later took a darker turn.

Others experienced abuse straight away.

(Image: Sean Hansford)

One boy, who was 16 at the time, was told on his second day to have a bath and go to the ‘quiet room’, where Cyril took off his clothes on the pretext of a ‘nit’ check and molested him.

He ran away the next day.

“But the police were called and someone from Cambridge House came to pick him up,” says the report.

“When he was brought back to Cambridge House he was again taken to see Cyril Smith, who shouted at him and asked him to take his clothes off onces more.”

Smith would later pressure him to withdraw his police allegation, which he refused to do, but he was still never prosecuted before his death in 2010.

The children atKnowl View were vulnerable in a whole range of additional ways, some having autism, others with learning disabilities and mental health problems.

At least two children taken into care at the school in 1989 - both aged 11 - were already known to be engaging in sexual activity at the Smith Street toilets, one of them walking up to a man and asking for 50p in return.

Yet while at Knowl View, matters only got worse.

“Not only did his exploitation continue after [he] was placed at Knowl View, he was also being exploited out of the area,” says the report, describing how he had sex with a man at a house in Salford for £5 six months later.

“We conclude that no individual, not any institution with responsibility for them, took