Cyril Smith led a ring of abusers who launched night-time raids of a school for vulnerable boys

Today Knowl View is the site of penthouse apartments, with juliet balconies looking out onto the Pennines. But before the developers moved in, this was Cyril Smith’s vile playground, where the lives of vulnerable young men were scarred and, in some cases, destroyed.

Cyril was at the official ceremony when the 50-bed residential school for children with learning difficulties was opened in 1969. It was closed by Rochdale Council in 1994 — and, when the bulldozers levelled it, every last trace of what had happened there was carefully erased.

But memories are not so easily obliterated, and one brave man in particular has fought to make sure that the horrors of Knowl View are not forgotten.

Martin Digan started there as a social worker in the late Seventies. He did his job without any concerns for years. It was only when he was promoted to head of care that he realised dreadful things were going on unchecked.  (more...)

Cyril Smith led a ring of abusers who launched night-time raids of a school for vulnerable boys

One chilling account:

The boy handed into Cyril Smith's clutches by his parents to be disciplined

Birds of a feather:

Surprise, surprise: He was also friends with someone else who abused his position to access young boys

And the denials:

MPs and child campaigners scorn Clegg for claiming that he was too young to know about his abuse

MP who lifted lid on Cyril Smith abuse blasts the 'extraordinary bias' of BBC's coverage of the scandal

Clegg says he didn't know about the Cyril Smith abuse claims. How can that be true?