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Sir Cyril Smith, MBE (28 June 1928 – 3 September 2010) was a British Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale. After his death, numerous allegations of child sexual abuse by Smith emerged (including many made during his lifetime), leading the police to believe that Smith was a serial sex offender.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Sir Cyril Smith: Former MP sexually abused boys, police say )〕 Smith was first active in local politics as a Liberal in 1945 before switching to Labour in 1950; he served as a Labour councillor in Rochdale from 1950 and became mayor in 1966. He subsequently switched parties again and entered Parliament as a Liberal in 1972 and won his Rochdale seat on five further occasions. Smith was appointed the Liberal Chief Whip in June 1975 but later resigned on health grounds. In his later years as an MP, Smith opposed an alliance with the Social Democratic Party and did not stand for re-election in 1992, but remained loyal to the Liberal Democrats upon the parties' merger. Throughout much of his career, he maintained a high profile in the media, and became a popular public figure. In later years, his popularity was considerably marred by the allegation that he had been involved in a cover-up of a health risk at a local asbestos factory. In 2008, there were calls for Smith to be stripped of his knighthood after it was revealed that he had asked the asbestos company Turner & Newall to prepare a speech for him in 1981, in which he declared: "The public at large are not at risk". It was later revealed that Smith owned 1,300 shares in the company. In 2008 he said that 4,000 asbestos-related deaths a year in the UK was "relatively low". In 2012, following allegations of child abuse, the Crown Prosecution Service formally admitted Smith should have been charged with the sexual abuse of boys during his lifetime. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the boys "were victims of physical and sexual abuse" by Smith. In November 2012, GMP Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood said there was "overwhelming evidence" that young boys were sexually and physically abused by Smith.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.gmp.police.uk/Content/WebsitePages/A22934C753EF3F0380257AC300607543?OpenDocument )〕 In April 2014, it was reported that there had been 144 complaints against Smith from victims as young as eight, but attempts to prosecute him had always been blocked. Public authorities including Rochdale Council, the police and intelligence services have been implicated in covering up Smith's crimes. In 2015, it emerged that Smith had been arrested in the early 1980s in relation to these offences, but a high level cover-up reportedly led to him being released within hours, the evidence destroyed and the investigating officers prevented from discussing the matter under the Official Secrets Act.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Cyril Smith child abuse inquiry 'scrapped after his arrest' )〕 ==Early years== Smith was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, and described himself as "illegitimate, deprived and poor". Though he never knew the name of his father, he commented "I suspect I know who he was".〔 He lived with his mother, two illegitimate half-siblings, Eunice and Norman, and his grandmother in a one-up one-down cottage (now demolished) on Falinge Road. His mother, Eva Smith, worked in service to a local cotton mill-owning family who lived at 8 Kilnerdyne Terrace. Smith was educated at Rochdale Grammar School for Boys and after leaving began work at Rochdale Inland Revenue Tax Office. In the 1945 General Election, aged 16, he gave a public speech in support of Liberal candidate Charles Harvey. Smith said he was given an ultimatum by his manager in the tax office to either choose the civil service or politics. He left his job at the tax office and then worked as an office boy at Fothergill & Harvey's mill in Littleborough, northeast of Rochdale. The mill was owned by the Harveys, a notable Liberal family, but Smith claimed the director Charles Harvey knew nothing of the job application by the young man who had lost his job for his public speech in favour of Harvey's Liberal candidature.〔''Rochdale Observer'' p17, 24 June 1996〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cyril Smith」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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