Jimmy Savile accused in ITV documentary

Jimmy Savile: Cameron Hints Over Knighthood
Sky News – 12 minutes ago

The committee which looks at rescinding honours may want to consider Sir Jimmy Savile's knighthood following sexual abuse allegations against him, the Prime Minister has told Sky News.
When asked about the growing number of accusations against the late TV and radio presenter, who was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 1990, David Cameron said: "I think every institution has to ask themselves all the right questions.
"The BBC clearly has important questions to ask. We have in Britain something called the forfeiture committee - I don't sit on it, or chair it, or direct it - but it's the committee that looks at whether honours should be rescinded and I'm sure that they will obviously want to do their jobs as others have to do theirs."
The Jim'll Fix It Star, who died aged 84 a year ago, also received an OBE in 1971 for services to charity and broadcasting.
But the Cabinet Office said Savile no longer had a knighthood to revoke, as individuals cease to be a member of the order when they die.
"It's a living order and then you cease to be a member when you die," a spokesman said. "There isn't an honour to revoke."
However, a campaign by The Sun newspaper is calling for a change in the law so that honours can be revoked posthumously by the forfeiture committee.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the BBC Trust has said allegations of sexual abuse by Sir Jimmy over a number of years while he worked for the broadcaster cannot be excused as behaviour from a time when "attitudes were different".
Lord Patten has also given his full backing to inquiries by police and the corporation.
Speaking at a business dinner in Cardiff, the BBC chairman said it was "no excuse to say 'that was then' in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and attitudes were different then".
He told the Cardiff Business Club: "It's no excuse to say, 'I'm sure the same thing used to happen with pop groups and others at the time'. Those things may be true but they don't provide an excuse."
His comments came after BBC director-general George Entwistle apologised to the alleged victims and pledged the corporation would hold its own inquiry following a police probe.
Lord Patten echoed Mr Entwistle's announcement and outlined how the BBC would act.
He said: "There will be a full police inquiry and we will encourage people to co-operate with it, and when that is completed, we will then look at the issues which still remain to be resolved in a way which will have to command credibility in the wider community."
Mr Entwistle, who started in his new role last month, spoke of deep regret about the ordeals of the women involved in the "awful allegations", and said there would be a "comprehensive examination" of what went on.
Last week the BBC said it would work with police in examining the claims and Mr Entwistle wrote to staff urging them to come forward with information.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday, he said: "These are awful allegations that have been made, and they are criminal allegations.
"And the first thing I want to say is that the women involved here have gone through something awful, something I deeply regret they should have to go through, and I would like to apologise on behalf of the organisation to each and every one of them for what they've had to endure here."
A growing number of women have come forward to claim they were either abused - many of them under-age - or that they saw others who were victims.
A number of former colleagues have also told how they were aware of rumours about the former Top Of The Pops presenter.
Unease about the claims has led to a number of memorials to the star being removed, including an inscription on the wall at Leeds Civic Hall in recognition of his charity work and a street sign in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.
Former Radio 1 DJ Liz Kershaw told over the weekend how when she joined Radio 1 in 1987 - the year Sir Jimmy left - his behaviour was an "open secret" at the station.
She described how she was routinely groped by another presenter as she was broadcasting.
Broadcaster Janet Street-Porter previously revealed she was aware of rumours about the television and radio presenter's alleged abuse of under-age girls when she worked at the BBC in the late 1980s.
Police child abuse officers have met BBC officials to discuss the allegations.
Officers said they were contacting all individuals who have made claims about the late presenter and should know how many reported victims there are some time this week.

bb1 wrote:BTW, is there any difference between Savile and this leading McCann-hater?

Given too much charity: Many of us suspected Jimmy Savile and did nothing

ONE of the weirdest stories I have ever covered was the laying in state of Jimmy Savile in a Leeds hotel last year.

One huge, gold-effect Vegas coffin, two This Is Your Life books, three cigars in an ashtray, and a crowd filing through like pilgrims at Lenin’s tomb writing messages such as: “God Fixed It for you to go to heaven.”

It left me with the same spooky, sickly “this isn’t right” feeling I’d had whenever I looked at Savile in his gold tracksuit, bangles, and dyed white head, doing that strange yodel noise behind eyes that tried to appear full of love but looked eerily dead.

Many of the pilgrims were weird too.
I asked one about the sexual allegations that had dogged Savile and he ­answered: “How dare you call him a bad man? He raised £40million for charity. How much have you raised?” Which seems to have been the stock defence that allowed this ­paedophile to operate all of his adult life. Come back with your dirty allegations when you’ve built a hospital wing, they said. The man’s a saint, so how can he be a sinner?

It’s very easy, now women are coming forward to state they were molested by Savile, to get angry at those who suspected his crimes and did nothing.

Very easy to say that the BBC, Paul Gambaccini – who claims he knew of his colleague’s proclivities for 30 years, the TV producer who saw him with his hand up a 14-year-old’s skirt and the ­executive who knew he’d spent the night in a hotel with a 12-year-old, are all complicit in the most heinous of crimes.

But the truth is, many of us, including journalists like myself, suspected and did nothing.

Back in the 90s Savile used to answer the phone to us ­reporters with the words: “She told me she was over 16.” And we laughed it off.

Where were our ­exposés? Instead of ­arguing with our editors that this warped man should be hung out to dry, we preferred to crack jokes about it.

Far easier to write “Now then young lady, you asked if I could arrange for you to take a butchers at my old miner’s lamp.

"Well goodness, gracious me, you’re in luck tonight, darling,” than to front him up and damn him.

The truth is that we ­allowed ourselves to ­believe that Savile could never be nailed.
We accepted there was no will on high to out ­someone who was looked on so fondly and who raised so much for charity. He was too Establishment. Tragically his victims felt the same way.

A quote from 18th century philosopher Edmund Burke has been going through my head this past month.

I thought it when the truth about Hillsborough was finally exposed, and we learnt how policemen had allowed their statements to be changed by a black propaganda unit which condemned bereaved families to 23 years of hell.

I thought of it reading about the Rochdale child abuse cover-up, when police and the local council were warned dozens of times that vulnerable girls were being groomed and raped by gangs of men, and did nothing.

The quote: “All that is needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”

Remember it next time you hear a weak voice accusing the powerful of crimes that you’d like to believe they are incapable of committing.

And try to do something.

Sky News – 1 hour 30 minutes ago

Up to 25 young girls were allegedly sexually abused by Sir Jimmy Savile over a period spanning four decades, Scotland Yard has revealed.
The Metropolitan Police force said it received 17 allegations of sexual abuse against Sir Jimmy and 21 allegations against others, after the NSPCC set up a hotline for people who believe they were abused by the TV presenter.
Officers say they now have 120 lines of inquiry from alleged victims, witnesses and third parties.
Among the claims, police say they have recorded two allegations of rape and six allegations of indecent assault. The youngest alleged victim is 13 years old.
Sky News' crime correspondent Martin Brunt, who attended a briefing by detectives at Scotland Yard, said: "This information relates to a joint assessment between Scotland Yard officers and the NSPCC.
" The NSPCC say they have received about 40 calls so far to their hotline. They wanted it to be made clear that those 21 other allegations about people who are not Jimmy Savile, were not necessarily related or connected to Jimmy Savile in any way.
"I think we now have acceptance by the investigators that the scale of this is truly big and growing. The officer in charge spoke about 13 calls which have come in just today".
Police were reluctant to confirm whether the new allegations related to people from the entertainment or showbusiness world.
According to Dr Peter Spindler, the commander in charge of the assessment, the new lines of inquiry do not yet constitute a new investigation, though an investigation could lead from the assessment, and not only into Sir Jimmy.
Dr Spindler stressed there was currently no evidence or allegations to suggest there was a 'sex ring' operating within the BBC.
He said: "The reality is this really has captured the public's mind. We are getting calls from victims, from witnesses and third parties who believe they know something about it.
"We have formally recorded eight criminal allegations against Savile. Two of those are rape and six of indecent assault. These are primarily against girls in their mid-teens, so between the ages of 13 and 16, and it spans four decades of abuse."
Scotland Yard has been in contact with ITV and the BBC to gather information and they are contacting alleged victims to see if they will co-operate.
"We believe there are probably another 20 potential victims," Mr Spindler added.
"It is too early for us to give you an accurate picture of what these new lines of inquiry will distill down to but we believe we will come up with between 20 to 25 victims.
"The pattern of his offending behaviour does appear to be on a national scale," he said. Mr Spindler added that police will produce a joint report with the NSPCC to look to see what lessons can be learned and what conclusions can be drawn, which can be shared with other agencies.
NSPCC director Peter Liver told Sky News: "Our primary involvement is to be there for adults who want to report concerns related to Jimmy Savile or any other individual, for that matter.
"We have a 24/7 helpline and we are encouraging adults who want to talk to us about Jimmy Savile to contact us and the trained counsellors are there to take calls.
"In the past five days we have had 40 calls to the helpline, relating to this matter and of those 40 calls, 17 relate specifically to Jimmy Savile and we have passed those calls on to the Metropolitan Police inquiry.
"What matters in terms of closure is that we are there to listen to them and talk to them. But perhaps most importantly - and this is what we know time and time again from victims of sexual abuse - that we actually come out and say to them 'we believe you'.
"That expression of support is very important in terms of closure for these victims. Obviously, Jimmy Savile is no longer here to answer to the abuse so our focus is the victims."
Scotland Yard refused to be drawn on whether the Metropolitan Police paedophile unit or any other child protection squad had ever investigated Sir Jimmy.