LEGENDARY MP Sir Cyril Smith was dramatically unmasked as a paedophile in the Commons yesterday.
The Lib Dem heavyweight was blasted as a perverted "29st bully" — in a debate on the abuse scandal rocking Britain in the wake of the Jimmy Savile revelations.
Hushed MPs heard how the lifelong bachelor, who died aged 82 two years ago, left victims "quivering wrecks".
The revelations were made hours after child sex probe cops arrested an ex-BISHOP who is a friend of Prince Charles.
Retired Bishop of Lewes and Gloucester Peter Ball, 80, became the most senior member of a suspected Church of England paedo ring to be grilled about boy victims as young as 12.
Police also revealed a BBC radio presenter is to appear in court accused of preying on children.
Michael Souter, 59, was yesterday charged with 18 offences against young boys.
Last night the Beeb refused to comment on the allegations against the former Radio Norfolk host.
In the Commons MPs were aghast at the revelations Cyril Smith got away with abusing youngsters for years.
Like depraved BBC DJ Savile — who died last year — the MP was dogged during his life by rumours he targeted youngsters.
And just like Savile, cops investigated him — but no action was taken.
Labour's Simon Danczuk — Smith's successor as MP for Rochdale — said as he lifted the lid on the scandal: "Young boys were humiliated, terrified and reduced to quivering wrecks by this 29-stone bully imposing himself on them."
He demanded: "Why was this ever allowed to happen?"
And he hit out at a "culture of cover-up" that he said "extends right to the heart of our political establishment".
Mr Danczuk told how a third victim of his predecessor had got in touch with him only yesterday.
The married man wished to remain anonymous — because he had not even told his wife about the hell he suffered as a boy.
Abuse took place at a hostel Smith founded in Rochdale called Cambridge House — for which he had the keys. Cops investigated it in the 1960s.
One former resident Barry Fitton revealed he was 15 when Smith forced him to strip for a "medical" — then smacked his naked bottom and stroked his buttocks.
He said: "You'll have seen the size of his hands. Imagine how that would feel slapping you around."
Eddie Shorrock, who was 17 when Smith told him to strip — said: "He told me to bend over."
Mr Danczuk said: "For some unknown reason, Cyril Smith had a kind of disciplinarian role at the hostel and was given free rein to administer punishment to the boys."
In what critics branded a disgrace, only 22 MPs attended the Commons debate on child sexual exploitation — during which Labour's Ann Coffey claimed one in three girls aged 16 to 18 had been "groped" at school.
Many of her colleagues had already headed home to begin a five-day break from Parliament.
Last night Cyril Smith's brother Norman insisted: "Police said there was no case to answer and he denied it to me.
"Anybody that raises things when a man's dead, to be blunt I think they're cowards."
The Lancashire force said it could not discover if a file was passed to the Director of Public Prosecutions because "no records are now held".
A spokesman said: "While we take matters such as this extremely seriously we have not received any further allegations and at this time there is no ongoing investigation in relation to this matter."
Yesterday lawyers representing more than 50 victims of Savile said they had been contacted by one of Smith's targets.
Legal firm Pannone said: "We will be speaking to him to get a full statement."
The elderly ex-bishop arrested yesterday at his home in Langport, Somerset — and later allowed home on medical advice — was quizzed about abuse in the late 1980s and early 1990s at addresses in East Sussex and elsewhere.
He quit the church in 1993 after a police caution for gross indecency against a teenager who was a trainee monk.
Charles later gave him sanctuary — inviting the man who described him as "a loyal friend" to live in a lodge that was part of his Duchy of Cornwall estate.
Police said another retired priest — aged 67 — was also detained yesterday at his home near Haywards Heath in West Sussex. That arrest related to separate alleged sex offences against two teenage boys between 1981 and 1983.
The swoops came as a distinguished ORGANIST awaited sentence after admitting nine charges of making vile pornographic images of children. Cops found 5,800 sickening pictures.
David Templing — who went on to own a music shop in Ipswich, Suffolk — superimposed the faces of girls he knew on to pornographic images.
One of the youngsters branded him "sick" following his appearance at Ipswich Crown Court.
Meanwhile a former HEADMASTER exposed as a serial paedophile was yesterday jailed for 15 years.
Malcolm Ford, 66, spent three years raping and sexually abusing one of his victims — a girl of 14.
Two others were also molested by him while he was a school head in Ashton-under-Lyne, Gtr Manchester, during the 1980s.
Ford, of Southport, Merseyside, was convicted at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court. Judge Adrian Smith told him: "You clearly got excitement from the power and control you were exercising."
The offences occurred at Ford's former home and in the back seat of his car.
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