MP ‘assaulted sick youngster’

AN alleged victim of the late MP Cyril Smith has described being denied urgent medical attention for a ruptured appendix until the politician had finished ‘fondling’ him.

The man, speaking anonymously, told the national child abuse inquiry that he suffered both physical and sexual abuse when staying at the Cambridge House hostel in Rochdale as a teenager.

He said Smith, who was then a councillor in the town, had a close relationship with some of the managers during his residency in the 1960s, including Edith Saille.

On one occasion, he began suffering from severe abdominal pain and a high temperature – but no doctor turned up despite his request.

He told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which is examining decades of child protection failings at Rochdale institutions: “Then Cyril Smith turned up, he started prodding me around and then he started fondling and said to Mrs Saille ‘There is nothing wrong with him.’

“I ended up in Rochdale Infirmary with a ruptured appendix.”

He claimed abuse at the hands of the politician began almost as soon as he arrived at Cambridge House, telling the inquiry: “He was Cyril Smith - what could I do? I was 15 years old. I was scared **** less.”

Smith, he said, had close ties to the hostel and organised Christmas parties among other social functions.

The alleged victim arrived at Cambridge House when he was in his midteens and is one of a string of former residents to claim Smith abused them as boys.

Smith never faced prosecution before his death in 2010, despite enduring a political career dogged by police investigations and accusations of sexual abuse. The alleged victim expressed anger at the amount of time it took for his allegations to come to light.