As one of BBC’s biggest star, Savile was the core to the BBC’s success eg a Sat evening TV fixture in millions of UK homes. As his TV presence grew, his celebrity promoted his philanthropy which in turn boosted his national fame. Over 30 years, he raised £40+ million for the NHS. Powerful institutions rewarded him with membership on their boards.
Top of the Pops, presented by Jimmy Savile,
New Year's Day 1964
The Independent
Jimmy Savile taking underprivileged children
on a day out to Southend, London. 1973.
Allthatsinteresting
The star died of pneumonia in Oct 2011, and a warm tribute programme to honour him was quickly broadcast on BBC1: Jimmy Savile: As It Happened.
Only then were many official inquiries launched into Savile’s abuse at hospitals, schools and the BBC. BBC Director General George Entwistle asked the BBC Scotland Director to investigate the circumstances in which the Newsnight investigation was dropped. Entwistle gave evidence to the appropriate Commons Select Committee, then quickly resigned as BBC D-G in Nov 2012. Panorama ran a programme called Jimmy Savile: What the BBC Knew, on the scandal and the original scrapping of the Newsnight investigation.
As hundreds of past victims came forward, the Crown Prosecution Service and Metropolitan Police Service released a joint report in 2013 on Savile’s crimes, primarily committed at the height of his fame!
In Jan 2013 Scotland Yard’s report, Giving Victims a Voice Report, found that 73% of his victims were children in 14 medical facilities. 450 people DID complain against Savile, with the worst period in the 1955-2009 era with many rapes formally reported to 28 police forces. I realise that some of the children’s complaints might have been fake, but SAVILE WAS NEVER CHARGED DURING HIS LIFETIME! NOT ONCE!
Only in 2014 did the Dept of Health publish the results of these investigations. In Leeds General infirmary, Savile abused 60 patients aged 5-75. At high-security Broadmoor Hospital, he abused patients. Clearly a school, hospital or media empire would have been reluctant to damage its own reputation by calling Police to save children. Or even adults. And this doesn’t excuse the police, but the BBC DID have information the police did not. However in the end it was the police who were legally bound to protect people from sexual abuse.
Only then were many official inquiries launched into Savile’s abuse at hospitals, schools and the BBC. BBC Director General George Entwistle asked the BBC Scotland Director to investigate the circumstances in which the Newsnight investigation was dropped. Entwistle gave evidence to the appropriate Commons Select Committee, then quickly resigned as BBC D-G in Nov 2012. Panorama ran a programme called Jimmy Savile: What the BBC Knew, on the scandal and the original scrapping of the Newsnight investigation.
As hundreds of past victims came forward, the Crown Prosecution Service and Metropolitan Police Service released a joint report in 2013 on Savile’s crimes, primarily committed at the height of his fame!
In Jan 2013 Scotland Yard’s report, Giving Victims a Voice Report, found that 73% of his victims were children in 14 medical facilities. 450 people DID complain against Savile, with the worst period in the 1955-2009 era with many rapes formally reported to 28 police forces. I realise that some of the children’s complaints might have been fake, but SAVILE WAS NEVER CHARGED DURING HIS LIFETIME! NOT ONCE!
Only in 2014 did the Dept of Health publish the results of these investigations. In Leeds General infirmary, Savile abused 60 patients aged 5-75. At high-security Broadmoor Hospital, he abused patients. Clearly a school, hospital or media empire would have been reluctant to damage its own reputation by calling Police to save children. Or even adults. And this doesn’t excuse the police, but the BBC DID have information the police did not. However in the end it was the police who were legally bound to protect people from sexual abuse.
PM Margaret Thatcher and Jimmy Saville at #10, 1988.
She tried 5 times to get him knighted, succeeding in 1990
Daily Mail
She tried 5 times to get him knighted, succeeding in 1990
Daily Mail
Sir Jimmy Saville with revellers
Radio One Love Parade, Leeds, 2009
Radio One Love Parade, Leeds, 2009
Daily Mail
Ironically Savile was the recipient of many honours: BBC, NHS, Education Dept, church, monarchy and military were all involved in his awards. He won an OBE (1971) and was knighted (1990) by the Queen for his voluntary charity work at medical sites. In Nov 2009 he received an honorary arts degree from Bedfordshire Uni for his lifelong support of the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital Aylesbury - because he had a spinal injury while he was working as a child coal miner. Were the honours withdrawn after all the reports were published?
See a new Netflix documentary series by Rowan Deacon called Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story, 2022. Deacon used archive footage and interviews with survivors and staff who’d worked closely with Savile. But note that by marginalising the empowering role of institutions in Savile’s crimes, both the Netflix documentary and the Inquiries ultimately protected the reputations of those institutions, and freed them of responsibility.
See a new Netflix documentary series by Rowan Deacon called Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story, 2022. Deacon used archive footage and interviews with survivors and staff who’d worked closely with Savile. But note that by marginalising the empowering role of institutions in Savile’s crimes, both the Netflix documentary and the Inquiries ultimately protected the reputations of those institutions, and freed them of responsibility.
So who WAS guilty for enabling, covering up or failing to investigate the crimes? Noone?
My own Protective Services Victoria experience made it clear that major celebrities have long relied on institutional protection, legal strategies, manipulation of the media to neutralise allegations and to silence victims. Thank you to Multi-Institutional Masking of Sir Jimmy Savile for making the concept of Untouchable Celebrity Status crystal clear.
My own Protective Services Victoria experience made it clear that major celebrities have long relied on institutional protection, legal strategies, manipulation of the media to neutralise allegations and to silence victims. Thank you to Multi-Institutional Masking of Sir Jimmy Savile for making the concept of Untouchable Celebrity Status crystal clear.
44 comments:
In Australia, state and territory governments are responsible for statutory child protection. Relevant departments support vulnerable children who have been abused, neglected or otherwise harmed, or whose parents are unable to provide adequate care or protection. In 2022, 178,000 Australian children aged under 18 came into contact with the child protection system. Contact includes investigations, care and protection order and/or out-of-home care placements.
If you wish to report a child protection matter, directly contact the agency responsible for child protection in your state or territory:
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/health-welfare-services/child-protection/links-other-information
I had never heard of this so called man Hels when I was younger, only when he died did I hear what wrong he had done..
Power and politics can always make crimes disappear. So many "Sirs" are implicated in child abuse.
Helen this Guardian review (10/Oct/2023) helped me make the decision to see the film.
If you are among the few who do not know that Jimmy Savile was an absolutely evil man, then I recommend watching The Reckoning, a dramatisation of his story written by Neil McKay and starring Steve Coogan as the necro-paedophile. For everyone else, stripped of context, The Reckoning is a rigorously well-made and polished thing. It takes us from 1962, as Savile’s career as a DJ on the northern club circuit began to gain traction, through his years as an increasingly beloved and powerful figure on radio and then television, and on until his much-mourned death in 2011 at 84, untouched and then untouchable by any revelations about his awful secrets. For some reason, it is interspersed with a lot of archive footage of the real Savile that interrupts the viewer’s engagement.
The thing that makes me so angry about Saville is that he died before he could be prosecuted. His victims never received justice. The cover up was appalling from the BBC to the police.
Sad really. Thank you for raising the issue. What's worse is child abuse... Humanity has progressed so much but we can't protect Children...
AIHW
many thanks for the information.
If adults report a child protection case in Australia, I am certain that it will be professionally investigated, and either substantiated or not. The problem with the Savile victims in UK was that many of the younger cases were never reported by the staff who saw what was happening, or their family members who wouldn't have believed their children.
He was a revolting man and I never understood his appeal, despite all the charity fund raising. One of daughter's friends wanted to organise a trip to appear on Jim'll Fix It and I was most unhappy. It didn't happen, happily.
Margaret
that was exactly what happened to most people! When Savile was alive, almost no-one who knew about the horrible cases and would have been too scared to say anything anyhow. After he had passed away, the victims and the witnesses were no longer afraid, and the newspapers could publish all the evidence they could find in the records for the first time!!
But 1950-2011 is a longggg time to wait for the truth.
roentare
Yes indeed! If Savile hadn't been so important in the entertainment world, and wasn't surrounded by important people, he would have been called out on his crimes decades earlier.
The concept was clear to me years ago when male members of parliament got away with raping their staff. But the expression "Untouchable Celebrity Status" has since become vital to my writing.
Deb
thank you. I will definitely see the film: Wednesdays, 8.30pm on BBC First / Binge.
My problem is that the film asks what happened during Savile's childhood that made him weird, alone, religious, austere and insensitive to his victims' horrors. I AM sorry if he had a terrible family life; nobody deserves that. But I am much more concerned about his victims. The film needs to ask how did a self aggrandising, narcissistic creep hide his activities? How did the victims not get professional assistance until 2012 or even later?
Fun60
once Savile died, it is possible that all the old coverups and secrets were/will be released, although who knows about the reports that were never found.
But is it too late for justice for victims decades later? Can the community show its long term support with long term psychiatric services, legal cases against institutions, financial support, a public apology from the BBC and the late Mrs Thatcher etc. YES!!!
Katerina
we will never end abuse and neglect against children, and sexual abuse against adults. So the question we need to ask is "given that some children and adults ARE going to be abused, how can we ensure that the community can protect them, and ensure justice if the abuse has already happened?" With the Savile case, I don't think that protection would have been difficult at all.
jabblog
He really did raise a truckload of charity funding, he visited lonely children in hospital and he took impoverished working class children on tours. All true. My concern is that the charitable events he involved himself in were carefully selected to be _totally_ out of the parents' and staffs' eyesight.
Have a look at the Radio One Love Parade photo above. Imagine the parents saying to their 17 year old daughter: "cover your boobs darls, you never know where Savile's hands or tongue will go".
Hello Hels, Savile reminds me of the case in America of Jerry Sandusky. Both were talented and highly regarded, then started programs for children and used them to prey on those children with impunity. Sandusky was finally put behind bars, but it is unbelievable how he was witnessed attacking children in the Penn State athletic facilities, and no one put a stop to it. May people said that they felt sorry for Joe Paterno, Penn State's legendary coach (and head of athletics) whose career and reputation were destroyed by this scandal, but the problem was graphically reported to him, and he did nothing to stop Sandusky, so I feel that Paterno as an enabler was lucky not to be prosecuted as an accessory. I was kind of surprised that Sandusky was not stopped earlier, because in the 2000's many savvy kids knew what was what, and would have spoken out, not as in the 1950's when Savile started his predations.
--Jim
I recognised the name but it didn't ring any other bells, not a nice person in my opinion ;and I am sure the opinion of many other well that is the conclusion I came to after reading this post
It's interesting how many well known people have dark sides. Does it come with power or were they always like that? It's too bad protective services too often miss situations until it is too late. I wasn't familiar with this story, so it was interesting to read it. Have a great rest of your weekend.
Parnassus
Yes the Sandusky story sounds very similar, re his commitment to charity, except he met his young people at football instead of music events. Aiding disadvantaged youths must have given him great access to groom and molest high school-aged boys for decades.
But again we have to ask what did the other staff who saw the crimes do to get rid of Sandusky and get legal and CPS protection for the lads? Sandusky’s powerful friends must have assured he was never charged with sexual abuse of boys... until 2011.
Jo-Anne
Not only was he a hideous person when he was committing his crimes. But he punished some victims even after the abuses had finished, refusing to confirm the victims' need for protection from police or CPS. At least one young teen became pregnant after the rape, but Savile wouldn't help at all.
Erika
Some famous people do indeed have dark sides eg not paying their workers, not paying any taxes, selling illegal lethal drugs, deserting their wives and children without housing or food, spying for the enemy etc etc. Did they have cold distant parents? were they whipped by their school principals? were they locked up in asylums?
But most famous people do not turn to molesting and raping victims, aged from 2-75. That was Savile's very great pleasure.
I thank you very much for writing this and it gives me some clarity of thought about such a creep. It is a classic case of not biting the hand that feeds you. But the police didn't get fed, or maybe individually they did. The cops should have thoroughly investigated such reported crimes. I'm sure Maggie was happy they didn't, Jimmy being a prime person of her pull yourself up by your bootstraps philosophy.
Andrew
Creep is an inadequate word. Savile told Leeds hospital staff he performed sex acts on corpses in Leeds mortuary, posing with bodies in lewd positions and stealing glass eyes. He said he had free access to the mortuary from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, an official investigation reported, concluding that Savile's interest in the deceased was "not within accepted boundaries".
Not within accepted boundaries???
The Guardian, 26th June 2014
Hi again, Why would a show host have "free access" to a mortuary? What legitimate interest or business could he have had there at all? Wouldn't his presence there have served as a warning sign to some? Savile's story keeps getting worse and creepier!
--Jim
Parnassus
warning signs are ignored everywhere, when famous people commit sexual crimes. In 1993, following the first allegations of child sexual assault by King of Pop Michael Jackson, FBI agents began looking into Jackson's alleged involvement with young children; the FBI investigations continued for almost 10 years. In 1993 and in 2005, trials against him were settled.
Only a 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland (Channel4-HBO) was a brutally explicit account of two abusive relationships that Jackson (d2009) had with children: Wade R and James S reported the rapes began when they were 7 and 10 years old respectively!! The ugliest insight of Leaving Neverland is that as part of the grooming process, the predator makes the child fall in love with him, drawing him into a guilty complicity. So child victims will protect their sex abusers for decades. At Jackson’s 2005 sexual abuse trial, the jury found the singer not guilty partially based on Wade’s evidence.
What NO outrage accompanying the announcement of this movie tells us is that Jackson’s seduction is still a living force. It seems that the press and his older fans who grew up loving Jackson are still willing to set aside his sexual abuse of children.
The Guardian 5/2/2023
Hels, a harrowing read. I did not know you worked in that field. You mention that some of the children in the Saville case might be lying. Considering that survivors of CSA are given life sentences for crimes they did not commit, I think that those who do come forward are heroes
My brother and I lived in a children's home and a wealthy business man targeted and brutalised underprivileged children both in the home and in the community.
Abused children often don't realise for decades that they weren't the only ones abused but when they do realise that, you will often see them come forward.
In this case, 8 former child victims came forward and managed to change the South African constitution which had previously put a statute of limitations of 20 years on sexual assault cases https://groundup.org.za/article/understanding-constitutional-courts-sydney-frankel-judgment
Speaking out can bring great change and healing
Mandy
I did my Batchelor's and Master's degrees in psychology, and worked for 20 years in unwanted pregnancies, abortion and child maltreatment for 20 years. But eventually it became fairly depressing so I went back to uni to refresh.
Re the wealthy businessman who targeted and brutalised unprotected children in your children's home.. that sounds a very familiar and miserable story, doesn't it? Did any of the children report the abuse? Was it taken seriously? Was the wealthy businessman ever charged and did the victims eventually see justice?
Boa tarde de segunda-feira. Um início de mês de abril com muita paz, saúde e novas realizações de grandes projetos.
Fico triste em saber, dessa impunidade.
Yes, they took the case to the highest court in South Africa and succeeded in changing the constitution so that crimes of sexual assault older than 20 years could be prosecuted. He died shortly after, so was not prosecuted, but people now know what he did.
Nobody took them seriously in the 80s
I was speaking to a Drug and Alcohol worker who told me that it is estimated that 80% of people with D and A problems have been to victims of domestic violence or child sexual assault . It is frighteningly common and up until the not very distant past not talked about and almost tolerated . I really hope that the community grows in its sophistication understanding the to devastation this causes to individuals and their families who are often deeply damaged by these crimes.It makes me so angry that people who did this to little children get away with it because their victims were / are unable to remember enough evidence etc in order to get a conviction . It also makes me physically ill to think of the attack on victims by defense lawyers who demolish victims as they try to get their customers off . How the hell do they sleep at night? Its hard though to contemplate what other system would work other than one that is geared to the suffering of the victim . If we don't have this system wee could end up with a very dangerous one where justice is a matter of luck .
The list of his abuses sounds awful! The problem lies, as usual, in people's not repoting them to the authorities in real time.
Luiz
Yes! Committing criminal sexual acts in the first place is disgusting enough. But being protected from being charged and punished is even worse.
Worst of all is the lack of support services to the victims years later.
Mandy
the victims were very brave to take the case to court and to succeed in making important progress. Braver still, if the original abuses had never been made public.
How many times have we seen that the wealthy abuser "died shortly after, so was not prosecuted?" Does that mean that the businessman got away permanently with a long history of abuse and that the victims will not fully supported for the rest of their lives? Sometimes I despair.
mem
I too hope that the community grows in its sophistication, understanding the devastation this causes to individuals seriously damaged by these crimes. But I truly believe it wasn't just sophistication that was missing. Wealthy and famous abusers seem to have been actively protected by the authorities, and never had to answer for their crimes :(
In only one case did I read that the parents chose not to protect their own children. Some parents acknowledged that Michael Jackson paid for their silence with plane tickets and hotel expenses that they otherwise couldn't have afforded. Wealth counts!!
DUTA
100% correct. We will never know who did not report the crimes in real time, and which the legal authorities (police and/or protective services) did receive a report but did not take the crimes seriously.
I saw just a few police reports, but did not see any planned responses by those police.
Luiz
many thanks. Do you have a special project in mind in the near future? I rarely look at art nouveau architecture, nor do I know Serbia very well. But I am examining a turn-of-the-century building that has prompted a great deal of reading.
Ten women in the Bahamas sue Peter Nygård and his companies in February 2020, accusing him of rape and sex trafficking. Dozens more women join the suit, and in December, he's arrested in Canada on US charges. Nygård denies all the allegations.
Unseamly: The Investigation of Peter Nygård
IMDb
As a child I always enjoyed watching Jim'll Fix It and the adventures the children got up to.
However I always found Jim a bit creepy and knew I would feel uncomfortable with him if I met him.
I have seen an interesting video clip of when he had Garry Glitter as a quest. When the two of them joined a group of children sitting on a large sofa the children recoiled and pulled away from the two of them as they sat down.
IMDb
I found the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper report about Peter Nygard being charged with rape back in 1980 but nothing since. So I hope your documentary covers the 44 years of any police reports and court cases in detail. Did Nygard have any powerful protectors keeping the women away from reporting the abuse? https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/peter-nygard/
Last year the Toronto court heard testimony from five women about assaults that occurred from the 1980s to the mid-2000s. In addition to these guilty verdicts, Nygard faces criminal charges in three other jurisdictions. The Guardian 13/11/23
Cherry
I find it excellent that when you were young, you already enjoyed the show but found enough in Savile's behaviour or personality to feel creepy - even if you were not mature enough back then to even know what the creepy part was. Perhaps your parents suggested to keep well away from the star, without going into the details of adult sleaziness.
I had forgotten about Gary Glitter until he was released from prison last year after serving half of his 16-year sentence for sexually abusing girls way back in the 1970s and 80s. How interesting that Savile and Glitter found each other.
Ugh. How I used to love watching Jim’ll Fix It. Now when I think about him, it makes my toes curl!
Handmade
So many people used to love Jim'll Fix It, proving to us that Savile was definitely a sneaky and successful entertainer for his target market.
Could your family have warned you to be careful of child abuse? Of course not.
Olympic sports Dr Larry Nassar, 58, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for sexually assaulting gymnasts, including Olympic medalists. 150 victims spoke or submitted statements during an extraordinary seven-day hearing in Aquilina’s court four years ago. Nassar pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment for hip and leg injuries. He worked at Michigan State University and at Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics, traveling the world with the elites of the sport.
Nassar subsequently received another 40-year sentence in a separate case in a neighboring county. He is currently in federal prison for child pornography crimes in a different case that grew out of the same investigation.
The repercussions continue from the scandal. 100 women are collectively seeking more than $1 billion from the federal government for the FBI’s failure to stop Nassar when agents received allegations against him in 2015. He was arrested by Michigan State University police in 2016. Michigan State, which was accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to 300 women and girls who were assaulted by him. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a separate settlement.
PBS Newshour
Jun 17, 2022
PBS
I hadn't heard of Dr Nassar until a uni student sent me a copy of these details. What shocked me most was that 1] Larry Nassar was a doctor, responsible for the medical care of many American athletes and 2] his victims seemed to be as young as 6 years old. Of course they were too young to report the abuse committed by a respectable doctor appointed by the Olympic Authorities. Even teens were afraid that they would be dropped from the teams, if they revealed the doctor's abuse. But lots of gym coaches had been banned for abuse of girls right back to 1990... how was Nassar not charged for another 16 years, leaving another generation of young gymnasts exposed to him?
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