Prosecutor’s lies shielded Cyril Smith from child abuse claims

BRITAIN’S former top prosecutor lied about his knowledge of child sex abuse claims against Cyril Smith in an extraordinary cover-up involving MI5, an inquiry heard yesterday.

The MP was never prosecuted despite ‘sordid’ allegations of sexual and physical abuse of young boys unearthed by a police investigation halted by prosecutors in 1970.

Yesterday it emerged that the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions lied to the media about the decision not to press charges. It claimed not to know anything about the allegations in 1979.

Secret records submitted to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse have revealed that MI5 also knew prosecutors had ‘untruthfully told’ a reporter they had no record of the case.

But MI5 took no action as its role was ‘to defend the realm’, said Brian Altman, QC, counsel for the inquiry.

The inquiry also heard that then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was told about the claims against Smith before awarding him a knighthood in 1988.

Allegations about the 29st Liberal MP for Rochdale first surfaced in a bombshell police report in 1970.

It detailed alleged abuse at a boys’ hostel in Rochdale while Smith was on the local council.

Detective Superintendent Jeffrey Leach warned that he was ‘sheltering behind a veneer of respectability’.

Smith had ‘used his unique position to indulge in a sordid series of indecent episodes with young boys’, added the senior officer.

The report given to Lancashire’s chief constable in 1970 said allegations by children’s officers that Smith spanked boys’ bare bottoms and medically examined others ‘stood up’.

But Sir Norman Skelhorn, then the country’s top prosecutor, concluded that there was not enough evidence to prosecute.

Official records show that, nine years later, his successor, Sir Thomas Hetherington, telephoned MI5 in a panic after local reporter David Bartlett rang asking about the police file on the MP.

MI5 documents state: ‘After consultations the DPP’s press representative had untruthfully told Bartlett they had no record of this case.’

The Rochdale Alternative Press later published a series of articles alleging ‘bizarre medical inspection’ and beatings by Smith in May 1979.

It was not picked up by other media after prosecutors denied any knowledge of the case.

The inquiry was hearing the first day of evidence into historical claims involving council homes and schools in Rochdale.

It was told how Smith, who died of cancer in 2010, was ‘gatekeeper’ at the Cambridge House hostel, handpicking boys to go there.

Mr Altman pointed to a case in 1991 in which the MP apparently played a key role in removing a child from his family home.

Smith was given a knighthood despite knowledge ‘at the very highest level of politics’ about the allegations, the inquiry was told.

Mr Altman said the honour ‘only reinforced his veneer of respectability and power’.

The inquiry, in London, continues.