20 say: We were Cyril Smith’s sex victims

Twenty people have now claimed they were victims of sexual abuse by former Rochdale MP Sir Cyril Smith.

At least one victim has told detectives he was raped by the 29-stone politician, whose alleged child sex abuse activities at Knowl View School, a children’s home in Rochdale, spanned nearly three decades.

Smith is alleged to have preyed on youngsters both at Knowl View, where five complainants have come forward, and another school in Rochdale for difficult children, Cambridge House, where 10 complainants have spoken to police. Another five say they were abused at various other locations, all in the Greater Manchester area.

Police are talking to lawyers about the charges Smith would have faced if he was still alive, to give “closure and clarity” to victims. All the offences are said to have happened between 1960 and 1987.

Smith, who died in 2010, was the subject of allegations and investigations over decades during his career, first as a prominent local councillor in Rochdale and later as the town’s Liberal MP. He was never prosecuted.

An investigation, Operation Clifton, has been launched by GMP to find out if corruption by police, Rochdale councillors or council officers played a part in any alleged cover-up at Knowl View.

Such is the scale of child sexual abuse now being uncovered, around 50 detectives, about a quarter of GMP’s major incident team, are working on historical sex abuse cases.