Sickening folly of the Left who aided his cause
FOR a long time, I struggled to comprehend how Cyril’s influence had allowed him to escape the law for so long. Then I got a call from a former officer with the Metropolitan Police.
There was, he said, a simple explanation. His enormous working- class appeal left the Director of Public Prosecutions worried that Cyril might be able to do something remarkable if he went to trial — win public sympathy for paedophilia.
This sounds incredible now, but as the former police officer went on to explain: ‘They knew how popular he was in Rochdale and thought it might backfire. They thought ladies in Rochdale would be offering their children up in a show of support.’
My head was spinning at the thought. It sounded complete lunacy. But if you followed this story down the rabbit hole into the Seventies Wonderland you quickly had to acknowledge there were more than a few advocates for paedophilia.
The Paedophile Liberation Front and the Paedophile Information Exchange were two of the more highprofile liberation campaigns that sprung up at the time, seeking to reclassify paedophilia as ‘intergenerational relationships’.
One of the leading members of the Paedophile Information Exchange was the British diplomat, Sir Peter Hay-
Cyril Smith was part of a London paedophile ring
man, who was later jailed. These weren’t simply loony fringe sects. As has been exposed by the Mail, they were affiliated to the National Council of Civil Liberties (NCCL), now known as Liberty, and would pop up frequently in the media.
Part of their strategy, as their chairman Keith Hose freely admitted, was to ‘seek out as much publicity for the organisation as possible’ and ‘the only way to get more paedophiles joining PIE’ was ‘to make paedophilia a real public issue’. In this they succeeded.
They had as many as a thousand members, and were influential. In 1978 they sent every Member of Parliament a copy of their booklet, Paedophilia: Some Questions And Answers.
The national media reported on their views and the NCCL seemed sympathetic. Most alarmingly, a letter published in the NCCL house magazine, Rights, in 1982, argued that more needed to be done to champion paedophile rights. ‘Consensual sex between adults and children is simply people of different age groups being nice to each other,’ the author claimed.
Worryingly, it seemed that a fair few on the Left, including some who have subsequently become key figures in the Labour Party were fooled into giving this hideous group shelter. [Former Blair ministers Patricia Hewitt and Harriet Harman, plus current shadow minister Jack Dromey, were all recently identified by the Mail as senior figures in the NCCL when it was linked to PIE].
All of which helped Cyril’s cause and kept him hidden f r om scrutiny.
It seems unthinkable now, but groups like these tried to water down parliamentary Bills which were intended to protect children from child abusers, and academics loudly championed their cause. Cambridge professor Donald West was among those l eading the charge of the child sex abuse lobby. It was ‘unwise’, he argued, ‘to overdramatise institutional abuse’.
With this sickening liberal wind behind them, it was hardly surprising that ugly networks quickly grew to protect and provide for paedophiles of a high social status. Secret parties, underground grooming activities and vile associations all developed out of these thriving networks.
The Elm Guest House in Barnes, South-West London, soon became the centre of a VIP paedophile ring. But although it was raided by the Vice Squad in 1982, allegations of child a buse were never followed up.
Only after r ecent political pressure in Parliament has a police investigation finally started to look into allegations of boys being trafficked from a nearby care home run by Richmond Council, to be abused at this guest house by a paedophile ring.
There has been much speculation as to who was part of this sordid club, but the Metropolitan Police confirmed that Cyril Smith was a visitor.
I found eyewitness proof of this when I was passed the details of someone who was forced to work at Elm Guest House in the early Eighties as a masseur.
‘He knows all about Cyril,’ my source told me. ‘See if he’ll speak to you.’
The man, who was 16 at the time and understandably doesn’t want to be named, answered straight away. ‘ How did you get my number?’ he demanded. There was fear in his voice.
He warned me of the dangers of digging too deep into what went on at Elm Guest House. ‘The police told me not to say anything about
A witness said she’d tell all. She was found dead
it. You know what happened to Carole, don’t you?’
Carole Kasir ran Elm Guest House from 1979 to 1982. Paedophiles from all over the country would attend parties there and boys were sexually abused. It was raided by police in 1982 and shut down. Years later, Kasir threatened to expose all the people who’d attended her parties. Soon afterwards she was found dead of an insulin overdose.
The fear in the former masseur’s voice is genuine and not for the first time I wonder whether victims of abuse can ever feel safe no matter how much distance they put between themselves and their abusers.
I learned that Cyril had visited Elm Guest House several times for sessions with this 16-year-old lad. He liked to receive oral sex. On one occasion ‘Tubby’, as he was nicknamed, got stuck in the sauna and had to be hoisted out.
Another victim has gone public to say that Cyril had a friendship with notorious paedophile and founding member of the Paedophile Information Exchange, Peter Righton, who co-authored a book, Perspectives On Paedophilia, which championed the right of adults to have sex with children.
Cyril was part of a bigger story and I’m sure he wasn’t the only high- profile f i gure, or even politician, involved in preying on and abusing young boys all over the country.