allegations were being made when he is no longer alive to defend himself.
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