[Omah]

Originally : Sir Cyril Smith: Former MP sexually abused boys, police say

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...ester-20516533

Sir Cyril Smith was a sex abuser of boys in the late 1960s, police have accepted.

The news comes as the Crown Prosecution Service admitted he should have been charged with the crimes more than 40 years ago.

In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said the boys "were victims of physical and sexual abuse" by the ex-Rochdale MP.

Sir Cyril was never charged despite investigations in 1970, 1998, and 1999.

A file compiled by Lancashire Constabulary in 1970, contained allegations made by eight men that they had been subjected to indecent assaults by Sir Cyril, when they were teenagers.

It was handed to the first Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), and contained statements that were very similar in nature, the CPS confirmed.

However, DPP Norman Skelhorn wrote to the Chief Constable of Lancashire on 19 March 1970 stating: "I do not consider that if proceedings for indecent assault were to be taken against Smith, there would be a reasonable prospect of conviction."

Nazir Afzal, chief prosecutor for the CPS in the North West has now accepted that this "way of thinking bears little resemblance to how such cases are assessed today".

"The decision made by the CPS in 1970 would not be made today," he admitted.

Who'd have thought .....