Richard Farnell may face police investigation after inquiry says his evidence defied belief Josh Halliday North of England correspondent Thu 12 Apr 2018 13.48 BST First published on Thu 12 Apr 2018 12.02 BST Rochdale’s recently resigned council leader is facing a possible police investigation after an official inquiry concluded that he lied under oath about child sexual abuse allegations. The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) said the evidence given by Richard Farnell about his knowledge of abuse in the town defied belief. As Greater Manchester police said it was considering launching a perjury investigation, Farnell was suspended by the Labour party but claimed in a statement that he had told the truth. The report, the inquiry’s first into abuse in the UK, follows three weeks of evidence about allegations dating from the early 1960s to the mid-1990s. It concluded there was no deliberate cover-up by the authorities but there was “a careless and wholly inadequate response” to the serious sexual abuse of children at the council-run Knowl View school. The report also criticised Margaret Thatcher’s “remarkable” decision to award … Continue reading →