Cyril Smith: The Disestablishment

Doubts have been cast over the Metropolitan police service’s claims that Cyril Smith attended a house in south London which was allegedly used by a VIP paedophile ring.

Statements released by the force in 2013 and 2014 claimed that officers had “established” that the late Liberal MP, who was known to be a child abuser, had visited Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London.

That claim has been repeated by campaigners who believe there is evidence of a cover-up of abuse at the home dating back 30 years.

But a statement released by the Met to the Guardian on Thursday removed the claim, casting doubt on whether the late MP for Rochdale was ever there. A Met spokesman said he could not “reaffirm” that the Met still believed that Smith attended the south London home.

It is understood that the original police assertion that Smith attended the home was based on the word of a single witness. That same witness has now made allegations of misconduct against police officers, a source said...

Guardian.

The prime mover behind the foundless claim?

Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative MP and London mayoral contender whose Richmond Park constituency includes the guest house, told MPs in November that he had been “reliably told” that 12 boys gave evidence in 1982 that they had been abused at Elm Guest House.

To a hushed Commons, Goldsmith said: “The Met has since confirmed that Cyril Smith visited... It is impossible to believe there was not a cover-up.”

Oops!

Ann Widdecombe: What Happened?

WHEN Paul Gambaccini issued his account of being falsely accused of child abuse, he noted several instances of the police or CPS releasing news about dropped inquiries or rebailing to coincide with more successful or more sensational news of Operation Yewtree.
 
I shuddered when I read that because if either the police or CPS should be adopting “a good day to bury bad news” mentality or “guilt by association” news management then another precious cornerstone of our justice system is crumbling.

Justice agencies in this country should be concerned with justice and nothing else.
 
News manipulation should never be attempted and statements about the course of an investigation should be determined by facts not convenience...

Yet I suspended judgment because I had the fairness to accept that it could all be coincidence, even if the regularity suggested otherwise.

Now it looks as if that fairness was misplaced as I cannot have been the only person to notice that the long overdue apology to Lady Brittan for the police’s failure to tell her dying husband that he was no longer under any investigation (and had not been for quite some time) coincided with the news that a bishop had been convicted of sex offences.

Is that what they were waiting for?...

Ann 'Not Anne' Widdecombe, Daily Express.

Sad that this has divided people on party lines, and many Labour Party supporters knee-jerk that this is all a Conservative Party conspiracy to cover up some secret Tory paedophile ring.

Whilst much of it is partly just an excuse to bash Labour via its new deputy leader, it is obvious that Tom Watson is a power-crazed delusional thug who has behaved appallingly.

PS And not forgetting... Zac Goldsmith urged to withdraw paedophile ring allegations: Ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor says Goldsmith should rethink mayoral bid unless he retracts claims of VIP abuse at Richmond guest house, The Guardian.

While The Telegraph's rottweiler, Dan Hodges, urges - hilariously - Put down your pitchforks and stop the Tom Watson witchunt. LOL!

Zac Goldsmith: And On That Blond Bombshell

The Independent.

No! Not the handsome billionaire Goldsmith, obvs.

Zac was giving evidence to parliament yesterday about the 'notorious' Elm Guest House yesterday.

Except - thus far  - no-one has produced any evidence.

Update: Tom Watson interview: ‘At least one politician abused kids’ The scourge of the phone hacker now has a new crusade: to get to the bottom of the claims of a Westminster paedophile ring.

Note the fall in numbers...

'Watson knows his critics tend to regard him as a credulous conspiracy theorist, and concedes that the hacking scandal may have left him unduly susceptible to unthinkable allegations...'

Leveson Inquiry: Rip Her To Shreds

“If an MP for example were to campaign on a ticket where he was incredibly homophobic and then it emerged later that that person was in fact gay then I think newspapers would have an absolute right to rip that person to pieces — that wouldn’t be enough, I think they should be barred from office.”

That's nice, dear.
Tax-dodging multi-millionaire Tory MP Zac Goldsmith giving evidence at the Leveson Inquiry yesterday.
Mr Goldsmith later apologised after attracting controversy over this comment;
“If the only way a business can stay afloat is by engaging in immoral or unethical behaviour, then that business should either change its model or go out of business. No one said that Auschwitz should have been kept open because it created jobs.”
That's nice, dear.