21 Knowl View Suspects say Police

POLICE in Greater Manchester probing the child abuse allegations dating from the 1979 at Knowl View School up Bamford in Rochdale now claim to have 21 'suspects'.  Seven of the schools former pupils at the Bamford institution additionally say that they were abused by the former Rochdale MP, Sir Cyril Smith. 

Two of the complainants are now in secure psychiatric institutions.  Another three have yet to be interviewed by the police.  The reports include the allegations that Smith forced them to perform sexual acts.  The police investigation is looking into the claims of ten alleged victims.

In all there are 21 suspects according to the news reports; of which 14 have been identified by the police.  The seven others are known only by their first names or nicknames by their alleged victims. 

Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson has said that the investion was 'profoundly complex'.  The local Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, who with the help of others was able to bring this matter into the public domain has said:  'When I first outed Cyril Smith I was condemned by some.  Now the police are on the verge of arresting alleged abusers I know I was right to expose what was going on at places like Knowl View.  Pweople have kept quiet for too long too and it's good to see the police are acting to take alleged abusers off the streets.'

There is still no mention as to when the arrests are likely to take place.  Meanwhile, Rochdale MBC two weeks ago launched its own enquiry with a wider remit to include a period dating from the Cambridge House scandal in the 1960s:  this case was well documented by the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in 1979, at a time when no one else in the main stream media, accept Private Eye, was willing to cover the story.  Smith, of course, was still alive then and was in a position to sue newspapers that took up the story.  Today, it seems, there is open season on Cyril Smith by both politicians and journalists.