Karen Danczuk's Brother on Sex Charges

YESTERDAY Michael Burke, the elder brother of Karen Danczuk, was charged with 11 counts of rape, five of indecent assault and one of attempted rape.  Mr. Burke, 37, works as a security guard and was first arrested in February this year when his sister Karen Danczuk gave an interview claiming she had been sexually abused as a child by a ‘family friend’.  At that time Michael, the father of three, waved his right to anonymity saying:

‘The allegations are false.  I’m just so shock and disgusted by it all.’

Later, he was held again following further claims of ‘new information’ before yet again being released on police bail.  It seems that two other women had come forward to make complaints against him.

Yesterday, when Mr. Burke appeared before magistrates in Bury, his solicitor Zoe Gascoyne said:

‘These are all allegations this defendant denies and will go on trial at the crown court.’

The prosecutor, Shazia Aslam said that there would be no objection to bailing Mr. Burke as he had already been on police bail for the last nine months without incident.

Mrs. Danczuk is a former Labour councillor in Rochdale, who came to fame as ‘Queen of the Selfies’ after posting seemingly endless photographs of herself on Twitter.  Her husband, from whom she is now separated, is the M.P. for Rochdale, Simon Danczuk.  He too is famous in his own right as a campaigner against historic child abuse, with the help of Northern Voices and John Walker, a former editor of the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) he made the headlines when he outed the former Rochdale M.P., Sir Cyril Smith for child abuse in 2012.   Greater Manchester Police have said that one woman and two girls are involved in the current allegations against Mr. Burke.