How MP Cyril Smith got away with child abuse

How MP Cyril Smith got away with child abuse   
Thursday 12 September 2013 UK

During his lifetime Cyril Smith was one of the UK's best-known politicians. But a new investigation shows that security services held on to a file with evidence of the Liberal MP's child abuse.

But an investigation by Channel 4's Dispatches programme shows that UK security services held on to evidence of the Liberal MP's child abuse.

Ready to prosecute

In the late 1960s Lancashire police carried out several investigations into Smith's behaviour, compiling an 80-page file. The suggestion is that police were ready to prosecute.

However, veiled threats from local Liberals - including Jack McCann, Smith's predecessor as MP for Rochdale, who spoke to the DPP on Smith's behalf - meant the case was dropped and the file locked away in a safe at Special Branch, which has responsibility for national security.... http://www.channel4.com/news/cyril-smith-child-abuse-mi5-rochdale-elm