Key findings – what the

THE Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) published a report many people have waited years to see.

Its investigation into four decades of abuse in Rochdale, including by the late MP Cyril Smith and on the streets of the town, issued a damning verdict on former council leader Richard Farnell, finding that he ‘lied under oath’.

But the wider inquiry is about the victims, what they went through between the 1960s and mid-1990s, and why the abuse was not stopped or prevented.

Here we run through some of the report’s key findings, including the abuse that was taking place right outside the window of the town hall’s social services department.

●●CYRIL SMITH AND ●●CAMBRIDGE HOUSE

The late Liberal MP Cyril Smith was not the entire focus of the inquiry.

But he was the ‘starting point’.

IICSA outlines his considerable power within the town – even while still a councillor in the 1960s – and his close involvement with the council’s decisions over where children would be placed in care.

It focuses on his activities at the Cambridge House boys hostel in Rochdale, set up by the Rochdale Hostel for Boys Association – of which he was honorary secretary – in 1962.

It heard the testimonies of several men who described assaults and molestations carried out by him under the pretext of medical examinations at Cambridge House.

When questioned about the allegations in 1970, Smith said that he had been acting ‘in loco parentis’ to the boys there.

“But we found it inexplicable that he thought his role permitted ‘medical examinations’ when he had no medical qualifications,” finds the report.

“He had considerable control over which boys were admitted to the hostel and, in general, showed a strong, perhaps unduly detailed, interest in children in care as his political career developed.

“This interest appeared to go unchallenged by the council.” ●●THE SMITH STREET TOILETS

By the late 1980s the Smith Street toilets, across the road from the town hall’s social services department – and visible from its window – had become a well-known place for grown men ‘from all over the north west’ to seek out sex with young boys, including youngsters from the council’s own Knowl View school.

“Sexual exploitation of children from the school at Smith Street public toilets was known about by the authorities from at least 1989,” finds the report.

“Indeed, some social services staff could see the toilets from their offices, recognised some of the boys as children in care and were deeply suspicious of what was going on, although there was no apparent follow-up... boys as young as 11 were not seen as victims, but as authors of their own abuse.”

Police ‘did not turn a blind eye’ to this abuse but were unable to get enough evidence to prosecute, it says.

However, there was ‘no satisfactory answer’ as to why they did not charge the men involved, despite knowing the names of perpetrators and having spoken to victims.

●●KNOWL VIEW

The now-notorious Knowl View school – which was run by the council between 1969 and 1996 – ‘failed in its basic function’ to keep children with special educational needs safe.

Despite widespread abuse within the school by pupils and paedophiles, staff did little or nothing about it, the report finds.

Meanwhile, the council’s handling of appalling abuse at the school draws scathing criticism from the inquiry.

As well as slamming the then-leader Richard Farnell for having ‘lied’ to it over what he knew, the report also finds two directors of social services seriously wanting.

Ian Davey, the acting director of social services in the late 1980s, for failing to pursue child protection concerns formally, and his successor Diana Cavanagh, who did think action needed to be taken, but allowed matters to drift.

By 1992, the matter was still drifting, it finds, including under the council leadership of