Home Secretary: Cyril Smith Cover-up Claims "Could Lead to Prosecutions"

By Alan Travis, Rajeev Syal and Matthew Weaver
The Guardian
March 17, 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/17/home-secretary-theresa-may-cyril-smith-cover-up-claims-shocking-prosecutions

‘It is important that the work is done thoroughly so there is no suggestion of a further cover-up,’ said Theresa May of the public enquiry into child abuse. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA

Theresa May has said the claims a police investigation into the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith was scrapped, and corruption blocked other historic police operations into child abuse, were “shocking and could lead to criminal prosecutions”.

The Conservative home secretary also told a committee of MPs on Tuesday she hoped immunity from prosecution under the Official Secrets Act will be offered to former police officers and intelligence agents who are prepared to testify about allegations of paedophile rings and other child sex abuse to the police, or to the government’s separate public inquiry.

May was speaking after a Newsnight report on Monday that an ex-detective had claimed Smith was arrested in the early 1980s as part of an investigation into child-sex parties, but was released hours later.

Officers were ordered to hand over notebooks and video footage from their undercover operation, the BBC programme claimed, and were told they would be violating the Official Secrets Act if they revealed what had happened.

Newsnight’s report came after Britain’s independent police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, announced on Monday it was investigating 14 referrals relating to allegations that Scotland Yard covered up child abuse from the 1970s to the 2000s.

“People will be very concerned about what has been suggested and will want to see justice being done in relation to this,” May told the Commons home affairs committee. “It is important that the work is done thoroughly so there is no suggestion of a further cover-up, or what seems to have been a cover-up.”

Officers who arrested Cyril Smith in the 1980s alleged they were told to keep quiet. Photograph: PA

She added: “It is important that the investigations are done properly and thoroughly so that, if criminal prosecutions are brought, they will stand up and there can be no suggestion or hint that the work is not being done properly so that it can be sidelined as has been done in the past.”

The government’s public inquiry will look into how public agencies including government bodies, police, hospitals, churches and the BBC handled child-abuse allegations. Two chairwomen were appointed and then rejected because of their connections to the Establishment. Last month Lowell Goddard, a judge from New Zealand, was selected to lead the probe.

May told MPs she had written to Goddard suggesting she ask the attorney-general to provide written undertakings that immunity from Official Secrets Act prosecutions will be offered to whistleblowers. A similar undertaking has already been provided to the official inquiry into child abuse allegations at the Kincora boys’ home in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.

She agreed with suggestions by Labour’s David Winnick that the investigation of an alleged cover-up of paedophile activity involving politicians and other senior figures had to be undertaken urgently and could not wait for the Goddard inquiry to get fully underway.

Former police officers who investigated sex abuse allegations against Smith believe he was protected by friends in the establishment who were concerned that others would be named too.

One former detective, who served with Lancashire police, told the Guardian any inquiry into abuse at a children’s home in Rochdale was thwarted because “Cyril had people placed at every level in Lancashire – across the police, the judiciary and in the council”.

Smith died in 2010, but another retired officer, Jack Tasker, told Sky News the investigation into his alleged child abuse at Cambridge House care home was stalled because “other people were rather worried that if Cyril Smith went before a court, he would open his mouth”.

The former officer from Lancashire police, who spoke to the Guardian anonymously, said that he knew of the claims against Smith in the 1970s and 1980s in Lancashire but officers knew not to pursue them. Despite allegations that abuse was happening at Knowl View, a home set up by Smith, they were never properly investigated, he said.

“Smith had been the mayor, he was the local MP, he helped set up Knowl View. A lot of people in power owed him favours. He was untouchable,” he said.

Smith was first investigated over abuse allegations in Lancashire in the late 1960s. Despite testimony from young boys at Cambridge House, the Crown Prosecution Service rejected the police file.

Tasker told Sky News that senior officers repeatedly prevented him from properly investigating the case, and that – if Smith had been prosecuted – the case could have led to the fall of the minority Labour government at the time.

He said: “I think he was guilty and I think he should have faced trial. I think circumstances since have probably proved I was right, we were probably right.”

He said he had interviewed the boys and had believed what they had told him, adding: “They were interviewed separately and all had similar stories. But we were warned not to go ahead or talk about it to anyone.”

May agreed with suggestions by Labour’s David Winnick that the investigation of alleged cover-up of paedophile activity involving politicians and other senior figures had to be undertaken urgently and could not wait for the Goddard inquiry to get fully underway.

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk said police officers had spoken of stand-up rows about being stopped from investigating alleged paedophiles. Photograph: Gary Calton for the Observer

Smith was accused of eight counts of sex abuse including six offences at a care home he set up in Rochdale but his family say he always denied the allegations.

Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, who exposed Smith as an abuser in parliament in 2012, said he had spoken to Metropolitan police officers in the past 24 hours and they had spoken of stand-up rows and swearing in the office about being stopped from investigating alleged paedophiles.

The Labour MP urged David Cameron to guarantee that officers who give evidence over the alleged paedophile ring in Westminster will not be prosecuted.

The government argues there is no need to change the law. In November, the home secretary said: “I’m very clear the Official Secrets Act should not get in the way of anybody giving evidence to the inquiry [into historical allegations of child abuse] or bringing forward evidence that is relevant to the issue. So if anybody is worried about the Official Secrets Act they should come forward and speak out.”

But Danczuk said officers were still frightened of coming forward. He said he had spoken to a former officer with the Met on Tuesday night, who claimed investigations into allegations of child abuse were halted because of the prominent individuals involved.

“He is concerned about his pensions and the fact that he has made a commitment not to talk about these investigations – they were sworn to secrecy,” he told the World at One.

Greater Manchester police are now investigating a cover-up around Smith in north west England.

They are also investigating claims that Liz Lynne, the former Lib Dem MP who followed Smith into the Rochdale seat, told her constituency aide to get rid of a document detailing a cover-up at the Knowl View children’s home in Rochdale, which closed in the mid-1990s. Lynne has denied all knowledge of the claims against her.