Cyril Smith was a Liberal Party politician, and supposedly the
fattest Member of Parliament in history. He was also a pederast with a taste for
beating young boys. In 1991, I had dinner with a retired Special Branch officer.
He told me how, in 1977, the Rochdale police had assembled a dossier of evidence
against the MP – systematic abuse of homeless boys in a hostel he’d helped
found. However, the man was Chief Liberal Whip at the time, and the Liberals
were in an informal coalition with a minority Labour Government. My friend was
given the job of driving up to Rochdale to confiscate the dossier, and tell the
local police to mind their own business in future.
