Child abuse crusade MP’s career in peril over explicit texts he sent to girl aged 17
‘
My behaviour was inappropriate and I apologise... I was stupid and there’s no fool
’ like an old fool.
Simon Danczuk yesterday
CHILD abuse campaigner Simon Danczuk’s political career was in tatters yesterday after he admitted sending sexually explicit messages to a 17-year-old girl. The Rochdale MP, 49, who was hailed for exposing the predatory sexual behaviour of his predecessor Cyril Smith, was suspended by Labour after Sophena Houlihan told how he bombarded her with lewd texts after she inquired about a job.
The messages included Mr Danczuk asking whether she wanted him to ‘spank’ her and telling her he was ‘horny’.
The twice-married father-of-four – whose ‘selfie queen’ estranged wife Karen is notorious for sharing revealing shots on Twitter – apologised ‘unreservedly’ yesterday, saying ‘there’s no fool like an old fool’.
But as critics accused him of hypocrisy, Conservative MPs suggested he had been ‘stitched up’ by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, who had seized on the sordid episode as a means of taking revenge for his newspaper columns attacking the Labour leader.
Miss Houlihan is understood to have contacted Mr Danczuk, her local MP, in July to ask about doing case work in his constituency office, shortly after his high-profile split from Karen.
After exchanging messages for a month, he asked how old she was and on learning she was only 17 replied: ‘Good for you!’ But the messages became increasingly sexual and explicit, Miss Houlihan – now 18 – told The Sun. ‘When I first got in touch I never expected the messages to get so graphic,’ she told the newspaper. ‘At the time I played along with it, but now I feel like he duped me. I was keen for a career in politics and he is a very high-profile MP and I was in awe of him.’
Miss Houlihan told the paper his messages became more explicit in September, with Mr Danczuk asking her to accompany him on a trip to Spain and requesting a picture, to which she responded with a photograph of herself in a revealing white body suit.
When she joked that the garment would ‘look better on your bedroom floor’, he replied: ‘God help me.’
Later he sent her a message saying he was ‘horny’, while in another he asked ‘basically you want me to spank you?!’
In the end they never met, and Miss Houlihan told The Sun the online relationship began to fizzle out after he was publicly linked to Labour councillor Claire Hamilton.
Miss Houlihan could not be reached yesterday, but in a video posted on The Sun’s website last night she said: ‘I was only 17 at the time – that’s only a year older than the victims he was campaigning for.’
Mr Danczuk was reported to police earlier this week for ‘communicating inappropriately with a teenage girl’, but officers concluded no offence had been committed.
Miss Houlihan, who is understood to live with her mother in Rochdale and to have studied performing arts at Hopwood Hall College in the town, was keeping a low profile yesterday. But a glance at her social media profiles suggests that while she was only 17 at the time, she was not lacking in self-confidence in approaching men.
On one dating site, she describes herself as ‘a walking piece of art’, illustrating her profile with a selfie displaying her cleavage, and specifies that she is interested in men aged between 23 and 48. Elsewhere she is understood to have had a Facebook profile under the name Coco Ko kaine.
Labour acted swiftly by suspending Mr Danczuk while Miss Houlihan’s claims were investigated.
Mr Danczuk posted a series of contrite messages on Twitter. ‘Today’s Sun story, while not entirely accurate, refers to an extremely low point in my life,’ he wrote.
‘My behaviour was inappropriate and I apologise unreservedly to everyone I’ve let down. I was stupid and there’s no fool like an old fool.’
Mr Corbyn said the party’s National Executive Committee would carry
out the investigation independently, adding ‘it will not be down to me or any other individual to decide what happens’. Mr Danczuk will not take the Labour whip when Parliament returns next week. He will effectively sit as an independent until the NEC decides his fate.
But Tory MP Stewart Jackson said: ‘Simon Danczuk has obviously been foolish but he’s also been stitched up like a kipper by the Corbyn cronies in Labour.’
Following the break-up of his marriage, Mr Danczuk said his work to expose child sex abuse had left him depressed, revealing he was receiving psychiatric treatment. He also embarked on a very public relationship with Labour councillor Miss Hamilton – they were even pictured out together with Karen – but she dumped him after finding out about his messages to Miss Houlihan.
Mr Danczuk, Karen and Miss Hamilton all failed to respond to requests for a comment last night.