How did dirty Cyril smith get away with it for so long

[Corrupt council]

Just how did smith manage to avoid being prosecuted?


Was the establishment , institutions of the United Kingdom so corrupt ,negligent or did dirty smith have help in his vile abuse of boys.


This abomination of man will not be the last of his type but can we learn lessons from it to detect other abusers?

[celeste]

He was investigated and reports were made and there must have been someone in authority who ordered that a prosecution should not proceed - Cyril Smith said it would kill his mother if it did!

[Corrupt council]

Then I hope we start prosecuting his accomplices.

[Johnny P]

Nice to see we agree on something CC. The worrying thing is, like the Saville case, the number of people in authority that were "in the know" but chose to turn a blind eye, must be phenominal.

[celeste]

Did this reach the newspapers at the time, I'm surprised there weren't any whistleblowers - his mother would have found out then

[Corrupt council]

It appears the police knew but turned a blind eye, why are the police who glossed over it not being prosecuted as well as the people at the homes who helped smith and other perverts gain access to young boys.


This must involve care home staff at the very least as well members of the police and social services.
Yet no word on prosecutions.

[celeste]

I agree, but are there ongoing investigations?

[Johnny P]

Hopefully, yes. But why has it taken so long for this to blow up? If there are that many corrupt police officers and "officials", we have a big problem

[Corrupt council]

Lets hope tony llyod sorts that out

[Cupcake]

Awareness of child abuse was incredibly low back then.  It only happened in "bad families".  Paedophiles were men in dirty macs in the park or lurking outside schools, not respectable people.  Spanking children in itself was perfectly acceptable.  Children in care were "bad" and told lies.....   No jury back then would have found him guilty on the basis of those accusations.   It wasn't corruption, it was how things were back then.  We've moved on and it seems incredible to us that he wasn't charged, but you can't judge it by today's standards. 

[Corrupt council]

Something was very wrong , I think your statement is to simplistic cupcake .
I remember being taught stranger danger back in the very old days.


I also remember an incident when a man tried to pick up a child at my primary school back in the late 60s. Justice was extremely swift he had his ding aling removed with a broken bottle by the parents.


I can also recall being told at school about women who could be a danger to.


I don't think there was any ignorance of the issue I believe the smith saga was covered up by people in the know.
Working class kids especially after hindley and Brady were all taught about dangerous strangers.


It was reported but it seems people were willing to cover it.
I do agree with you that no one may have believed  any single individual.
The kids in the care home would have been seen to be out to create trouble for the nice guy smith

[Cupcake]

As you say, STRANGER danger.  Nobody was told to watch out for the man next door, their uncle, their teacher, the local priest, the lifeguard at the baths or Mr Cyril Smith, the greatly respected local man.   You just didn't think of ordinary people in that way - child abusers were monsters like the Moors Murderers and they lurked outside schools and in parks.....  I'm not simplifying anything - I am talking about what it was like as I grew up.  I'm not quite sure what you think qualifies you to correct me on that score..... 
 
 

[Manchester Man]

I think you are correct Cupcake.

The "Child Snatcher", the Ogre, the Black hearted man. All were warned against.

Big fat jovial Cyril, the "Fantastic" Jimmy who did so much good and helped so many Charities out. They were just too good and did so many good things for anyone to suspect they would harm anyone.
Times were different, news reporting was more local and any accusations against such well known people would have been suppressed if for nothing else but Libel laws.

Hopefully times have changed and such things would now not go unchallenged. I do however have problems with "Historic" claims, and jumping on the bandwagon. The time scale makes such accusations very difficult to prove one way or the other.

ATB
Ray.

[Corrupt council]

I was not trying to correct you in any way cup cake , just pointing out my view.
I was trying to say that child abuse was talked about , but as you say it was by monsters not people we trusted.

I see your point now about the people we know should have been trusted.

[Corrupt council]

I to think there is bandwagon jumping manchester man.
But as someone pointed out to me for every liar there is probably a victim to scared to speak up.