Steel: I put Cyril up for knighthood... 9yrs after his paedophile confession

FORMER Liberal leader David Steel has admitted he nominated depraved Cyril Smith for a knighthood nine years after he apparently confessed to sexually abusing children.

The peer said under oath yesterday that he had asked

Smith in 1979 about claims he abused boys at a Rochdale hostel in the 1960s, while a

Labour councillor.

While Lord Steel did not dispute Smith had confessed to abusing boys in the 1960s, he said he did not believe he was still offending when they spoke. He told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse he came away from the conversation with Smith “assuming” he had committed the offences because he did not deny them. Lord Steel said: “He accepted the story was correct.

“Obviously I disapproved but as far as I was concerned it was past history.” In 1988, Lord Steel nominated Smith for a knighthood, something he has since said he was “perfectly happy” to do. But giving evidence, he denied “hiding his head in the sand” over the abuse.

He said: “These allegations all related to a period some years before he was even an MP and before he was a member of the party. It did not seem I had any position in the matter at all.”

Smith, MP for Rochdale between 1972 and 1992, is accused of sexually abusing a number of boys. He died in 2010.

EVIDENCE Steel speaks at inquiry LIBERAL ALLIES Smith with Steel at 1979 conference