Inquiry call over child-sex dossier

GEOFFREY DICKENS: dossier

A LABOUR MP has called for a dossier of child abuse allegations compiled by former Saddleworth MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1985 to be made public.

Current Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk is urging former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, now Lord Brittan, to reveal the names listed in the documents given to him by the Oldham MP.

Mr Danczuk - who helped to expose the late Liberal Democrat Cyril Smith as a child abuser - has called for a Hillsborough-style inquiry into the historical allegations.

He labelled politics “the last refuge of child-sex abuse deniers” and said an inquiry would help to identify perpetrators.

Mr Dickens, Conservative MP for the former Littleborough and Saddleworth constituency from 1983 until his death in 1995, campaigned against a suspected paedophile ring he claimed to have uncovered in the early 1980s.

In 1983, Mr Dickens claimed there was a paedophile network involving “big, big names — people in positions of power, influence and responsibility” and threatened to name them in the House of Commons. He presented his findings to Mr Brittan and later named a former high-flying British diplomat on the floor of the House. He claimed he had received threats after doing so.

In 2012 police reopened their investigation into the allegations. MPs are now calling for Mr Dickens’ original dossier to be made public.

Mr Danczuk added: “It would be welcome if Lord Brittan stepped forward and shared his knowledge of the allegations.”

Lord Brittan said the Dickens dossier had been passed to police and not retained. The Home Office said it has not been able to locate the documents. A review concluded the documents in question had been handled properly by Home Office staff.