[DanaC]

The MP who passed a dossier of paedophile allegations to the Home Office in the 1980s told his family the details were "explosive".

Geoffrey Dickens, who died in 1995, said it would "blow the lid off" the lives of powerful and famous child abusers, his son has told the BBC.

Barry Dickens said he would have been "hugely angered" that the allegations had not been properly investigated.

Labour is demanding a fresh inquiry into the missing dossier.

It comes after one of the party's MPs called for the then Home Secretary Leon Brittan to make public what he knew about paedophiles operating "in and around" Westminster in the 1980s.
Geoffrey Dickens, a long-standing campaigner against child abuse, passed the dossier of allegations to Lord Brittan, who has said he passed it on to his officials and raised concerns about some of the allegations with the director of public prosecutions.

His son Barry Dickens told the BBC's Matt Prodger: "I would like Lord Brittan to name the very next person he handed it on to.

"And where did it end up? There must have been a person who was the last to handle it.

"My father thought that the dossier at the time was the most powerful thing that had ever been produced, with the names that were involved and the power that they had."
He said the MP would have would have been "hugely angered, disappointed and frustrated" that the allegations had not been properly investigated.

The Home Office said that a search for the dossier in 2013 had found a letter from Lord Brittan to Geoffrey Dickens which said that the allegations had been acted on.

The review concluded that the "credible" elements of the dossier which had "realistic potential" for further investigation were passed to prosecutors and the police while other elements were either "not retained or destroyed".

"It just seems so suspicious that something so important could just go missing," Barry Dickens said.
Mr Dickens said he did not know the details of what was in the dossier but "it was talked about in the family, discussions now and then, sort of 'Wait and see what happens - this is going to blow everything apart. These people won't know what hit them'."

Around the time that the dossier was handed in, Mr Dickens said the MP's London flat and his constituency home were both broken into and ransacked within the same week, but that "nothing was taken".

"They weren't burglaries," he added. "They were break-ins for a reason. We can only presume they were after something that dad had that they wanted."


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The Metropolitan Police's Operation Fernbridge is investigating allegations of child sexual abuse in the late 1970s and 1980s at the former Elm Guest House in Barnes, the scene of alleged parties involving MPs and other members of the establishment.

Greater Manchester Police are investigating allegations of abuse by Sir Cyril Smith at Knowl View, a Rochdale children's home which closed in 1994. Officers are also looking at claims the authorities covered it up.

Liberal MP Cyril Smith wrote to the BBC in 1976 asking it not to investigate the "private lives of certain MPs".

The MP, who died in 2010 and has been accused of abusing children, wrote to the then home secretary about "filth, innuendo and stirring" by reporters.

The BBC investigation had been looking into claims of an alleged foreign-backed campaign to discredit MPs.

Former children's minister Tim Loughton said the former Rochdale MP's letters were "bully-boy tactics".

"It was an abuse of position that somebody as an MP was saying, 'You shouldn't look at us, we're above the law,'" he said.
Smith had been the subject of an investigation into the alleged abuse of children in Rochdale but the case was not known about publicly, and he was never charged.

Current Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk is due to appear before the Home Affairs Select Committee later, where he is expected to call for a new inquiry to include the activities of Smith.

Mr Danczuk recently published a book alleging more than 140 complaints had been made by victims but Smith had been left free to abuse children as young as eight.

Greater Manchester Police and Rochdale Council are carrying out two separate investigations into child abuse allegations involving the late MP.

More than 100 MPs are calling for a larger inquiry into historical claims of child abuse in schools, hospitals and care homes.
At the time the media had been investigating a claim made by Prime Minister Harold Wilson that South African secret agents had been trying to smear British MPs.

The Liberal Party was thought to be a particular target because of its outspoken opposition to South Africa's apartheid policy.

The BBC had employed two freelance journalists, Barrie Penrose and Roger Courtiour, to look into Mr Wilson's claims.

According to letters in the National Archives, Smith wrote to BBC director general Sir Charles Curran in September 1976 saying he was "deeply concerned about the investigative activities of the BBC", especially relating to "the private lives of certain MPs".

"So far as I am aware I am not one of them, and hence I write without personal involvement."

Police are examining whether there is evidence of a criminal cover-up over claims of sexual abuse at a school linked to the late MP Sir Cyril Smith.

The leader of Rochdale Council and Greater Manchester's chief constable are due to give an update on the claims over Knowl View school in Rochdale.

Officers are already investigating the abuse allegations and the council is set to widen its own inquiry.

Sir Cyril's family has said he always denied such accusations.

The development comes after police launched an investigation into allegations that former Liberal MP Sir Cyril, who died in 2010 aged 82, sexually abused boys at Knowl View residential school. The school closed in 1992.

Officers are also looking into claims he abused boys at the privately run Cambridge House children's care home, which closed in 1965.

However, the BBC understands that Greater Manchester Police are now reviewing whether there is evidence of a cover-up at Rochdale Council, which was one of the local authorities that ran the Knowl View school.

Police are examining a book written by the Labour MP Simon Danczuk, as well as other sources as part of their inquiries.