I've always found conspiracy theories to be interesting, if not usually wildly fanciful, but this one really reaches into the depths of depravity.
All of the stuff below has been alleged by victims, police officers, politicians etc.
Here is a link to last night's Newsnight on iPlayer if you're in the UK:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05ncwh0/newsnight-16032015
Who?
Cyril Smith
Cyril Smith was the MP (member of parliament) for Rochdale, near Manchester. from 1972 to 1992. He was one of the more well known politicians at the time, because he had a definite 'character' and was known for being 'larger than life', both physically and in terms of character.
Smith was a part of the process that formed the Liberal Democrats. He was liberal MP before this.
Other people were obviously involved in this conspiracy, but further names are yet to be revealed. You can expect this to happen over the course of maybe the next few months or years. I doubt we'll see any recognizable names associated with the conspiracy at first - unless the entire conspiracy is exposed by the IPCC (independent police complaints commission), as the whole point of the conspiracy was to stop this from happening (see below).
What happened?
Coronation buildings, 1979.
Coronation Buildings was an old block of council flats about a mile from Westminster.
In 1979, detectives from the Metropolitan Police are investigating one particular flat as part of an investigation into child abuse. They have a janitor install security cameras and watch the flat for 3 months, the whole time gathering evidence. It appears that young boys from care homes in London were being taken to the flats and systematically sexually abused. One of the men responsible for the abuse was Cyril Smith. Others have been implicated, but their identities are not yet known, but one of the other men was said by the detective to be a high ranking officer of the security services. The detective says there were also police officers involved.
One evening, the detectives raided the flat during a sex party where children were being abused. Smith and all other abusers present were arrested.
They were taken to the police station, where the duty sergeant was told from on high that he couldn't keep any of the paedophiles in custody and was forced to release them.
Think about that for a second. These people were just caught RED HANDED abusing children and that very night released from custody.
OK so the investigation continues.
A few days later, the detectives are called to Gilmore House, an office near Westminster.
They say that they were addressed by a senior officer who they had never met before, who told them to hand over all materials relating to the investigation. This included photographs, videos, witness statements and the officers' notebooks, everything.
They were told that if they ever spoke of the investigation again they would be prosecuted for breaking the official secrets act (jail time).
Connected Stories:
The Government has been accused of trying to suppress a dossier of secret files which reveal that Margaret Thatcher knew about child sex abuse allegations against the MP Cyril Smith – before he was knighted.
The documents, only made public this week after an intervention from the Information Commissioner, include an undated letter marked “secret” warning Ms Thatcher that there was “the risk that such an award could give rise to adverse criticism”.
Smith, who died in 2010, served as the Liberal and later Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale between 1972 and 1992. He was accused of abusing eight boys in the late 1960s and, though he was not prosecuted at the time, police say procedural changes mean he would be today.
The Cabinet Office last night denied a “cover-up” after releasing the 19-page file following repeated demands from the Mail on Sunday, and said the case was “sensitive and complex”.
Among the letters relating to the decision to knight Smith in 1988, the warning letter from Political Honours Scrutiny Committee member Lord Shackleton spelled out to Ms Thatcher that police had investigated Smith in 1970 for “indecent assault against teenage boys”.
It said that that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had decided “there was no reasonable prospect of conviction”.
The documents, only made public this week after an intervention from the Information Commissioner, include an undated letter marked “secret” warning Ms Thatcher that there was “the risk that such an award could give rise to adverse criticism”.
Smith, who died in 2010, served as the Liberal and later Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale between 1972 and 1992. He was accused of abusing eight boys in the late 1960s and, though he was not prosecuted at the time, police say procedural changes mean he would be today.
The Cabinet Office last night denied a “cover-up” after releasing the 19-page file following repeated demands from the Mail on Sunday, and said the case was “sensitive and complex”.
Among the letters relating to the decision to knight Smith in 1988, the warning letter from Political Honours Scrutiny Committee member Lord Shackleton spelled out to Ms Thatcher that police had investigated Smith in 1970 for “indecent assault against teenage boys”.
It said that that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had decided “there was no reasonable prospect of conviction”.
source
A former police detective who investigated peadophilia allegations against Cyril Smith has said that if the MP had been taken to court, he would have exposed other high-profile offenders.
Mr Smith died in 2010 but Jack Tasker said the investigation into his alleged child abuse at Cambridge House care home was stalled because "other people were rather worried that if Cyril Smith went before a court, he would open his mouth".
Mr Smith died in 2010 but Jack Tasker said the investigation into his alleged child abuse at Cambridge House care home was stalled because "other people were rather worried that if Cyril Smith went before a court, he would open his mouth".
Source
I'm not going to add my opinion on the case itself, its not really needed, but this story raises serious questions about how national security legislation can be repurposed, and how we need to be very careful to make sure that can't happen again.
If the security services were willing to use the secrets act for this, one can only imagine what use they could find for some of the more extreme laws that have come into place since 9/11.
We're always told that this stuff is used for our benefit only and that we have nothing to fear from our own security services. These detectives were threatened with jail time because of a national security law, and they had done nothing wrong. I would imagine this sort of thing isn't exactly uncommon, although this case is clearly quite extreme.