As today Simon Danczuk launches his book at Danczuk's Deli
on the Walk in Rochdale, John Walker, the former editor
of the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP), below
accesses how in November 2012, Northern Voices finally helped
to bring the Cyril Smith story out into the public domain:
NOW revelations about the Cyril Smith child sex-abuse
case have emerged on almost a daily basis from when the issue was re-aired in
November last year (2012). So much so,
that many people may now be switching off, feeling that they have heard enough,
and that they've already concluded that he was a no good fat old paedo – end of
story.
For me, however, there are two key long
term lessons to be leard, and Northern Voices and its principles are central to
both of them. Firstly, there is the
constant need to be vigilant about the abuses of power, and the need for them
to be exposed; and secondly the immense importance of the the continued
existence of a genuinely free, independent, and fearless local and radical
press.
I won't rehearch the many Smith related
tales to have emerged recently; but most of them concern the abuse of power and
bullying by those in authority of vulnerable people. As I have argued before in Northern Voices,
the most despicable thing about Smith's treatment of his victims was not so
much that he molested young boys, but the way he chose his victims, and the
abuse of authority he exercised in his self-gratification.
So, Smith paraded himself as a man of the
people and defender of the downtrodden.
But it was the very downtrodden that he chose to abuse; boys who were
vulnerable because of their status, as residents of children's homes. He compounded that disadvantage by his sexual
molestation of them and added insult to injury by threatening them, if they
revealed what he'd been up to. With the
taunt that nobody would believe their word against that of an important person
like him.
Rather than defend the disadvantaged, he
increased their problems and reduced their self esteem by his actions towards
them. He used his power and authoryty to
bully others into preventing enquires into his behaviour, and so escaped, time
and again, to continue to perpetrate his abuse.
It was cant hypocrisy at its worst....
This bullying included the use of court
injunctions, threats of libel action, arm twisting of law officers, leaning on
MPs, public officials and other politically influential people, locally and
nationally etc. to give him cover....
Thus, one of the many perversions to emerge from the murky Smith case,
is that the paid upholders of civil society, themselves, became accessories to
his abuse and continued disgraceful and criminal behaviour.
How many victims would have been spared if
initial enquires into Smith's activities had not been covered up by others in
authority, who abetted Smith for their own suspect motives.
Continued vigilance of the actions of the
powerful is an important guarantor of long-term freedom; and Northern Voices'
exercises this on a regular basis, much to the changrin of many of those
subsequently exposed by its efforts.
Which brings me to my second point. The role of Northern Voices, as part of that
long tradition of a radical press, that has never been afraid to call into
question abuses of the powerful.
I write as one of the editors of RAP
(Rochdale's Alternative Paper), which first published the allegations about
Smith's sexual abuse of the residents of Cambridge House hostel, in 1979. We published well researched and impeccably
sourced details of Smith's sexual abuse, cleared, word by word, by three different
sets of lawers. We were very aware of
the legal and financial consequences of getting anything wrong, publishing as
we did five days before Smith stood as the local candidate in the general
election of that year.
Smith moved into bullying mode and slapped
a poorly worded injunction on us. We
were inundated with requests for copies of the paper from the national
press. There was not a serious national
news outlet that didn't have a copy, and knew that we had compelling,legally
cleared, material to back our claims.
Smith bullied them into inaction.
All bar one [failed to follow up the
story]. Private Eye alone, repeated the
story in 1979. And like Rap, invited
Smith to sue. He was silent on the
matter, and ended up paying RAP's legal costs to get the injunction struck off,
and dropped to matter, a couple of years later.
I would arue that there is not a serious
national political journalist in Britain over the age of 50 who has not been
aware of the Smith story for thirty years.
Yet none of them has ever taken the case up leaving it to RAP, Private
Eye.. [and] Northern Voices...
The recent re-emergence of the 1979 RAP
story owes its appearance to Northern Voices.
This magazine kept the Smith story running and led to Westminster
political blogger, and former Rochdale lad, Paul Waugh picking it up,last
November. Working with the ex-RAP
editors Northern Voices was able to track down two of the 1960s Cambridge House
victims, today, and introduce them to Paul, who ran the story on his national
blog. This provided grist for Simon
Danczuk's mill, who revitalised the story by 'outing' Smith's antics in
Parliament in November (2012).
Excerpts from John Walker's lead story in
Northern Voices No.14 published in June 2013.
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