Cyril Smith

Oh, sorry, I didn't hear it, but I can well understand him breaking down after hearing such harrowing accounts directly from the men it happened to.

Cyril Smith was a disgusting man. He may well have been abused himself as a boy, and over ate and did the same things to boysthat had been done to him [this is often the case.]Whatever made him this way, he should have been stopped early on, and it seems the police were hampered in their inquiries by the Establishment. Were lots of other senior people 'high-up' involved? or was it simply seen as a black mark against a politician that may well unravel the whole of the Liberal [and other] parties?As with Jimmy Savile, another disgusting man, people DID know about him but no action was taken. It makes you wonder exactly who was involved doesn't it? For all these poor boys, it is so important that the truth comes out now, even though it's too little and too late for true justice for them.If anyone on this site can't see that, it makes you wonder what kind of person they are.

The thing with CS that really appalls me is that these young boys were in a home run by the local authority, presumably without family or friends who, for whatever reasons, couldn't/wouldn't care for them. They were in all probability alone in the world. So along comes the trusted State to take over that duty of care, and hey presto the very people (including high ranking politicians!) who should have protected these youngsters were in fact turning a blind eye to this odious man, and for political, ambitious, personal and who knows what else reasons chose to ignore the terror and horror these children were subjected to!! - It just beggars belief that this could have happened even in 1972, those children had nowhere to go, no one to protect them - the state let them down BIG TIME, and as such the state and the people in authority who KNEW this was going on and chose to ignore it from whatever political party they come from should pay a price for this total dereliction of duty. You simply cannot ignore wrecking peoples lives, there must be a day of reckoning here.

When I was a kid (born 1945) we kids all knew there was something terrifying about being sent to an orphanage. I'm not sure what we thought we knew.

Because of this, the moment we started a family we made enquiries among friends and relatives about who would take our child/children if DH and I died together. We got an agreement with a friend and put it in our will.

I think almost all of us on here are utterly horrified by what the abusers did, the lifelong effects on their victims, and the shameful cover-up by authorities. I just hope it never happens again. At least victims will be believed nowadays.

Amen to that Joan. If you are not protected under the guardianship of the state, then who are you safe with?! We also had my parents (they were young grandparents in their mid forties) as guardians to our two, just in case! My mother who was a war widow did the same for me, again, just in case!