Cyril Smith

Sir Cyril Richard Smith MBE MStJ DL (28 June 1928 – 3 September 2010) was a prominent British politician who after his death was revealed to have been a prolific serial sex offender against children. A member of the Liberal Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale from 1972 to 1992. After his death, numerous allegations of child sexual abuse by Smith emerged, leading law enforcement officials to believe he had been guilty of sex offences. 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, Lancashire, from 1950 and became mayor in 1966. He subsequently switched parties again and entered Parliament as a Liberal in 1972, winning 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 ...