Why the police won’t talk about Cyril Smith, child sex abuse and corruption

Cyril Smith at a street party in 1985.

Can it be true? Were detectives, who had firm evidence of child sex abuse against the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith and others in high office, threatened with the Official Secrets Act if they did not drop the case? Was a scandal quietly covered up with the connivance of the police, the intelligence services and senior politicians?

The allegation, made anonymously to BBC’s Newsnight by a police whistleblower, is the latest piece to be added to the grim jigsaw puzzle of sexual abuse that is finally emerging.

Smith was supposedly arrested at an underage sex party during the investigation in the early 1980s but released within hours of being taken to a police station. The detectives were then apparently ordered to hand over all their incriminating notebooks and video footage and warned to keep their mouths shut or face prosecution.

The allegation that there was a circle of privileged men – politicians and police officers among them – who were able to abuse young men and boys with impunity have been circulating for a number of years. Why has it taken so long for them to be addressed, as now finally seems to be happening?  (more...)

Why the police won’t talk about Cyril Smith, child sex abuse and corruption