Rochdale Child Abuse - The Danczuks Return

Revelations this week that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) had concluded that former Rochdale council leader Richard Farnell had lied to them have caused the Police to take a renewed interest in this former close friend of the town’s now (thankfully) Ex-MP Simon Danczuk. Spanker and Farnell went back a long way together. Perhaps that is why one pal of both has been making so much noise of late.

Karen Danczuk - looking for more than her 15 minutes

That person, to no surprise at all, is Danczuk’s former wife Karen, still grimly clinging on to the hope that she can remain in the limelight sufficiently to stop her inevitable return to working a checkout at the local Asda. As soon as Jennifer Williams at the Manchester Evening News told the world that there had been “calls for perjury charges to be considered against Rochdale’s former council leader Richard Farnell”, Kazza was off.

Richard Farnell - lied to Inquiry

“Wasn’t it the then MP who outed Cyril in Parliament whilst likes of MEN sat on the historic allegations and didn’t publish anything until SD exposed it and then got the said inquiry for victims you’re tweeting about?” she demanded, following that with “When patting yourself on the back for running story on Cyril Smith AFTER he was exposed in Parliament due to bravery of victims working with the then MP, just remember, taking pleasure from peoples pain is pretty tacky!” This is, sad to say, complete crap.

Simon Danczuk, as I’ve previously told, was not only not the first to expose Cyril Smith - John Walker, along with Private Eye magazine, did that in the MP’s lifetime - but he only did so two years after Smith’s death after Paul Waugh, then at Politics Home, told Spanker out of courtesy he would be running an item, assisted by Walker.

Worse, when Danczuk and his former sidekick Matt Baker produced a book on Cyril Smith (“Smile for the Camera”), it turned out to be seriously flawed, with one specific claim - that the then MP had been stopped on the M1 in Northamptonshire with a load of child pornography in the boot of his car - shown to have been entirely made up. The claims in the book about Knowl View residential school, it seems, only wasted more Police time.

So it should have come as no surprise that Kazza found that this campaign progressed not necessarily to her advantage. After all, she’d already had it pointed out that her ex had happily attended the unveiling of a plaque to Smith at Rochdale Town Hall - more than 30 years after Private Eye reprinted the allegations against him.

And there had already been pointed questions, such as “Rather than hoping to be asked in front of cameras answer the question, when did you know about Cyril Smith?” and “When did you know about Cyril Smith? Ex-Rochdale councillor @Karendanczuk? Ex-wife of Former Rochdale Mp?” Plus the subject was Richard Farnell, remember?

Or perhaps deflecting from Farnell’s little local difficulty was the reason for Kazza to intervene: after all, she, like her ex, is an old friend. There they are together back in 2014, with her telling “With my gorgeous Leader @Richardfarnell1 enjoying Oktoberfest! I'm getting ready to judge best dressed!!”. Perhaps it’s no surprise she’s kicking off now.

She’d be best advised to steer clear of Farnell. If, as the IICSA has concluded, the former council leader lied on oath, wading in to save him would be pointless. And there wouldn’t be any appearance money in it. Best resign yerself to that Asda checkout, Kazza.