Revealed: Rochdale spanker Cyril Smith’s links to Jimmy Savile and the BBC
WE told you Sir Cyril Smith was next. The former Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale and former Labour Party councillor (oh, dread place), who died in 2010, was long rumoured to have been a paedophile. Labour MP Simon Danczuk, whose posterior now occupies the Rochdale constituency, told the House of Commons: “Young boys were humiliated, terrified and reduced to quivering wrecks by a 29st bully imposing himself on them.”
In 2010, before news reached us that the gargantuan MP had had a sports centre named after him, we reported the claim that former LibDem leader David Steel’s Press Office was quoted as saying on 22nd April 1979: ” …all he seems to have done is spanked a few bare bottoms.”
We told you:
The original complaint concerned a resident of Cambridge Boys Hostel, Castlemere Street, Rochdale (it closed in 1965) . Eventually 7 people made complaints. One said: “… he took me into the quiet Room. He told me to take my trousers down and bend over his knee…” Another one claimed: “Cyril Smith found out I had taken some money . He asked me if I would accept his punishment or be dealt with by the authorities…” Another alleged: “He told me to take my trousers and pants down. He held my testicles and told me to cough”…
The Rochdale Raw blog wrote in 2009 – when Smith was alive – that claims had been levelled against him in Rochdale’s Alternative Paper (RAP). The story was called “The Strange Case of Smith the Man”.
Interestingly, RAP claims The Rochdale Observer “NEVER mentioned a word of the scandal“. Smith never sued RAP nor Private Eye, which published the allegations in 1979. That means little. Suing shines a light on the matter. It makes everyone wonder if there is fire behind the smoke. It raises the profile of the accuser. Not every untruth printed has been challenged in court. Some people just laugh it off.
But was the local paper too close to Smith? The Rochdale Observer is owned by Trinity Mirror. The Mirror notes:
A Lancashire Constabulary spokesman said they were not planning to investigate the matter as there are no current allegations pending.
Trinity Mirror bought the Rochdale Observer from The Guardian Media Group as part of a package that included the Manchester Evening News and 21 weeklies for £44.8m in 2010. Did the last owners ignore Smith’s alleged paedophilia? The new owners seem keen to go after Smith. In 2008, the Mirror wanted Smith stripped of his knighthood. No, nothing to do with paedos. This was about his “past dealings with Turner & Newall – once the world’s largest asbestos giants”. It was “his cosy relationship with a merchant of death”.
Rochdale Raw notes about Cambridge Boys Hostel:
The hostel was founded by local Rotarians- the apparent great and good of the town- influential businessmen and politicians with links to Freemasonry.
Freemasons! More on that here.
Smith raised money for charity. One portrait of Smith was sold in 2008. The money went to – irony of ironies – the NSPCC.
Rochdale Raw adds that in the late 1960’s “Cyril Smith was questioned at Rochdale Police Station regarding accusations of serious sexual abuse”. If so, where are the records of that?
But perhaps most intriguingly of all, the Mirror also reported:
Close friend Eileen Kershaw, 75 – mum of BBC 6 Music radio DJ Liz Kershaw – said: “I saw Cyril in hospital a few months ago and he was wasting away and down to 10 stone. All his organs were failing.”
When she was asked about unproven allegations of inappropriate behaviour with young boys, she said: “I don’t know to this day if it was true or not but it took a lot out of him. He was round our house every day while he was fighting it. He was taking loads of Valium.”
Liz Kershaw… The same Liz Kershaw who told us in light of Jimmy Savile being unveiled as a predatory paedophile that she had been groped on air in a BBC studio?
Former Radio 1 DJ Liz Kershaw has claimed she was groped while broadcasting in the 1980s. Ms Kershaw, now a presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music, said one Radio 1 presenter “routinely groped” her during her time at the station…. She added everyone in Radio 1 “joked about Jimmy Savile and young girls”…Ms Kershaw, 54, who joined Radio 1 in 1987, said the station had changed out of all recognition since the 1980s.
She described the atmosphere at Radio 1 at the time as “intimidating”. She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she remembered the unnamed presenter fondling her breasts while she was on live radio. “I couldn’t say anything, I couldn’t even exclaim because I was broadcasting to the nation,” she said. When I complained to somebody they were incredulous and said ‘Don’t you like it? Are you a lesbian?”‘
All revolting stuff.
Posted: 13th, November 2012 | In: Key Posts, Politicians Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
