Ken, according to the BBC Steel later said that claim was 'scurrilous hearsay'. Steel actually said:
Steel told the inquiry he questioned Smith about the allegations during a meeting in the House of Commons. “What I said to him was: ‘What’s all this about you in Private Eye?’
“He said, rather to my surprise, ‘It is correct’ that he had been in charge of or had some supervisory role in a children’s hostel, that he’d been investigated by the police, and that they had taken no further action, and that was the end of the story,” the peer said.
So that to me is not an admission of guilt. It is admission only that he was investigated by the police who took no further action.