Sir Cyril Smith, MBE (28 June 1928 – 3 September 2010) was an English Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale. After his death, numerous allegations of child sex abuse by Smith emerged, leading the police to believe that Smith had been a serial sex offender.Smith was first active in local politics; he served as a councillor in Rochdale from 1950 and become mayor in 1966. He entered Parliament 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. 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 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. 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.
Diminutive, dark-haired British character actor who specialised in hard-working proletarian types or repressed, hen-pecked husbands. Also active on the U.S. stage from 1921 to 1930.