Sexual Grooming: Yesterday & Today

Man Abused by Cyril Smith says Manchester police 'have let the victims down'

JUST as tomorrow's Rochdale Observer carries a front-page story on the recent scandal of the 'nine men [who] were jailed for rape and sexual abuse of a number of vulnerable young girls in a horrific case which shocked the nation', a report on the Exaro website yesterday suggesting that the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were winding down their investigation into Cyril Smith historic crimes has now been vigorously challenged by Chief Superintendent Mary Doyle of the GMP as 'misleading and inaccurate'. 

Last week, on behalf of Northern Voices, I asked Stefan Jarmolowicz of the Greater Manchester Police Press Office as to what progress the police had made with regard to their investigations into the allegations against Cyril Smith and he told me that they 'had only ever had one complaint to the Greater Manchester Police'. 

And yet, DCS Doyle on behalf of GMP, said yesterday: 
'To say that we have abandoned our investigation into allegations concerning the late Sir Cyril Smith is misleading and inaccurate'
and that
'From the outset, we have always stressed that if anybody wished to come forward and make a complaint, GMP would record this to recognise the abuse that victim has suffered.  We have publicly said just how important it is for victims that any such abuse is recognised because as Sir Cyril Smith is deceased, no criminal prosecution can be brought against him.  Since last year, we have only had a very small number of people come forward to report any abuse by Sir Cyril Smith, and we have had no new reports since then.  We are still actively investigating the incidents reported to us.'  

All of this contrasts somewhat with the tenor of the statements put out by the GMP Press Department last week about their investigation into the Cyril Smith scandal, and someone in that department giving his name as 'Mark' told me:
'I think from what I know we're not looking into it'
and when I asked Mark if the GMP had looked into the allegations of Eddie Shorrock made in relation to Smith when he went on TV last November, Mark even suggested: 
'If this guy went on TV we might not have seen it.' 

Mr Ronald Alan Neal, now a baker from Whitworth, who has made statements to GMP and who was abused by Smith at Cambridge House in the 1960s, has told me today that he has made precise complaints to the police that raise concerns about the way this investigation has been conducted into Smith's activities.  Mr Neal has also questioned the conduct of the police in relation to Smith in the 1960s.  When I spoke to Ronald Alan Neal today and asked him how he felt about how the police had handled his case he told me:
'The Greater Manchester Police have been less than helpful, and once again they have let the victims down.'
But Mr Neal was anxious to praise both the Lancashire police and Tony Lloyd's Police & Crime Commissioner's Office: 
'The Lancashire police have less of a budget than the Greater Manchester Police, but they have done far more'
and
'Tony Lloyd's Office have been far more helpful than the GMP'. 

As the Savile case is now being pursued with a passion it is strange to encounter so much apparent passivity by the Greater Manchester force over the issues surrounding the now disgraced former Rochdale politician, Sir Cyril Smith.