Jimmy Savile accused in ITV documentary

bb1 wrote:

'Ruin her life's work'? Nice to know she still has her priorities right, isn't it?

Ms Rantzen said: “I don't mean any disrespect to the lady but I don't remember any conversation with her.

“I have had a great many conversations with people over the years and whenever possible I have investigated what people told me and told the police and social services.

Jimmy Savile: Labour Demands New Abuse Probe
Sky News – 1 hour 19 minutes ago

Labour has called for the Government to set up an independent inquiry into the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal to "do right by the victims".
On Monday, Culture Secretary Maria Miller dismissed demands for an independent inquiry, saying she was "confident" BBC chiefs were taking the claims "very seriously".
But Labour leader Ed Miliband said the BBC's internal investigations were not enough.
Speaking to ITV1's The Agenda, he said: "These are horrific allegations. In order to do right by the victims I don't think the BBC can lead their own inquiry.
"We need a broad look at all the public institutions involved - the BBC, parts of the NHS and Broadmoor. This has got to be independent."
Labour wants an independent inquiry to have the power to demand documentation and witnesses. It should look into Savile's activities at the BBC, Stoke Mandeville hospital and Broadmoor, the party said.
"I think we now have enough set of allegations and further allegations to know this is not some isolated set of incidents," Mr Miliband said.
"This seems to be a pattern of activity which spanned a number of institutions. As I say, I just think about the victims in this. This is absolutely horrific and will scar people for life. And I think for them, the BBC - good institution though it is - I don't think they can lead their own inquiry."
Prior to Labour's demand, Ms Miller told the Commons that the allegations had "wide-ranging implications for a number of public institutions" but rejected calls for an outside inquiry to restore the public's faith, warning it could hamper police investigations.
"In terms of a wider inquiry, we have a police investigation on-going at the moment," she said. "Everybody would agree that it is really important that those individuals who have been victims know that that investigation can go on unfettered and that that should be our priority at this stage."
She cited the three seperate internal investigations already launched by the BBC into the affair.
Commons culture committee chairman John Whittingdale said BBC director-general George Entwistle had offered to appear before the committee next week and said he was "sure" MPs would take him up on the offer.
Leeds North East MP Fabian Hamilton said his constituents, who turned out in their thousands to pay tribute to the broadcaster when he died, felt "betrayed and angry".
Police believe the DJ and television presenter's alleged catalogue of child sex abuse could have spanned six decades and included around 60 victims.

bb1 wrote:Oh no, not yet another public enquiry going on for years and at great expense to the taxpayer deciding lessons must be learned.

IMO, there is far more chance of the truth being reached via the High Court, than yet another expensive public enquiry.

BBC scandal creates waves for incoming New York Times CEO
By Jennifer Saba | Reuters – 40 minutes ago

The erupting scandal at the BBC over allegations of sexual abuse involving late TV host Jimmy Savile is leading to awkward questions for the New York Times Co's incoming chief executive, Mark Thompson.

The BBC is facing police and parliamentary inquires into whether Savile, the eccentric host of the BBC's legendary "Top of the Pops" music show who died last year at the age of 84, sexually abused a group of women and girls -- some as young as 13 -- over six decades. The probes follow a bombshell report aired earlier this month by rival broadcaster ITV about the allegations.

Former BBC executives admitted there had been rumours about Savile, but dismissed suggestions they had turned a blind eye to the indiscretions of celebrities.
On Sunday, the New York Times former executive editor Bill Keller wrote a column drawing a parallel between Savile and that of Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, who was recently sentenced to what amounts to life imprisonment for molesting children. "Whether the BBC fell short in its reporting and missed the story or had the story and lacked the nerve, it is a significant embarrassment, compounded by the hard question of why the widespread rumours of Savile's behaviour were ignored for so long," Keller wrote.

Thompson spent most of his career at the BBC, rising from trainee in 1979 to roles on popular shows such as "Newsnight" and the "Nine O'Clock News" before being named Director-General, which is considered the most powerful position in the U.K. television industry.

The BBC's flagship "Newsnight" show was working on its own investigation into the Savile allegations last year that was cancelled, leading to accusations of a cover up.
The BBC denied it had shelved the show in order to keep the allegations under wraps. It is currently investigating the matter and cooperating with police.

Newsnight's editor, Peter Rippon, said they shelved the program on Savile after public prosecutors dropped their case for lack of evidence. An article in the New York Times on Saturday pointed out that Thompson was at the top job at the BBC when the Newsnight show was cancelled. Thompson, who steps into the CEO role at the New York Times next month, said in a statement: "I was not notified or briefed about the Newsnight investigation, nor was I involved in any way in the decision not to complete and air the investigation. I have no reason to doubt the public statement by the program's editor, Peter Rippon, that the decision not to pursue the investigation was entirely his, and that it was made solely for journalistic reasons. During my time as director general of the BBC, I never heard any allegations or received any complaints about Jimmy Savile."

No evidence has emerged to show that Thompson knew about the program decision or about Savile's alleged behaviour.

The BBC is a sprawling organization with 22,000 employees working at its eight national TV channels, 50 radio stations and an extensive website. During the years when their careers overlapped, Thompson was in the news and current affairs area of the company rather than in its entertainment arm where Savile worked until retiring in 1994.

Mark Damazer, the former controller of Radio 4 and Radio 7 at the BBC and currently the head of St. Peter's College at the University of Oxford, does not believe that Thompson had anything to do with the editorial process of the Newsnight program.
"The chances that Mark interfered in the decisions of Newsnight as to whether or not they were going to broadcast the story are precisely zero," said Mark Damazer, a long-time colleague of Thompson's who left the BBC in 2010.

A representative for the New York Times would not comment on the BBC investigations, saying only that Thompson is "our incoming CEO and he starts in November."

Still, the "optics" of the situation are not ideal for Thompson or the New York Times, said Kelly McBride, a senior faculty member for ethics at the Poynter Institute, a journalism school and media think tank.

"It really depends what else comes out and how closely he can be tied to the scandal at the BBC," said McBride. "If it's just guilt by association most of the time organizations are fine with that." The danger for the New York Times Co would be if it was the kind of scandal that led to layer upon layer of revelations, she said.

Thompson was named CEO of the New York Times Co in August, capping an eight-month search for an executive to lead the company after Janet Robinson was abruptly ousted as chief executive last year.
He was tapped by the Times Co in part because of his extensive experience in video and digital, and because of his skills in corporate diplomacy.

While at the BBC, Thompson helped develop the digital iPlayer, which enables viewers to catch up on missed programs online for free. It was considered a huge hit among those viewing the Olympics.

He has been lauded for guiding the public broadcaster through morale problems, assaults from Rupert Murdoch's media empire and threats to its funding by the British government.

Indeed, News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, whose own company's U.K. phone-hacking scandal has been covered extensively by both the BBC and the New York Times, seized on the opportunity to jab at his rivals on Twitter.
"Look to new CEO to shake up NYT unless recalled to BBC to explain latest scandal," tweeted Murdoch.

Telegraph.co.uk

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Jimmy Savile treated school like 'paedophile sweetshop'
The Home Office has been dragged into the Sir Jimmy Savile abuse scandal after it was revealed he was allowed to stay overnight at a school for disturbed girls.

At least five former pupils have told how the DJ abused them during visits to Duncroft Approved School when it was under direct Home Office control.
They claim that the Jim'll Fix star was given his own flat in the building in Staines, Surrey, by the headmistress in what one victim described as a "paedophile sweet shop".
The institution for emotionally disturbed girls was under the direct supervision of the Home Office until April 1973, a report in the Daily Mirror claims.
It was visited regularly by government inspectors.
A former pupil Toni Townsend, one of three girls photographed with the star in 1972, told the newspaper: "Jimmy treated Duncroft like a paedophile sweet shop.
"He used to take his pick of the mix. He would wander around the school in a vest and tracksuit bottoms.
"He stayed in a flat on the top floor. He was the only man allowed to stay overnight. Who knows what horrors happened up there.
"The girls at Duncroft had been sent there by the courts for prostitution, drugs and because they tried to kill themselves. Who would have believed us against Saint Jimmy?"
A fellow pupil Carole Wells, now 52, told how Savile once assaulted her in his Rolls-Royce after the headmistress asked if she wanted to go for a ride with him.
She said: "He asked me my name and where I lived. Then he stopped the car and said, 'Are you a virgin?'
"I said, 'I'm not telling you that'. Then he put his hands down my knickers and started messing about with me. He put my hand down his trousers then took me back. I was crying."
Ms Wells said she reported the incident to the head who allegedly did not believe her.
In 2007, Surrey Police investigated Savile over allegations that he had abused pupils at the school but the Crown Prosecution Service ruled there was insufficient evidence.
The approved school was one of 121 across the country managed and owned by voluntary groups overseen by central government.
The shadow Culture Secretary Harriet Harman said: "The fact that the Home Office now seems to be involved underlines the need for an independent inquiry."
Savile was said to have abused his paper boy after inviting him into his flat to give him a Christmas bonus.
The lad was just 15 when the predatory TV star gave him £40 and then said: "Now you've got to really earn it," according to the Sun.
Savile then lunged at the terrified teenager, pulling down his jeans and molesting him before he managed to escape his clutches in the star's flat in Leeds.
"He would have raped me if I hadn't got out of there," said the victim aged 51.
"He seemed to get a sick strength from somewhere. He was like Jekyll and Hyde and got aggressive when I shrugged him off.
"He was shouting and bawling, Mr Nice Guy had gone out the window. It was very frightening. I remember it as if it were yesterday."
Another man told the Sun Savile targeted him when he was 10 at the Haut de la Garenne children's home in Jersey.
Meanwhile his former assistant Janet Cope told how Savile had an explosive temper that terrified everyone from hospital staff to fund-raisers.
Miss Cope initially stuck by him when the allegations of his perverted past surfaced. But as the trickle turned to a torrent, she conceded that even she may have been duped, according to the Mirror.
"Sadly, the evidence against Jim does seem a bit overwhelming and, really, I'm at a loss for words," she said.
"He thought he was untouchable because he was hand in glove with the hospitals, royalty and the Prime Minister."
Dame Janet Smith, a former High Court judge, will look into whether the BBC’s culture allowed sexual harassment and assault to take place while Jimmy Savile was one of its biggest stars for 40 years.
In a separate inquiry, Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News, will look at whether a BBC’s Newsnight programme probing Savile's past was shelved to cover-up his alleged abuse.
The Pollard Review will begin immediately, but the Smith Review may be delayed while police investigate claims from more than 60 potential victims that they were molested by the late DJ and broadcaster.
It came after Downing Street said David Cameron may call a separate public inquiry after the BBC and police have done their work.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said he "has not ruled out" an independent hearing into the “truly shocking” revelations.
Earlier in the day, Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister, said there may be a case for a public inquiry as Savile's alleged ability to abuse in so many areas of public life shows the "dark side" of celebrity.
Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, previously called for the Government to take a "broad look" at the "horrific allegations" embroiling Savile, who died last year at the age of 84.
The BBC and police inquiries were prompted after ITV broadcast interviews with a series of women claiming to have been assaulted by Savile in the 1970s.
Since its programme was aired, dozens more women have come forward with allegations about Savile, while presenters Liz Kershaw and Sandi Toksvig, have said they were routinely groped by more senior male colleagues at the BBC.
Some of the evidence about Savile collected by a former child protection officer had previously been rejected by the BBC’s Newsnight, which went on to show programmes celebrating its star’s life and charity works.
Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, on Monday suggested the Newsnight investigation was "inappropriately pulled", although her office later claimed she had not meant to say that.
George Entwistle, the BBC's director-general, will face questions over the decision when he appears before the culture, media and sport committee of MPs as early as next week.
Mr Entwistle has said he was aware Newsnight was investigating Savile last year, when he was the head of BBC Vision, but claims he did not ask about the investigation in case he was accused of meddling.
He is likely to be asked why the BBC decided to screen tribute programmes to Savile after his death last year without finding out more about the Newsnight investigation.
Kevin Marsh, editor of the BBC College of Journalism and a former editor of Radio 4's Today programme, said the "real and present danger" to the BBC and to Mr Entwistle was the question: "Why didn't the head of Vision shelve the tributes once he knew that a BBC programme – or indeed any other part of the media – was finally investigating Savile?"
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Jeremy Vine, the Radio 2 presenter and former Newsnight journalist, said it would be a scandal if anyone at the BBC had allowed the "hagiographies" about Savile's life to be aired if they knew the details of the Newsnight investigation.

Jimmy Savile: Judge Chosen To Lead BBC Probe
Sky News – 3 hours ago

Former High Court judge Dame Janet Smith will lead the BBC's internal inquiry into sex abuse claims against Jimmy Savile, it has been announced.
The corporation also revealed former head of Sky News Nick Pollard will head a review into Newsnight and its decision to axe an investigative report about the late presenter.
A statement issued by the BBC said the Pollard Review would "seek to establish whether there were any failings in the BBC's management of the Newsnight investigation" into claims against Savile - and in the broadcast of tribute programmes after his death.
Meanwhile, Dame Janet will head up a review into the culture and practices of the BBC during Savile's time there and look into whether the broadcaster's child protection and whistleblowing arrangements are "fit for purpose".
The Smith Review will begin only once police have indicated they are happy for it to proceed. Sky News understands Mr Pollard's investigation could start in the next few days.
Downing Street had previously indicated David Cameron could order a public inquiry into the scandal once the BBC and police investigations are concluded.
Number 10 insisted it was still an option after Labour led calls for the Government to set up an independent inquiry into the sex abuse allegations.
A spokesman said: "Nothing has been ruled out, but our view is it would be premature to prejudge the outcome of the two BBC inquiries and the police investigation."
The comments came after Culture Secretary Maria Miller appeared to rule out an independent inquiry as she expressed confidence that BBC chiefs were taking the claims "very seriously".
Labour leader Ed Miliband is insisting that the BBC's internal investigations are not enough and the victims deserve more.
He told Sky News on Tuesday: "I think we owe it to the victims to say 'look we are not going to have the institutions where the activities took place investigating themselves, we are going to have a separate inquiry across all those institutions'.
"I think they deserve truth and justice - and I think that is the best way of getting to it."
He had earlier told ITV1's The Agenda: "These are horrific allegations. In order to do right by the victims I don't think the BBC can lead their own inquiry.
"We need a broad look at all the public institutions involved - the BBC, parts of the NHS and Broadmoor. This has got to be independent."
Labour wants an independent inquiry that has the power to call for documents and summon witnesses and would look at Savile's activities at the BBC, Stoke Mandeville hospital and Broadmoor.
Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman also told Sky News on Tuesday that Savile's alleged victims would not be satisfied with the BBC investigating itself and insisted wider action was required.
"There was obviously a culture of silence which fermented a situation where more and more victims were able to be abused by Jimmy Savile," she said.
"Instead of just looking at the BBC, we need to look at those other organisations as well. Instead of a number of different inquiries, we need one inquiry to look at all these horrific allegations."
She added: "Until we have really got to the truth, then we can't ever be complacent that these sorts of things won't happen again."
Before Labour's demand, Ms Miller had rejected calls for an outside inquiry to restore the public's faith, warning it could hamper police investigations.
"In terms of a wider inquiry, we have a police investigation on-going at the moment," she said.
"Everybody would agree that it is really important that those individuals who have been victims know that that investigation can go on unfettered and that that should be our priority at this stage."
She cited the three separate internal investigations already launched by the BBC into the affair.
Police believe the DJ and television presenter's alleged catalogue of child sex abuse could have spanned six decades and included around 60 victims and are also investigating.
But former Met Police chief Sir Ian Blair has questioned the validity of a police investigation, given that Savile is no longer alive.
Appearing on Sky News, he said: "I don't quite know what this police inquiry is going to be into. They need to be taken seriously by the responsible authorities and when a man is dead, the police are not that person.
"It just seems to me that the police might be the right clearing house but this really is a matter for other authorities. Jimmy Savile is standing before a different tribunal now."
BBC director-general George Entwistle is due to appear before the Commons culture, media and sport select committee next week where he will face further questions about the affair.
Leeds North East MP Fabian Hamilton said his constituents, who turned out in their thousands to pay tribute to the broadcaster when he died, felt "betrayed and angry".

Mirror, FIONA PHILLIPS COLUMN

Now he's dead Jimmy Savile can never clear his name, a punishment that justly will last for eternity

Rumours that he “likes little kids” had been around for decades in the TV world, allegations I didn’t want to believe

The one emotion that I felt after meeting Sir Jimmy Savile about a dozen years ago was disappointment.

He wouldn’t look me in the eye, for starters. He was cold, a bit shifty and, of course, a serial show-off.

But that was no reason to believe he was the perverted monster portrayed this week by an increasing number of women.

I guess, being in my 30s, I was out of his age range anyway.

Rumours that Jimmy “likes little kids” had been around for decades in the TV world, ­allegations I didn’t want to believe after having been an avid fan of kindly uncle Jimmy whose only wish was to make children’s dreams come true on Jim’ll Fix It.

He fixed it all right.

He fixed it that being known for his never-ending charity work, being pictured wheeling patients around Stoke Mandeville Hospital, always in a tracksuit, ever ready to take off on a fund-raising run, would mean no one would ever guess that behind closed doors – Bentley, caravan or dressing room – the vulnerable girls he professed to be bringing cheer to were actually in fear of him.

Jimmy was a national treasure.

A single man who loved his mum, “The Duchess”, and devoted his life to helping others.

He became Sir Jimmy, for goodness sake – friend of the Pope, royalty and knighted by The Queen, the recipient of honorary university doctorates and numerous charity awards and citations.

Who would have been brave enough to stand up and literally take on the might of the Establishment by declaring: “Owz about that then? This guy likes little girls, as it ’appens”.

That is why, despite the rumours, no one wanted to be the first to dent Jimmy’s saintly halo.

Not so, Gary Glitter, who I also met and who also had a shifty “don’t-look-me-in-the-eye” demeanour and, like Jimmy, distinctive hair (only it was someone else’s).

It’s why his dirty little secrets were aired as soon as they were uncovered and he was hung out to dry.

It’s why the same happened to Jonathan King.

But no one wanted to believe Jimmy was cut from the same cloth – big ego, big hair, big dirty secret.

The police, the BBC, the royals, his radio colleagues – all of whom this week have said they didn’t really know him – didn’t want to be the first to topple Sir Jimmy.

Even the girls he was abusing, not helped by the fact he would often say “You’re all right now” after raping them, somehow believed they – not Jimmy – were in the wrong.

Now we know they were wronged, because scum always rises to the top and bad deeds rarely remain ­unpunished.

That Savile’s vile secret life has been exposed posthumously means he can never clear his name.

It’s a punishment that will, justly, last until eternity. As it ’appens.

Also in 1990 he was honoured by Pope John Paul II with a Papal knighthood making him a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great (KCSG). It was reported in October 2012 that the Roman Catholic Church is considering stripping Savile of the honour.

Why would The BBC make the programme in the first place if they intended to cancel it to aid a cover up?

Mirror: News UK News Jimmy Savile child abuse
17 Oct 2012 09:00 By Alison Phillips
JIMMY SAVILE CHILD ABUSE

Gripes about gropes aren't the real issue in the Jimmy Savile child sex abuse scandal

By choosing now to bring their personal grievances into the spotlight, women are muddying what was previously a very clear issue – that Savile was molesting and raping children

Right, I think it’s time we all took a deep breath and calmed down about radio and TV stars with wandering hands.

This week former newsreader Vivien Creegor accused DJ Dave Lee Travis of “jiggling her breasts” back in the 1980s, which he denies.

Last week DJ Liz Kershaw told how her breasts were fondled while she was live on air during her early days on Radio 1.

Sandi Toksvig has also joined the gang saying she too was “unpleasantly groped” during the 80s.

But quite frankly Sandi, who wasn’t?

I’m not saying this behaviour was right, of course it wasn’t. But things were different then.

Like woodchip wallpaper and leg warmers, these things weren’t nice, but it was how it was.

And as someone once wrote: “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.”

But by choosing now to bring their personal ­grievances into the ­spotlight these women are muddying what was ­previously a very clear issue – that Jimmy Savile was molesting and raping children.

Women like Vivien, Sandi and Liz were, I guess, hoping to shine a light on the prehistoric attitude to women they ­discovered in broadcasting 30 years ago.

But if they think that lewd remarks and letchy guys were exclusive to the airwaves they are sorely mistaken. I was out with a group of friends at the weekend and every single one of us had some tale of inappropriate touching up from our early days at work. But were we sitting there shaking in horror as we relived our moments of victimhood?

Of course not. One friend had tears of laughter rolling down her face as she remembered how her first promotion in a provincial bank was celebrated by Mr B – the bank manager – pinning her up against his office wall and kissing her. He then sat through the next hour’s staff meeting with a bright pink lipstick mark on the corner of his mouth.

Obviously it wasn’t right and it wasn’t respectful. And if it happened to any of our daughters in their first job we’d been down there ramming Mr B’s bank ledgers where the sun doesn’t shine.

But more likely if that happened to any of our daughters now they would be doing that themselves. Because the good news to be taken from all these stories of ­molestation is ­how much the workplace has changed in three decades.

Women got so sick of dirty old men leering and letching that we fought for change. And now we have equality ­legislation and a general culture which means men don’t get away with that kind of behaviour.

If Vivien, Liz or Sandi’s experiences had happened in the last few years I would have huge sympathy for them and be demanding their gropers were held to account.

But I can’t agree with a witch hunt over something that happened so long ago.

At a time when Benny Hill was one of the most watched programmes on TV, when Carry On films were regarded as cutting edge humour and when James Bond was more revered for his groping than his gadgets.

If every breast-jiggler of the 1980s is to be brought to account the country’s police stations will be overflowing.

A far better place for those breast-jigglers is to leave them in that foreign country – the past.

And let’s keep in clear focus the real issue: the terrible actions of a dangerous predatory paedophile – Jimmy Savile – and how he managed to evade ­detection, for far, far too long.