Chance to prosecute late MP Smith was lost, says inquiry

ROCHDALE: Probe says authorities showed ‘lack of urgency’ over abuse

Authorities in Rochdale showed a “total lack of urgency” to address the sexual exploitation of boys at a council-run school who were regarded as “authors of their own abuse”, a report has found.

Pupils at now-closed Knowl View residential school were also sexually exploited in the town centre, the bus station and at public toilets across the road from the borough council’s offices over a 20-year period.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) panel also found a “valuable opportunity” was missed to prosecute the town’s former Liberal MP, Cyril Smith, during his lifetime in the late 1990s

Publishing its report yesterday, IICSA concluded that from 1989 onwards the police, Rochdale Council’s social services and education departments, as well as staff at Knowl View, knew youngsters were being subjected to sexual exploitation for money in public toilets.

The panel found: “The records of individual children convey a total lack of urgency on the part of the relevant authorities to address the problem and treat the matters involved for what they were – serious sexual assaults.”

It ruled there was no “deliberate cover-up” by the authorities involved but said instead there was a “careless and wholly inadequate response”.

IICSA also looked into the involvement of the late politician Smith at Cambridge House boys’ hostel in Rochdale and found a “valuable opportunity” to prosecute him in 1999 was lost.

Smith, a prominent councillor before he represented the town in Parliament from 1972 to 1992, acted as a governor for several Rochdale schools, including Knowl View.

From 1997 onwards, Greater Manchester Police investigated allegations of physical and sexual abuse in residential homes, with the Lancashire Police file concerning Smith and a further witness statement submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service in 1998.

Two additional statements were submitted in 1999.

The IICSA panel said the CPS branch crown prosecutor advised Smith should not be charged despite coming to the view there was a “realistic prospect of conviction”.

The panel said: “His review of that advice in 1999 did not consider that those new complaints were capable of lending further support to the case. A valuable opportunity was, therefore, lost to prosecute Smith during his lifetime, and for the complainants to seek justice.”

The records of individual children convey a total lack of urgency on the part of the relevant authorities to address the problem

Picture: PA. Late Rochdale MP Cyril Smith could have been prosecuted over abuse allegations in 1999 but the Crown Prosecution advised against it, a report has found.