Published on Apr 16, 2014
Labour MP Simon Danczuk discusses the late LibDem MP Cyril Smith on paedophile allegations / revelations, and how the entire state protected Smith - from MI5, the police, and MPs, they all protected Cyril Smith.
Source
Thursday, 24 April 2014
Labour MP Simon Danczuk on paedo late Cyril Smith MP (16Apr14)
Published on Apr 16, 2014
Labour MP Simon Danczuk discusses the late LibDem MP Cyril Smith on paedophile allegations / revelations, and how the entire state protected Smith - from MI5, the police, and MPs, they all protected Cyril Smith.
Source
Wednesday, 23 April 2014
Police failed too many victims of abuse...we had to change: Police chief on tackling domestic abuse in Essex
12:56pm Wednesday 23rd April 2014 in Local News By Adam Cornell
Shake-up – police have acted on criticism of their
handling of domestic abuse cases, says Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh
On a daily basis, police officers are confronted with excuses for the sort of violence in a home which would never be permitted on the streets.
But there is no CCTV in a home to record what actually happened.
Instead, there are incredibly complicated personal relationships, overflowing emotions and a lot of confusion.
Yet police officers are expected to get to the bottom of what happened, keep the victim safe, prosecute the criminal and get the balance right between what is a domestic row and what is domestic abuse.
Because if they get it wrong, people can die.
Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh, Essex’s most senior officer, describes working on domestic abuse as “homicide prevention”.
In the past, Essex Police have got it wrong. They stayed out of too many situations and women died.
In response, they overcompensated.
It seemed like every call to a domestic situation was marked as high risk and, at times, officers lost the ability to use their skills and judgment to differentiate.
Now things are much better and there are a lot of reasons why.
Officers have better training.
For example, there is a daily review of all domestic abuse incidents.
There is also much closer working relations with other agencies, such as the health service, social services, charities and voluntary organisations.
Specially-trained domestic abuse investigation teams have been formed.
There is a specialist domestic abuse crime unit in Southend and Basildon.
And Clare’s Law has been introduced, which allows people to find out if new partners have a history of domestic abuse.
But perhaps the biggest change is that body cameras are now worn by officers to record the scenes they are confronted with.
That has helped provide a solution to the age-old problem of one person’s word against another.
They allow magistrates, juries and judges to see the situations for themselves.
Most importantly of all, they help prosecute violent abusers when the victim is too scared to speak out themselves.
There are now 400 body worn cameras used in Essex after being introduced this year.
They have already helped the force launch 120 “victimless”
prosecutions, where the Crown Prosecution Service brings a case before the court without having the victim involved.
Mr Kavanagh said: “The body cameras give us more objective information to show to the courts.
“The direct results have been more guilty pleas and more convictions. When you show the courts the level of injuries and fear, they can see the situations for themselves.”
Another improvement has been considering each individual situation.
He said: “In the past, all domestic abuse situations were being treated the same.
“Not all victims want or need blue lights flashing to their door.
“This approach is not without risk but, if you have better information, you can make better decisions.”
Essex Police received praise for improving their handling of domestic violence in a report by Her Maje s t y ’ s Inspectorate of Constabulary. Mr Kavanagh is confident the improvements already made and the plans being put in place will help the force avoid some of the tragedies of the past.
In 2008, Maria Stubbings was murdered by partner Marc Chivers in Chelmsford.
In July 2011, Jeanette Goodwin was murdered in Southend and Christine Chambers and her twoyear- old daughter Shania were murdered in Braintree.
In all cases, warning signs were missed by Essex Police.
Mr Kavanagh said: “There has been a massive amount of work carried out in Essex, by both the police and our partner agencies, to improve.
“The HMIC has rightly recognised this is a priority area for Essex Police and this is reflected in the robust approach we take against offenders.”
Source
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
Another paedophile politician could be unmasked by MP who exposed Cyril Smith's sex ring
Labour MP Simon Danczuk may unmask someone 'much more important'
He may use parliamentary privilege protection to name the former MP
Danczuk has urged the politician to come forward of his own volition
Allegation: Simon Danczuk, Labour MP for
Rochdale, said he may unmask someone 'much more important' than Cyril
Smith who allegedly abused boys at the notorious Elm Guest House in
Barnes, South-West London
The
MP who exposed the paedophilia of the late Cyril Smith is threatening
to name another former senior politician alleged to have had sex with
children.
Simon
Danczuk, Labour MP for Rochdale, where one of his predecessors was
Smith, said he may unmask someone 'much more important' who allegedly
abused boys at the notorious Elm Guest House in Barnes, South-West
London, which was used as a venue for a paedophile ring of VIPs.
'I
have been contacted by people making serious allegations.' The MP says
he could use parliamentary privilege - which would give him legal
immunity - to name the former influential MP.
He
added: 'It would be best for him to come forward of his own volition,
but I would consider using privilege to name the parliamentarian.'
Mr
Danczuk spoke as it emerged that disgraced former Co-op Bank chairman
Paul Flowers faces questioning over an alleged cover-up of child abuse
at Knowl View School, a special school in Rochdale linked to local
Liberal MP Smith.
Over three decades, boys as young as seven were repeatedly abused at the school by Smith and his cohorts.
It
was described as 'a sweet shop for paedophiles' and pupils were driven
to public toilets to have sex with men who had travelled from all over
the North.
In
2012 - two years after Smith's death - the Crown Prosecution Service
admitted the MP should have been charged with historic child sex
offences.
At
the time of the alleged cover-up, ex-Methodist minister Flowers was
vice-chairman of the social services committee at Rochdale Council,
which oversaw Knowl View School.
He is to face claims that he and other Rochdale councillors ignored a series of damning reports detailing the abuse.
This
week Flowers, 63, who has been charged with three counts relating to
possession of cocaine, ketamine and crystal meth, will receive a letter
saying he must answer questions from Andrew Warnock QC, who is leading
the investigation into the council's handling of the allegations.
Predatory: MP Cyril Smith, left, knew Paul Flowers, right, during their time together on Rochdale Council
Nine
others are also part of the investigation. There is no suggestion
Flowers, who was also on the council's education committee, was involved
in any form of abuse at Knowl View, but his time on the council
coincides with key developments in the alleged cover-up.
Colin
Lambert, leader of Rochdale Council, said: 'The letter is quite strong,
and they should be worried because the allegation is that they took
part in a cover-up. So if they knew and decided not to do anything that
is a very serious matter.
'There are criminal issues here.'
Fears
that vulnerable young boys were being abused at the school were
repeatedly raised between 1988 and 1992, when Flowers held key council
posts.
Three reports were issued detailing serious sexual abuse at Knowl View, yet no one was ever held to account.
It
was not until 1994 that the matter was raised again when the reports
were discovered by the school's head of care, Martin Digan.
Mr Warnock's inquiry will cover the years 1985 to 1995 and will focus on whether there was a cover-up.
Three reports were issued detailing serious sexual abuse at Knowl View, yet no one was ever held to account
Sunday, 20 April 2014
Cyril Smith
Paul Flowers to be quizzed over cover-up of child sex at Cyril Smith school
Daily Mail
Former Co-op chairman Paul Flowers will be formally questioned about
his role in an alleged 'cover-up' of appalling sex abuse at a school
founded by paedophile MP Cyril Smith. The Mail on Sunday can reveal the ex-Methodist minister faces an official ...
New book claims Cyril Smith had 'insatiable' appetite for young boys
Manchester Evening News
A shocking new book about Cyril Smith
shames him as a predatory paedophile who escaped justice for more than
50 years. Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk and his parliamentary aid Matt Baker
have launched an explosive new book on Smith's sex crimes, ...
Cyril Smith: the predatory paedophile protected by establishment
Telegraph.co.uk - Apr 18, 2014
Mr Danczuk and Mr Baker have detailed the industrial scale of Smith's
abuse and the decades long establishment cover up in his new book, Smile
for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith. Last week, the welter of new revelations left the Liberal ...
'Influential' politician visited guest house at centre of child sex investigation
Telegraph.co.uk - Apr 18, 2014
Simon Danczuk last week published a book on Cyril Smith
which reignited the scandal over the former Liberal MP, who used his
power and influence to abuse hundreds of boys for over four decades. He
told The Telegraph that during his investigations he ...
Late Rochdale MP Cyril Smith was member of paedophile ring INSIDE ...
Mancunian Matters - Apr 19, 2014
Late Rochdale Sir Cyril Smith
was a member of a paedophile ring INSIDE Westminster, a new book by the
town's current MP has claimed. The explosive expose, titled Smile for
the Camera, The Double Life of Cyril Smith is written by Labour MP Simon ...
Something rotten in the state of Rochdale
Private Eye (satire) - Apr 18, 2014
AFTER 35 years in which Fleet Street ignored the fact that Sir Cyril Smith
MBE was a predatory paedophile, the Daily Mail decided on its front
page last Saturday that there had been a “Monstrous Cover-up”. Private
Eye's first detailed account of Smith's crimes ...
New book claims Cyril Smith had ‘insatiable’ appetite for young boys
By Dean Kirby
Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk and his parliamentary aid Matt Baker have launched an explosive new book on Smith’s sex crimes
Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk and his parliamentary aid Matt Baker have launched an explosive new book on Smith’s sex crimes, which claims he had an ‘insatiable’ appetite for young boys.
Those desires, they say, resulted in dozens of vulnerable boys being targeted by Smith at the former Cambridge House Boys Hostel, Elm Guest House in London and even the House of Commons.
Mr Danczuk’s and Mr Baker’s book on Smith, ‘Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith’, claims that abuse ranged from disciplinarian ‘spankings’ to forcing boys to perform sex acts on him.
Cyril Smith’s family have said they are ‘saddened and concerned’ by the claims made in the book so long after the larger than life MP’s death when he is ‘no longer able to defend himself’.
But Mr Danczuk has argued the former MP, who died in 2010 aged 82, would have known he would one day be outed for his crimes.
Here he explains why he felt the story had to be told...
“Many of your younger readers won’t know who Cyril Smith is. After all, he stood down as an MP in 1992 and died in 2010. For students of politics, though, he’s not easily forgotten. Cyril Smith was unlike any politician before or since.
"At 29 stone and over six feet tall, he was the largest man to ever sit in the House of Commons. Blunt and outspoken, Cyril was a charismatic, straight talking northern politician that became a household name. He had an inimitable style and liked to blur politics with show business.
"He was on every chat show host’s sofa, frequently on television and even appeared on Top of the Pops dancing with the biggest girl band in the world at the time, Bananarama.
"But his celebrity status allowed him to keep a very dark secret well hidden. Cyril Smith was a predatory paedophile.
"The book on Cyril Smith I’ve written with Matt Baker has already created quite a stir in Westminster. Pillars of the establishment certainly need shaking. And big questions remain. Why was a paedophile politician investigated by police for the best part of 40-years never prosecuted? I’ve seen the horrific consequences of child abuse and how it ruins lives.
"And that’s why I’m taking a strong stand. There’s no place for paedophiles in public life - and they cannot and should not be protected by the establishment.
"But here’s the rub. Until political parties show they’re not prepared to turn a blind eye to abuse like this by star performers we can’t be certain that Cyril’s double life won’t be repeated. I don’t think we’re anywhere near to getting to the bottom of this scandal.
"I’m certain there were other politicians involved as well as Cyril as part of a paedophile network. Whether the full truth of this eventually emerges will ultimately depend on the courage of the political classes and the authorities. Let’s hope some good men and women are prepared to do something about it."
Smile for the Camera: the double life of Cyril Smith is published by Biteback
Source
Friday, 18 April 2014
After a week of devastating revelations: Was this woman murdered to cover up Cyril Smith's sex ring?
Carole Kasir ran a gay-friendly guesthouse in London during the 1970s and 1980s
VIP clients of the facility included Cyril Smith as well as MI5 officers and spy Anthony Blunt
Child welfare campaigners believed that children were abused in the guesthouse
Kasir kept logbooks and photographs of her VIP clients
Her body was found by several vials of insulin and an inquest determined suicide
But a new book claims that she may have been murdered to protect Cyril Smith
We found
him living in a shabby block of flats of the kind you don’t imagine
exists in the genteel Thames-side suburb of Teddington.
Noel
Coward was born a couple of streets away, but the tattooed man in a
grubby vest did not belong to the same world as the composer of Mad Dogs
And Englishmen.
David
Issett was the epitome of a washed-up pub bruiser. Under a wrinkled
dome covered with crew-cut white hair, his eyes were both calculating
and evasive. What the f*** did we want, going around asking questions
about him and his family, he asked?
A new book on former Liberal MP Cyril Smith (pictured) asks whether Carole Kasir was murdered to cover up his paedophile past
What
we wanted, in fact, was to hear what the unpleasant Issett could tell
us about his former lover, a woman called Carole Kasir, and the
notorious gay brothel which she once ran in nearby Barnes.
And
the reason? Over the past week, the Mail has serialised Labour MP Simon
Danczuk’s chilling new book about the late Liberal politician Sir Cyril
Smith. The book revealed Smith’s genuinely horrifying, decades-long
reign of terror and sexual abuse involving scores of young, vulnerable
boys — as well as the Establishment cover-up that kept his crimes
hidden, which included the police, politicians and even MI5.
Carole Kasir (pictured) ran a gay-friendly guest
house in the late 1970s and early 1980s where gay men could meet in
safety and privacy
One
of the revelations in the Danczuk book concerns Smith’s secret
patronage of Elm Guest House. This was the business run in the late
Seventies and early Eighties by David Issett’s friend Carole Kasir and
her husband Haroon, in an elegant terrace property on Rock’s Lane,
overlooking Barnes Common.
The
guest house was advertised in the gay press of the time as a place
where homosexual men could meet in safety and comfort to enjoy various
facilities, including a sauna and solarium. One of the publications
which reviewed it favourably was the newsletter of the Conservative
Group for Homosexual Equality.
The
CGHE was campaigning for the lowering of the gay age of consent to 16.
One of its chairmen was Ian Harvey, a junior Foreign Office minister who
was forced to quit the government in 1958 after being caught having sex
with a Coldstream guardsman in a London park. To men like him, Elm
Guest House offered discretion.
But
behind the guest house doors, commercial sex was also available, and
there have been allegations that underage boys from at least one
children’s home were made available there to paedophiles.
For
several years, a list of alleged ‘VIP’ customers of the guest house has
been circulated by child welfare campaigners. Among the names are a
number of senior MPs, a high-ranking policeman, a leading tycoon,
figures from the National Front and Sinn Fein, an official of the Royal
Household, an MI5 officer, two pop stars and the traitorous Soviet spy
Anthony Blunt.
It
is unlikely if we shall ever know for sure how many of these men even
went near Rock’s Lane. But certainly one of those identified on the list
was Sir Cyril Smith.
In
his sparse living room, with the television blaring, David Issett also
volunteered the politician’s name — as well as a claim which goes to the
heart of another, potentially even more sinister, story of sex and
Establishment cover-up.
‘Carole
said she had a load of photographs of famous people doing stuff at the
gay guest house,’ said Issett. ‘The name I remember is that of the fat
man, Cyril Smith.
‘She
said she kept them [the photos] in a strong box at the Royal Bank of
Scotland branch in Richmond. She was once offered £20,000 for them, but
she thought they were worth much more.’
Child welfare campaigners believe the guest
house run by Ms Kasir had been used by paedophiles including the the
late MP for Rochdale (pictured left)
What
other public figures allegedly appeared in these photographs? We
understand that detectives from Operation Fernbridge, which has been
investigating allegations of child sex abuse, some of which are linked
to Elm Guest House, ‘strongly believe’ that another politician — who
subsequently rose to become a Cabinet minister — had abused an underage
boy at Rock’s Lane.
His
alleged victim, who is now an adult and lives abroad, initially
indicated that he would give a statement to police, only to change his
mind later.
Although the police obtained independent evidence of the specific abuse, it wasn’t enough to execute an arrest.
But
what of the woman who appears to have been in possession of the darkest
sexual secrets of so many powerful men? Carole Kasir cannot help us
now, because she was found dead 24 years ago.
As we shall see, a number of people are convinced she was murdered for what she knew.
The activities at Elm Guest House came to a head in the spring of 1982 when, following a surveillance operation, police raided the property. The operation itself had an element of farce, as the Old Bailey later heard.
Two
policemen were ‘undercover’ inside the guest house, one wearing a radio
transmitter inside a fake plaster cast on his arm, which would be used
to signal for the start of the raid. This was activated prematurely so
that their colleagues only found seven customers instead of the dozens
expected.
Cyril Smith was known to be one of the patrons of the Elm Guest House which overlooked Barnes Common
German-born
Carole Kasir and her Indian husband Haroon were both arrested. A
17-year-old youth — then under the legal age of homosexual consent — who
worked as a masseur on the site, was also detained but later released
without charge.
He
told Simon Danczuk that the 29st Cyril Smith was known at the guest
house as ‘Tubby’, and had once got wedged fast in a bath. We understand
that the former teenage masseur recently gave Operation Fernbridge
police a statement in which he said he had ‘massaged’ Smith at least
twice, worried that the massage table would collapse under his grotesque
weight.
In
May 1983, the Kasirs were convicted of keeping a disorderly house and
having obscene videos, and were each fined and given suspended jail
sentences. Interestingly, no charges relating to alleged paedophile
offences were brought.
Some
believe that the raid was launched to protect the powerful rather than
the innocent boys who were allegedly abused at the house.
Chris
Fay, a social worker who headed a child welfare charity, later claimed
that the officers leading the raid were Special Branch — which worked
alongside MI5 — rather than local officers.
‘Carole
Kasir had logbooks, names, times, dates, even pictures of people who
went in and out of Elm Guest House,’ he said. He has also claimed that
she spoke to him about her stash of compromising VIP photographs.
Fay
added that after the raid ‘[Carole Kasir] was held without charge for
three days, and you don’t do that on a run-of the-mill vice raid. There
was more to it than that.’
Whatever
the truth behind the raid, it saw the end of the Elm Guest House. From
then on, Carole Kasir’s life went downhill rapidly. Already a diabetic,
she began drinking heavily, and that is how she came to meet David
Issett, or so he claimed to us.
They
met in a pub in Barnes one day as Carole sat at the bar. She told him
he had ‘lovely eyes’ — one of the least credible claims in this story —
and before long he had moved into her flat in nearby Carmichael Road.
She
was estranged from her husband by then, said Issett, who says he was
working at the time for a local man, a property owner known as ‘Patsy’
Puddles.
On
Sunday morning, June 17, 1990, Carole Kasir, then 47, was found by a
friend, in bed at the Carmichael Road flat. She was dead, with ‘numerous
injections and phials of insulin’ lying about her. Two notes, addressed
to Issett and indicating suicide, were discovered in the property.
A sad but predictable end to a squalid life, it seemed. But her inquest that August was to prove sensational.
Cyril Smith pictured with his mother Eva
A
number of campaigners, including Chris Fay and a colleague of his
called Mary Moss, were in attendance and brought up the allegations of
organised child sex abuse at Elm Guest House.
Famous
people were named by some of those campaigners attending the inquest —
leading to stories in the Press linking an unidentified senior
politician to a sex ring. It was also alleged during the hearing that
before her death Kasir had been living in fear and felt she was being
watched.
The
local property owner ‘Patsy’ Puddles was identified at the inquest as
one of those who had allegedly threatened her. His name had also
appeared with Cyril Smith on the ‘VIP’ list of alleged customers at Elm
House.
The
coroner decided that the ‘conspiracy allegations threw doubt on the
accuracy of the suicide notes’, and adjourned the inquest for further
investigations.
Could Carole Kasir have been murdered?
In
terms of the mechanics of her death, while an insulin overdose has been
used as a means of suicide by diabetics (it causes a fatal drop in
blood sugar), the administration of a lethal overdose by another person
would be relatively easy in the case of an alcoholic diabetic in poor
health such as Carole Kasir.
Certainly the coroner was concerned about the circumstances surrounding her death.
David
Issett, who says he had split with Kasir some time before she died,
admitted to us that he had been forced to attend as a witness when the
inquest reconvened for a second hearing, ‘on pain of arrest’.
But
neither he nor any others were able to throw any more light on the
conspiracy allegations, and the coroner recorded a verdict of ‘suicide’,
with the cause of death being an insulin overdose.
There
the matter would have rested, but for tireless if not sometimes
controversial campaigning by the likes of Chris Fay and Mary Moss.
Carole Kasir was believed to have held logbooks
and compromising photographs of the VIP visitors to her guest house such
as Cyril Smith (pictured)
The
latter has said she believes Carole Kasir to have been murdered to shut
her up about the famous people who visited Rock’s Lane. But then she
also said she believed that Kasir knew nothing of the child sex abuse
allegations that were connected to the guest house.
Who
or what to believe? David Issett, who denied any wrongdoing, was
interviewed twice last year by Operation Fernbridge officers and, he
said, gave them a statement.
He
told us: ‘They kept firing names of Carole’s friends at me to see if I
knew them.’ He said his old boss ‘Patsy’ Puddles ‘might have known’
Carole, but vehemently denied Puddles would ever have been involved in
child abuse. Puddles has been dead for a number of years.
Issett also rubbished the suggestion that Kasir said she was being watched in the time before she died. He said her eyesight was too poor for her to have noticed.
And
yet when we visited the address where Kasir died, a former neighbour
said that the police had, in fact, set up a secret surveillance post in
one of the nearby flats, albeit some time before the death. The
neighbour had understood it was because police believed Kasir was
dealing drugs to children.
Police
have searched for, but been unable to find, evidence of the existence
of a stash of pictures of the rich and famous at Rock’s Lane.
It
remains a ‘secret’ which Carole Kasir took to her grave, but one to
which the Cyril Smith revelations have now lent a great deal more
credibility.
Cyril Smith: the predatory paedophile protected by establishment
For four decades Cyril Smith, the former Liberal MP, was free to abuse boys with impunity. How did he get away with it?.
Cyril Smith was free for decades to abuse boys Photo: REX FEATURES
When Simon Danczuk first arrived in Rochdale as a prospective Labour candidate
in 2006, he could not help but be impressed by Cyril Smith.
Although increasingly frail and supposedly "retired" from politics, Liberal
activists would still push the 29 stone former MP into the street on his
wheelchair where constituents would queue up to speak to him.
Mr Danczuk told The Telegraph: "I thought he was a good politician, I thought
he was smart. He got on with people, he could speak their language, he was
entwined with the public he represented."
However over the next six years Mr Danczuk, who became Labour MP for Rochdale
in 2010, came to realise that the public image that Smith so carefully
cultivated as a jovial and charming man of the people was far from the truth.
Instead he was confronted with irrefutable evidence that Smith was a predatory
paedophile who had used his power and influence to prey on hundreds of boys,
some as young as eight, for over four decades.
He and his researcher, Matt Baker, were told by victims and whistleblowers how
Smith had been protected by his own Liberal party, police and even the
security services. During his lifetime, Smith was apparently untouchable.
Mr Danczuk and Mr Baker have detailed the industrial scale of Smith's abuse and the decades long establishment cover up in his new book, Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith.
Last week, the welter of new revelations left the Liberal Democrats in disarray.
While Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said the allegations were "truly horrific", he claimed that he and his party knew nothing about the sex abuse allegations. He has refused to launch a new investigation.
Mr Danczuk says the Liberal Democrats have been "defensive, slippery and shifty". "They are a party in denial," he said. "I don't think they're fit for government. They are a small political party, I find it incredible that they are claiming that they didn't hear the rumours about Smith."
Mr Danczuk's book raises as many questions about Smith as it answers. How did Cyril Smith get away with it? Who in the establishment protected him? And was there a network of paedophiles operating in Westminster?
Victims reduced to 'quivering wrecks' by '29 stone bully'
On 13th November, 2012, Mr Danczuk made a speech in the Commons before a virtually deserted Commons naming Cyril Smith as a child abuser.
He admits to feeling "nervous" because he is "not a great parliamentary performer", but said he felt compelled to go public. “I knew I had to do get this message out there and let Rochdale have some comfort. It had been carrying this bloody secret for too long,” he said.
Mr Danczuk had been passed affidavits from eight boys abused by Smith at Cambridge House boys’ hostel in Rochdale in the 1960s. The statements made for grim reading.
Smith, who had helped found the hostel, was given "free rein" to administer punishments and took pleasure in spanking boys "for their own good" and also conducted "medical examinations" of the boys after asking them to pull down their pants and trousers.
His speech in the Commons was brief. "Young boys were humiliated, terrified and reduced to quivering wrecks by a 29-stone bully imposing himself on them," he said. "I call on the minister to do everything in his power to bring police files from previous investigations about Cyril Smith to light.”
In the house, Mr Danczuk's statement was met with virtual silence. Few MPs commented on it and it received little press coverage, coming shortly after the BBC falsely alleged that Lord McAlpine, the former Tory Party treasurer, was linked to sex abuse in children's care homes.
Back in Rochdale, however, the impact was seismic. Over the next few days Mr Danczuk and Mr Baker received numerous of calls from Smith's victims, who were overwhelmed to see their abuser finally named.
Mr Baker said: "We had a really powerful email from a victim who had said he had been at home having a cup of tea and flipping through the channels when he alighted on the Parliament Channel. He said he couldn't believe someone was talking about this."
Another victim from the Cambridge House made a personal visit to see Mr Danczuk and Mr Baker.
He said he had been abused by Smith as a boy,” he said. “He ended up at Cambridge House after his mother had died. He had a day off sick and had to be examined by Smith and was abused. He has lived with it for the whole of his life and still hasn’t told his wife.”
Smiths’s modus operandi was becoming increasingly clear. “He used his veneer of respectability to gain access to vulnerable boys who were easy targets,” Mr Danczuk said. “He took on a father figure role, and picked victims who were essentially voiceless with low self-esteem.”
Mr Danczuk’s office in Rochdale, which is streets away from where Smith once lived with his mother, also began to receive calls from former police officers who have spent years investigating Smith.
One officer revealed that the police had compiled a heavy dossier on Smith that had been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in 1979 but gone missing.
Another former officer said that he had been warned off questioning a teenager who had been abused by Cyril Smith by special branch.
Faced with growing evidence about Smith’s activities, Mr Danczuk chose to speak at Prime Minister’s questions, where he called on David Cameron to publish the police files on Smith and mount an investigation.
Mr Danczuk’s revelations became front-page news, and within days both Greater Manchester Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions admitted that Smith should have been prosecuted.
As the investigations into Smith widened as it emerged police had received 144 complaints from victims of the paedophile from across the country.
Some of the most serious were at the Knowl View school for boys with learning disabilities in the 1990s, where the local authority found that children were being put at risk of aids through liaisons with known sex offenders.
Smith was chairman of the governors, and former pupils recounted how they had been abused by the former Liberal MP after being summoned from their beds at the night. One whistleblower described the establishment, which was closed down, as a “sweet shop for paedophiles”.
Greater Manchester Police are now investigating 11 new suspects in relation to child abuse at the school. Mr Danczuk, however, believes that the ramifications of the scandal go far beyond Rochdale.
The Liberal Democrats are 'in denial'
For the Liberal Democrats, the revelations about Cyril Smith’s history of sex abuse have proved particularly difficult.
On Smith’s 80th birthday in 2008, Mr Clegg hailed him as a “beacon” and an “inspiration”, and said he was “deeply saddened” at his death two years later.
Last week, in response to Mr Danczuk’s book, Mr Clegg said that the allegations took place “well before the party I now lead even existed – in fact, took place before I even existed”.
He said that following Mr Danczuk’s 2012 speech in the Commons, Lib Dem whips had asked MPs and peers whether they were aware of the allegations.
They said that they knew nothing, despite evidence to the contrary.
In 1979 the Rochdale Alternative Press, a local magazine, published details of Smith’s abuse at Cambridge House. A spokesman for Lord Steel, then leader of the Liberal Party: "All he seems to have done is spanked a few bare bottoms."
Last year Lord Steel, who is now a Lib Dem peer, confirmed he had been aware of the allegations but accepted Smith’s denials. He last week threatened to sue a newspaper who confronted him about the allegations.
Mr Danczuk is now calling for a public inquiry into Smith because he says the Lib Dems cannot be trusted on the issue. “Nick Clegg has failed to show leadership on this,” he said. “It is pretty close to cowardice. In the 90s people went to jail over Tory sleaze, but nothing is happening here.”
The Labour MP is convinced, however, that that scandal goes deeper. One of the victims he contacted was abused by Smith at the Elm Guest House in south-west London in the 1980s.
Police are investigating allegations that the house was at the centre of a “VIP” paedophile ring frequented by politicians, high-ranking policeman and celebrities.
The victim told Mr Danczuk that he was surprised he was focusing his attentions on Smith when there was a “much bigger fish” who was a guest at the lodge, a politician who is still sitting in Parliament.
Mr Danczuk believes it is “inevitable” that the scandal will become public. “He was clearly giving the impression never mind Smith, what about this person,” he said. “There is someone higher up the food chain, much more important.”
For Mr Danczuk, the revelations about Smith are only the beginning.
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Mr Danczuk and Mr Baker have detailed the industrial scale of Smith's abuse and the decades long establishment cover up in his new book, Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith.
Last week, the welter of new revelations left the Liberal Democrats in disarray.
While Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said the allegations were "truly horrific", he claimed that he and his party knew nothing about the sex abuse allegations. He has refused to launch a new investigation.
Mr Danczuk says the Liberal Democrats have been "defensive, slippery and shifty". "They are a party in denial," he said. "I don't think they're fit for government. They are a small political party, I find it incredible that they are claiming that they didn't hear the rumours about Smith."
Mr Danczuk's book raises as many questions about Smith as it answers. How did Cyril Smith get away with it? Who in the establishment protected him? And was there a network of paedophiles operating in Westminster?
Victims reduced to 'quivering wrecks' by '29 stone bully'
On 13th November, 2012, Mr Danczuk made a speech in the Commons before a virtually deserted Commons naming Cyril Smith as a child abuser.
He admits to feeling "nervous" because he is "not a great parliamentary performer", but said he felt compelled to go public. “I knew I had to do get this message out there and let Rochdale have some comfort. It had been carrying this bloody secret for too long,” he said.
Mr Danczuk had been passed affidavits from eight boys abused by Smith at Cambridge House boys’ hostel in Rochdale in the 1960s. The statements made for grim reading.
Smith, who had helped found the hostel, was given "free rein" to administer punishments and took pleasure in spanking boys "for their own good" and also conducted "medical examinations" of the boys after asking them to pull down their pants and trousers.
His speech in the Commons was brief. "Young boys were humiliated, terrified and reduced to quivering wrecks by a 29-stone bully imposing himself on them," he said. "I call on the minister to do everything in his power to bring police files from previous investigations about Cyril Smith to light.”
In the house, Mr Danczuk's statement was met with virtual silence. Few MPs commented on it and it received little press coverage, coming shortly after the BBC falsely alleged that Lord McAlpine, the former Tory Party treasurer, was linked to sex abuse in children's care homes.
Back in Rochdale, however, the impact was seismic. Over the next few days Mr Danczuk and Mr Baker received numerous of calls from Smith's victims, who were overwhelmed to see their abuser finally named.
Mr Baker said: "We had a really powerful email from a victim who had said he had been at home having a cup of tea and flipping through the channels when he alighted on the Parliament Channel. He said he couldn't believe someone was talking about this."
Another victim from the Cambridge House made a personal visit to see Mr Danczuk and Mr Baker.
He said he had been abused by Smith as a boy,” he said. “He ended up at Cambridge House after his mother had died. He had a day off sick and had to be examined by Smith and was abused. He has lived with it for the whole of his life and still hasn’t told his wife.”
Smiths’s modus operandi was becoming increasingly clear. “He used his veneer of respectability to gain access to vulnerable boys who were easy targets,” Mr Danczuk said. “He took on a father figure role, and picked victims who were essentially voiceless with low self-esteem.”
Mr Danczuk’s office in Rochdale, which is streets away from where Smith once lived with his mother, also began to receive calls from former police officers who have spent years investigating Smith.
One officer revealed that the police had compiled a heavy dossier on Smith that had been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions in 1979 but gone missing.
Another former officer said that he had been warned off questioning a teenager who had been abused by Cyril Smith by special branch.
Faced with growing evidence about Smith’s activities, Mr Danczuk chose to speak at Prime Minister’s questions, where he called on David Cameron to publish the police files on Smith and mount an investigation.
Mr Danczuk’s revelations became front-page news, and within days both Greater Manchester Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions admitted that Smith should have been prosecuted.
As the investigations into Smith widened as it emerged police had received 144 complaints from victims of the paedophile from across the country.
Some of the most serious were at the Knowl View school for boys with learning disabilities in the 1990s, where the local authority found that children were being put at risk of aids through liaisons with known sex offenders.
Smith was chairman of the governors, and former pupils recounted how they had been abused by the former Liberal MP after being summoned from their beds at the night. One whistleblower described the establishment, which was closed down, as a “sweet shop for paedophiles”.
Greater Manchester Police are now investigating 11 new suspects in relation to child abuse at the school. Mr Danczuk, however, believes that the ramifications of the scandal go far beyond Rochdale.
The Liberal Democrats are 'in denial'
For the Liberal Democrats, the revelations about Cyril Smith’s history of sex abuse have proved particularly difficult.
On Smith’s 80th birthday in 2008, Mr Clegg hailed him as a “beacon” and an “inspiration”, and said he was “deeply saddened” at his death two years later.
Last week, in response to Mr Danczuk’s book, Mr Clegg said that the allegations took place “well before the party I now lead even existed – in fact, took place before I even existed”.
He said that following Mr Danczuk’s 2012 speech in the Commons, Lib Dem whips had asked MPs and peers whether they were aware of the allegations.
They said that they knew nothing, despite evidence to the contrary.
In 1979 the Rochdale Alternative Press, a local magazine, published details of Smith’s abuse at Cambridge House. A spokesman for Lord Steel, then leader of the Liberal Party: "All he seems to have done is spanked a few bare bottoms."
Last year Lord Steel, who is now a Lib Dem peer, confirmed he had been aware of the allegations but accepted Smith’s denials. He last week threatened to sue a newspaper who confronted him about the allegations.
Mr Danczuk is now calling for a public inquiry into Smith because he says the Lib Dems cannot be trusted on the issue. “Nick Clegg has failed to show leadership on this,” he said. “It is pretty close to cowardice. In the 90s people went to jail over Tory sleaze, but nothing is happening here.”
The Labour MP is convinced, however, that that scandal goes deeper. One of the victims he contacted was abused by Smith at the Elm Guest House in south-west London in the 1980s.
Police are investigating allegations that the house was at the centre of a “VIP” paedophile ring frequented by politicians, high-ranking policeman and celebrities.
The victim told Mr Danczuk that he was surprised he was focusing his attentions on Smith when there was a “much bigger fish” who was a guest at the lodge, a politician who is still sitting in Parliament.
Mr Danczuk believes it is “inevitable” that the scandal will become public. “He was clearly giving the impression never mind Smith, what about this person,” he said. “There is someone higher up the food chain, much more important.”
For Mr Danczuk, the revelations about Smith are only the beginning.
Source
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