Police to probe Cyril Smith cover-up claims

Greater Manchester Police are already investigating historical allegations of abuse at Knowl View School in Rochdale where the Liberal Democrat MP served as a governor.

Today chief constable Sir Peter Fahy said his detectives would also conduct a review into the cover-up claims as outlined in a recently published book by the town’s Labour MP Simon Danczuk.

Rochdale Council said it was also widening the scope of its own inquiry into the now-closed residential school in light of Mr Danczuk’s book, Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith.

It is understood a total of nine people have so far come forward to the police to say they were abused by adults at Knowl View from the 1970s onwards.

The complaints related to at least 11 potential suspects.

Speaking at a press conference at Rochdale Town Hall, Sir Peter said: “As a result of the publicity and the discussion around the book recently published about child abuse in Rochdale, we are carrying out a review into those allegations and into other matters of public debate around that book to see whether that justifies a criminal investigation into allegations of (a) cover-up.”

Police, spies and politicians covered up the child abuse carried out by Smith, according to Mr Danczuk’s book.

The 29st politician was left free to abuse children as young as eight despite 144 complaints by victims, the author claimed.

Smith had links to several schools in the town, including at Knowl View, where he was said to hold a set of keys to the establishment.

In November 2012, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said Sir Cyril abused young boys in the 1960s in his role as secretary of the Rochdale Hostel for Boys Association. He had been accused of abusing eight youngsters at Cambridge Hostel in the town by spanking and touching them.

Three separate files regarding Sir Cyril’s actions at Cambridge House were passed to the director of public prosecutions and the Crown Prosecution Service, although on each occasion no prosecution was pursued.

After that announcement GMP began looking at fresh claims of abuse at Knowl View, a council-run school for vulnerable boys which closed in the mid-1990s.

No arrests have yet been made as Sir Peter today appealed to anyone who had been abused or had information on a possible cover-up to come forward.

Sir Peter said: “There are a significant number of people we are trying to trace, obviously made more difficult by the passage of time.

“I would just like to point out that investigations into abuse are extremely difficult. They do take a long time because of, often, the damaged effects on the particular victims and the need for corroboration.

“But we are determined to do a very thorough investigation and obviously when we are carrying out investigations into abuse at institutions, clearly we look at the liability of those who may have been running those institutions.”

Referring to the cover-up allegations, he said: “Given the degree of public speculation around this particular book and the allegations made in it, we think it would clearly be strange if we did not look at that and carry out a review as to whether that justified a wider criminal investigation.”

In 2000, GMP carried out a “comprehensive investigation” into abuse claims at the school which led to the conviction of one man for indecent assault and gross indecency.

It was ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge any other individuals and no specific allegations were made at the time against Sir Cyril.

In January, Rochdale Borough Council announced an independent review into the council’s decision making in relation to the school would be carried out by Andrew Warnock QC.

Council leader Colin Lambert said “considerable progress” had been made in gathering information and identifying potential witnesses but added the review now needed to be extended.

He said: “In light of the serious allegations made in the last few weeks, we have decided in consultation with Mr Warnock that we now need to widen the scope of the review beyond the council’s decision making.

“It is clear that to ensure there is public confidence in the thoroughness of the review we must widen its scope to include a review of all information available to the council.

“We will therefore need to allocate substantially more resources and more time to enable a thorough review to be conducted. Of course any evidence obtained which is relevant to allegations of criminal activity will be forwarded to Greater Manchester Police.”

Neil Garnham QC will now take over the widened review into allegations that sexual or physical abuse of children took place at premises owned, managed or operated by the council from 1961 to 1995.

He will be tasked to identify whether there was a pattern to such abuse, whether it was tolerated, facilitated or promoted by the council or its officers and staff, and whether there was a culture at the council which “inhibited the proper investigation, exposure and prevention of such abuse”.

The council said it would have no role in the conduct of the review beyond the supply of documents.

It is hoped the report by Mr Garnham will be provided by the end of July.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier, Mr Danczuk said: “They (victims) would argue, and I have spoken to some of them, that the police should be concentrating very much on prosecuting their abusers and the council should be concentrating very much on sorting out compensation for them for the neglect the council put on them.

“We still haven’t seen any arrests, we don’t appear to be seeing any progress and yet we have this peculiar press conference being called this morning which doesn’t really move us any further forward in terms of taking potential paedophiles off the street.

“The police would be the first to argue that they have limited resources in terms of prioritising what action they need to take. Surely they should concentrate on arresting the abusers in this case rather than uncovering what was the cover-up.

“I agree that it is important to get to the bottom of that but I don’t think the police are getting their priorities right.”

Solicitor Alan Collins from law firm Slater & Gordon, who is representing six complainants against Smith, said: “Victims are not being consulted, despite constantly seeing their allegations repeated in the media.

“GMP has already said that if the same evidence was presented today there would have been a very realistic prospect that Smith would have been prosecuted and brought to trial, but no one in authority has taken full responsibility for the fact that the victims were let down and insulted.”

He added: “What the victims want is recognition, explanation and some compensation for their ordeal, although no amount of money could compensate them for what they had to endure. If an inquiry is needed my clients welcome it but it has to be open and transparent.”