Detectives who had gained evidence of child abuse against the Liberal MP Cyril Smith and a member of the intelligence services were threatened with the Official Secrets Act if they did not drop the case, a police whistleblower has claimed.
The undercover police operation was scrapped shortly after detectives moved in to make arrests, the police source told BBC’s Newsnight programme.
Police officers questioned Smith during the inquiry in the early 1980s, which targeted properties in south London suspected of hosting sex parties involving teenage boys, but he was released within hours of being taken to a police station, it said.
Smith and others were caught abusing children, but officers were then ordered to hand over all of their evidence – including notebooks and video footage – and warned to keep quiet about the investigation or face prosecution under the Official Secrets Act.
The officers were also told that if they kept quiet they could expect promotion, Newsnight said. They were also assured that those who had been caught “would not be playing a role in public life any more”. Smith continued as an MP until 1992.
The officers involved said they did not know the senior figure who threatened them. The BBC’s source was described as a former officer familiar with the original investigation and its closure.
The Labour MP Simon Danczuk, who campaigns on behalf of the victims of child abuse and has written a new book on the double life of Cyril Smith, said police sources were still frightened to come forward.
He tweeted that they needed “cast iron guarantee they can give evidence without fear. Many are scared.”
@nickhopkinsnews right to say police officers need a cast iron guarantee they can give evidence without fear. Many are scared #Newsnight
— Simon Danczuk (@SimonDanczuk) March 16, 2015
Speaking to the Daily Mail Danczuk said Smith was being protected by other child abusers who feared being exposed by the MP. He said: “It is my view that Smith was being protected and being protected by some fairly powerful people. It is my view 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 they would never be put before the court.”
The Labour MP John Mann asked who had ordered the coverup.
@BBCNewsnight Coronation Buildings at last. So why did special branch cover up Cyril Smith's abuse of young boys? On whose orders?
— John Mann MP (@JohnMannMP) March 16, 2015
Newsnight’s claims will be investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission as part of its new inquiry into allegations of police corruption in London relating to child abuse. The IPCC said it is investigating 14 referrals with details of alleged corruption in the Metropolitan police relating to child sex offences from the 1970s to the 2000s.
Newsnight was informed of the intelligence-led operation, which it is believed began in 1981 and involved a team of undercover regional crime squad officers, including some from Yorkshire, who were based at Gilmour House - a large police headquarters in Kennington in south London.
The team targeted six or more addresses in south London, including a flat in Coronation Buildings in Lambeth - a rundown tenement block around a mile from the House of Commons.
The squad believed that boys from care homes were being provided “to order” for sex parties. Newsnight said it had been told that during a three-month secret inquiry, officers gathered a substantial amount of evidence of men abusing boys aged around 14.
Evidence included photographs and video taken from inside a flat with a hidden camera that had been installed with the help of a caretaker.
According to an account given to the BBC, Smith was seized at a property in Streatham where he had been taking part in a sex party with teenage boys. It is understood he was taken to a police station but was released that night. A desk sergeant was reprimanded for wanting to keep him in custody.
Newsnight has also been told that the squad had evidence relating to a member of Britain’s intelligence agencies and two senior police officers.
