MARGARET THATCHER was warned Cyril Smith had been accused of sexually abusing eight boys before she granted the Liberal MP a knighthood, government papers reveal.
The release of the documents follows evidence that she ignored warnings about other prominent paedophiles, including Sir Peter Morrison, a close aide, and the former diplomat Sir Peter Hayman.
Thatcher also insisted on a knighthood for Jimmy Savile, the BBC presenter exposed after his death as one of Britain’s most prolific abusers.
According to the government papers released under freedom of information laws, the political honours scrutiny committee (PHSC) raised concerns when Smith was nominated for a “K” in 1988.
The Labour peer Lord Shackleton wrote to Thatcher on behalf of the cross-party panel saying: “We draw your attention to the risk that such an award could give rise to adverse criticism.”
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He pointed out that police had investigated allegations that Smith had abused the youngsters between 1961 and 1966, when he was secretary to a committee administering a hostel for boys and a local councillor in Rochdale, where Smith went on to become MP.
Six were resident at the Cambridge House Children’s Home, while two others were dependent on Smith for employment or financial support. The victims alleged he had abused them under the guise of a medical examination or had spanked them for disciplinary “offences”.
Lancashire police sent their 80-page report to Norman Skelhorn, the director of public prosecutions (DPP), on March 11, 1970. He decided there was not a reasonable prospect of conviction.
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The honours committee said: “We have felt it is right to warn you of our fear that the integrity of the honours system would be at some risk if the award were to be made and announced.”
In 1988, Thatcher’s cabinet secretary, Sir Robin — now Lord — Butler wrote to Allan Green, then DPP, asking for more information on why Skelhorn had not prosecuted before the honour was awarded. “The case for taking the exceptional step of writing to you in this way is to protect the prime minister (and the Queen), while also being fair to Mr Smith,” Butler said.
Correspondence between Butler, Green and Mary Hedley-Miller, secretary to the honours committee, states the original papers on Smith had gone missing but some records had been kept. The claims of the eight boys were dismissed as “they made similar allegations: there could conceivably have been collusion”.
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The DPP also told officials Smith had made a “blanket denial in a written statement and would not answer questions on specific cases”. There was no corroboration, “no evidence other than that of the boys who were not of perfect character”, according to a handwritten note by Hedley-Miller.
She later wrote to Thatcher’s principle private secretary saying “the committee (PHSC) feels that the benefit of the doubt should the more readily be given where there was no prosecution”.
The documents have been partially redacted and a note from the Cabinet Office states that some other papers relating to what Thatcher was told have been withheld. It cites sections 23 and 24 of the Freedom of Information Act, which relate to national security, raising the prospect that Thatcher may have had more information on the allegations against Smith from the security services.
“I can neither confirm nor deny whether the Cabinet Office holds any information engaging the exemptions at section 23 or 24,” the note says.
Last year Thatcher’s bodyguard, Barry Stevens, revealed he had warned her of claims Morrison was involved in sex parties attended by under-age boys before the MP was promoted to deputy chairman of the Conservative party.
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Papers released last month show she told officials not to name Hayman publicly after learning he had been investigated over possession of child pornography. In Savile’s case, there was no knowledge of sexual abuse but an adviser had told Thatcher he “is a strange and complex man”, and could exploit a knighthood in a way that might bring the honours system into disrepute.
Smith, who died in 2010, was nominated for his knighthood by the then Liberal leader David Steel, who said last year he had confronted Smith over child abuse allegations but had accepted his denial.
Last night the Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk, who exposed Smith last year, said: “There is little doubt in my mind that Margaret Thatcher turned a blind eye to known paedophiles from Peter Morrison to Cyril Smith and the rest.”
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Lord Butler, Thatcher’s former cabinet secretary, said he could not remember the episode. “I can only comment on the basis of the papers I have seen,” he said.
“The decisive factor in allowing the knighthood to go ahead seems to have been that the CPS had decided not to prosecute and that a person must be presumed innocent unless proved guilty.”