Smith stripped of civic honour

Former Rochdale MP Cyril Smith

Councillors in Rochdale have backed a proposal to strip their former Member of Parliament of the Freedom of the Borough after he was accused of carrying out sexual abuse on a number of children over two decades.

Cyril Smith, who died in 2010, was given the honour back in 1992, but since his death numerous people have come forward alleging the politician sexually abused them while they were at one of two schools in the borough.

Several victims told how the 29-stone politician, who was knighted in 1988, attacked them while they were at Knowl View School and Cambridge House boys hostel between the 1960s and 1980s.

In a full Council meeting yesterday (Wednesday) councillors voted unanimously to strip him of the Freedom of the Borough.

Leader of the local authority, Allen Brett, said: “Contrary to reports, we have listened very hard to what victims of abuse say to us.

"As the report makes clear, we are doing this meeting and listening to a survivor of abuse.”

It was expected that the local authority would remove the Freedom of the Borough, a move backed by the current MP, Tony Lloyd.

He said he hopes the decision will bring some comfort to those who have been victims of Smith’s abuse.

“Hopefully this does send out a strong signal, even though very, very late on, that they were wronged, they were and have become survivors of what made them victims and I hope it does give them some recognition that society is on their side and not on the side of those who committed crime.”

A report presented to the local authority did warn that if they failed to rescind the Freedom of the Borough it ran the risk of undermining the prestige of the Council’s highest civic honour.

However, with the overwhelming support for removing Smith from the list, it appears that hasn’t been the case.

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