Rochdale inquiry: Cyril Smith ‘stood laughing’ as victim was sexually abused

Cyril Smith

Cyril Smith ‘stood laughing’ as one of his alleged victims was sexually abused by another man, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) heard on Monday (16 October).

For decades throughout his career, the former MP was the subject of repeated sex abuse claims. He was knighted in 1988, and died in 2010 aged 82, having never faced prosecution.

The witness, known only as ‘A5’, who described Knowl View as ‘worse than a prison’, told the inquiry how suffered sexual abuse by both Smith and another man during his time at the school. He left when he was 14 years old.

Brian Altman QC described how A5’s statement covered several incidents, ‘a very big, fat man’ sitting on A5’s bed, who woke up, realising the man had “inserted a finger up his bottom.”

Mr Altman continued: “You tried to pull away and turned onto your back, which caused him to desist, in other words, to stop doing what he was doing.”

The inquiry heard how the man then touched A5’s genitals. He was just 12-years-old at the time of the incident.

The inquiry heard how A5 ‘was scared to death’ and ‘hid under another boy’s bed, where he was found sleeping the next morning’ by a staff member.

A5 said he was ‘too scared’ to tell the staff member who found him how he came to be under another boy’s bed.

A5 later saw Smith on two occasions, once going to the Ashworth dormitory and again in Rochdale. With somebody else at the time, they pointed him out to A5 as Rochdale’s MP, who says he recognised him as the man who sexually assaulted him.

The inquiry was told three other incidents occurred after this, the second being when A5 was in bed in the Egerton dormitory.

He was allegedly ‘woken by a male member of staff who pulled him out of bed and frogmarched him to a flat.’

The staff member then allegedly pushed him into the bedroom where Smith was sat on a bed. A5 alleged he was then raped by Smith, who made him take off his pyjamas before fondling him, which he described as ‘incredibly painful.’

The inquiry heard: “He then forced me to lie facedown on the bed. I did as instructed. I had no clothes on. He climbed on top of me. He was enormous and I felt I was being crushed."

Mr Altman then outlined a third incident, saying: “Smith didn't rape you, on this occasion, but you say you were asleep in bed, you were woken up and taken from your bed to the same room where Smith had raped you previously.”

Smith then allegedly engaged in oral sex on his victim after touching both of them.

A5 says he ‘refused to do the same to him’ and Smith ‘threw him out of the room with a packed of 20 cigarettes’.

Mr Altman said: “You say that there was one more incident that you recalled but you couldn't recall when it took place. You remember lying on your bed on your stomach with another male having anal sex with you. Do you recall Cyril Smith on the side of the bed laughing?

“Yes,” the witness responded.

He later saw a counsellor and spoke to police in 2012, although he was ‘too embarrassed’ to discuss the incidents aside from the first.

Mr Altman asked: “What was it that prevented you from going to the police to tell the police what Cyril Smith had done to you or been party to those years before and what else had happened to you? What stopped you from doing that?”

The victim answered: “I suppose I just blocked it out.”

The inquiry also heard how, during his time at the school, another boy asked A5 if ‘Smith had made him do horrible things’.

The other boy then allegedly told A5 ‘not to worry, as Smith made all of the boys at Knowl View do it.’

The inquiry was also told that ‘naughty’ pupils were ‘made to stand naked in the gym’ for quite a long time, for something as trivial as talking.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) opened an inquiry into alleged abuse which took place in Rochdale at Cambridge House Hostel and Knowl View residential school, when Smith was a governor.

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/113267/rochdale-inquiry-cyril-smith-constructed-a-deal-between-political-parties-to-keep-knowl-view-abuse-quiet

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/113255/rochdale-inquiry-cyril-smith-victim-spanked-by-headteacher-over-abuse-accusations

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/113113/rochdale-inquiry-alleged-cyril-smith-victim-%E2%80%98denied-urgent-medical-care-until-politician-had-finished-fondling-him%E2%80%99

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/113087/rochdale-inquiry-alleged-victim-came-facetoface-with-cyril-smith-on-wedding-day

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/113030/rochdale-inquiry-mi5-knew-of-cyril-smith-coverup-press-lie/

The inquiry continues.