Quote:16 March 2015 Last updated at 22:30

Share this page

• Email
  
• Print
  

1.7K

• Share
  
• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  

Cyril Smith child abuse inquiry 'scrapped after his arrest'

By Nick Hopkins and Jake MorrisBBC NewsnightJump media player
Media player help

Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.


According to a former officer, police were told to hand over all their evidence, as Nick Hopkins reports

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Thatcher 'told of Smith abuse claims'
  
• Three Cyril Smith probes 'halted'
  
• 'Threats' made to Cyril Smith police
  

An undercover police operation that gathered evidence of child abuse by Cyril Smith and other public figures was scrapped shortly after the MP was arrested, BBC Newsnight has been told.
The Liberal MP, who died in 2010, was held during a 1980s probe into alleged sex parties with teenage boys in south London, a source told the programme.
He was allegedly released within hours of being taken to a police station.
The Met is looking into the handling of historical child sex abuse cases.
The force would not comment on the details of the allegations about Smith put to them by Newsnight.
A spokesman said it was "investigating allegations that police officers acted inappropriately in relation to non-recent child abuse investigations" however, and asked for anyone with information to come forward.
'Secrets act' warningInformation has been passed to Newsnight by a former officer, who is familiar with the original investigation and its closure.
The order to scrap the inquiry, made after Smith and others had been arrested, came from a senior officer whom the undercover team had never met before, according to the source.
Officers were then ordered to hand over all their evidence - including notebooks and video footage - and were warned to keep quiet about the investigation or face prosecution under the Official Secrets Act, it is claimed.
Newsnight has been told the intelligence-led operation is believed to have started in 1981.
It involved a team of undercover regional crime squad officers, including some from Yorkshire who were based in London for the secret inquiry.
Part of the early 1980s investigation focused on Coronation Buildings in Lambeth
The detectives were stationed at Gilmour House, a large police headquarters building in Kennington, south London.
The team allegedly targeted six or more addresses in the south of the capital. One focus was a flat in Coronation Buildings, Lambeth - a run-down tenement block less than a mile from the House of Commons.
During a three-month inquiry, officers working in shifts gathered a substantial amount of evidence of men abusing boys aged about 14, the BBC has been told.
That evidence included pictures and video taken from inside the flat, as a hidden camera had been installed with the help of a caretaker.
Smith is said to have been one of those caught on camera, another being a senior member of Britain's intelligence agencies.
According to an account given to the BBC, Smith was later seized at a property in Streatham, south London, where he had reportedly been taking part in a sex party with teenage boys.
It is understood he was taken to the former Cannon Row police station - which is opposite the House of Commons.
But it was claimed he was released that night and a duty sergeant who wanted to keep him in custody was reprimanded.
The Met says it is "investigating allegations that police officers acted inappropriately in relation to non-recent child abuse investigations"
The BBC has been told that as well as Smith and the member of the intelligence agencies, the undercover team also had evidence on two senior police officers.
The squad believed that boys from care homes were being provided "to order" for sex parties, but the inquiry was abruptly shelved, the BBC has been told.
The team was called together at Gilmour House and told by a senior officer - whom they had never met before - to hand over their notebooks, photographs and video footage.
They were read passages from the Official Secrets Act to deter them from speaking out, according to one account.
There was a row at the police building but the inquiry was closed and officers were assured Smith "would not be playing a role in public life any more". In fact, he continued as MP for Rochdale until 1992.
Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

It is my view that Smith was being protected - and he was being protected by some fairly powerful people"

Labour MP Simon Danczuk
Newsnight's source spoke to the programme through an intermediary and is fearful of repercussions because of the scale of the alleged cover-up.
The BBC first approached the Met about the claims in January, but the force has refused to be drawn into providing details on any live inquiry.
Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP who has worked to expose Cyril Smith as a prolific paedophile, said: "Time and again what we have learned more recently is that a number of police officers investigated Smith, up and down the country, and those investigations were quashed and officers were told to stop investigating.
"It is my view that Smith was being protected and being protected by some fairly powerful people.
"He was protected because he knew of other paedophiles in the networks in which he operated and had he been prosecuted, then I think those other people would have been named by Smith and that's why they ensured that he was never put before the courts."
Labour MP Simon Danczuk has investigated child abuse by Cyril Smith
Newsnight asked former Scotland Yard detective Clive Driscoll, who investigated claims of child abuse in Lambeth in the 1980s and 1990s, to examine the allegations.
"I looked at them as I probably would have done when I was a police officer and, on the balance of probabilities, you would have to say they appear very credible," said Mr Driscoll, the officer whose inquiry led to the conviction of Stephen Lawrence's killers.
"Certainly the timing and the type of allegations that are made are ones that the Met would take very, very seriously."
He described the claimed as "very credible and very frightening".
"If you take all of the information that appears to be out there together it does look like collusion with police officers and other agencies to prevent what is a straightforward criminal case," he added.
Labour MP John Mann, who was also a councillor in Lambeth in the 1980s, said of the allegations: "It tells me the cloak of secrecy needs to be taken away but also suggests that there were people with things to hide at the time.
"For whatever reason, whatever judgement was made, there was a cover-up at the time. I don't know why, but it has happened time and again looking at these historic sex abuse cases and prominent people that files disappeared."
Watch Nick Hopkins's report on Newsnight or on BBC iPlayer.

Quote:

Breakdown Of IPCC Investigations

We'll update this.
We're assuming all are Met related and that the IPCC complaints do not relate to ongoing police investigations.
Caveat: These are our best guesses.
1) Lambeth and Cyril Smith HERE Allegation of a potential cover up around failures to properly investigate child sex abuse offences in South London and further information about criminal allegations against a politician being dropped.
2) Complaint made by John Mann MP HERE - Allegation that aninvestigation involving a proactive operation targeting young men in Dolphin Square, was stopped because officers were too near prominent people.
3) Peter Righton HERE - Allegation that a document was found at an address of a paedophile that originated from the Houses of Parliament listing a number of highly prominent individuals (MPs and senior police officers) as being involved in a paedophile ring and no further action was taken.
4) Allegation that an account provided by an abuse victim had been altered to omit the name of a senior politician.
5) Hayman and PIE covictions HERE Allegation that an investigationinto a paedophile ring, in which a number of people were convicted, did not take action in relation to other more prominent individuals
6) Willie Whitelaw HERE Allegations that a politician had spoken with a senior MPS officer and demanded no action was taken regarding a paedophile ring and boys being procured and supplied to prominent persons in Westminster in the 1970s.
7) Cyril Smith HERE Allegation that in the late 1970s a surveillance operation that gathered intelligence on a politician being involved in paedophile activities was closed down by a senior MPS officer.
8) Don Hale Allegation Re: Barbara Castle file HERE Allegation that a dossier of allegations against senior figures and politicians involved in child abuse were taken by Special Branch officers.
9) Op Hedgerow HERE - Allegations that a surveillance operation of a child abuse ring was subsequently shut down due to high profile people being involved.
10) Leon Brittan HERE Allegations of child sex abuse against a senior politician and a subsequent cover-up of his crimes.
11) Allegations that during a sexual abuse investigation a senior officer instructed the investigation be halted and that that order had come from up high' in the MPS.
12) Cyril Smith HERE Allegation of a conspiracy within the MPS to prevent the prosecution of a politician suspected of offences.
13) Allegations against a former senior MPS officer regarding child sex abuse and that further members of the establishment including judges were involved. It is claimed that no further action was taken.
14) EGH/ Lee Towsey allegations HERE Allegation that police officers sexually abused a boy and carried out surveillance on him. Further allegations of financial corruption in a London borough police force.

Quote:

UK judges sacked after viewing pornography on computers in their offices

• 
  By Lewis Dean
  March 17, 2015 10:14 GMT
  
• 
  

Three UK judges have been sacked and one has resigned after viewing pornography on work computers in their officesGetty
Three judges - including one who jailed a Peterborough teacher for downloading child pornography - have been sacked and one has resigned after they viewed pornographic material on their computers in their offices.
District Judge Timothy Bowles, immigration Judge Warren Grant and, deputy district Judge and Recorder Peter Bullock were sacked following an investigation into alleged misconduct while a fourth judge, Recorder Andrew Maw, resigned before he too was dismissed.
In 2004, Maw jailed biology teacher Matthew Curtis for eight months after he downloaded 17 illegal images, including nine images that showed adults sexually abusing children.
Their removal followed complaints to the udicial Conduct Investigations Office, the body that assesses whether the complaint falls within the system.
More than half do not because they are complaints about judicial decisions rather than judicial conduct.
A spokesperson for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said: "Three judges: District Judge Timothy Bowles; Immigration Judge Warren Grant; and, Deputy District Judge and Recorder Peter Bullock; have been removed from judicial office following an investigation into an allegation that they viewed pornographic material on judicial IT equipment in their offices.
"The Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice were satisfied that the material did not include images of children or any other illegal content, but concluded that this was an inexcusable misuse of their judicial IT accounts and wholly unacceptable conduct for a judicial office holder.
"A fourth judge, Recorder Andrew Maw, was also found to have viewed similar inappropriate material via his judicial IT account.
"The Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice would likewise have removed Recorder Maw had he not resigned before the conclusion of the disciplinary process. The judges were not linked in any way."
It is also possible the judges could ask for the Judicial Appointments and Complaints Ombudsman to review the decision made by the Office for Justice Complaints.

Child abuse scandal: Did a botched blackmail attempt by South African intelligence help Cyril Smith escape justice?

A fresh twist reveals the Liberal MP was targeted by the notorious apartheid-era intelligence agency Boss

EXCLUSIVE: Special Branch let vile paedo Cyril Smith off the hook SEVEN times

• EXCLUSIVE: Cops warned of Cyril Smith sex abuse cover up
  
• EXCLUSIVE: Cyril Smith was linked to paedo brothel murder probe says ex-cop
  
• Child abuse cops raid Lord Brittan's homes amid claims of Cyril Smith cover up
  

Ex-cop claims a ROYAL was in paedophile ring but inquiry was closed to shield Buckingham Palace from scandal

• 23:01, 21 March 2015
  
• By Nick Dorman , Mark Williams-Thomas
  

The former Met Police officer says a vice squad cop told him an investigation into Establishment figures was axed for reasons of national security

Quote:Is there a member of the royal family critically ill, I wonder?

Lauren Johnson Wrote:

Quote:Is there a member of the royal family critically ill, I wonder?

::coffeesplutter::