A FORMER Rossendale mayor and friend of the late Sir Cyril Smith said she was ‘sickened’ to hear about claims of sexual abuse at the school where they both served as governors.

Eileen Kershaw, 79, from Whitworth, said she was a governor at Knowl View residential school for boys in Rochdale, which is the subject of an investigation by Greater Manchester Police into an alleged cover-up of sexual abuse claims at the school from the 1970s.

Former MP, Sir Cyril Smith, was also a former governor of the school and several ex-pupils have claimed to have been sexually abused by him.

Mrs Kershaw, who is also mum of BBC Radio One DJs Andy and Liz, said: “This has absolutely sickened me. I didn’t see anything in those kids at the time to suggest they were worried or being abused. I saw nothing suspicious or that made me worry at all.

“If I could do anything to expose it all I would do.”