The Jimmy Savile nightmare continues….
Late last year (after Savile’s death) a team from BBC2’s Newsnight started investigating claims that Savile had been active in sexually abusing young girls for decades. They based their story, almost totally, on the claims of women who had been resident in care homes whilst in their teens. Remarkably, Savile’s alleged victims had waited until his death to speak out in public – and on camera.
The Newsnight story was shelved before transmission, after the programme’s Editor decided it should not be aired. The reason for his decision is still in dispute.
If last night’s much publicised Panorama programme, based on the Newsnight shelving, was supposed to help clear up much of the mystery and myth surrounding the Jimmy Savile affair – it didn’t.
Instead, it highlighted a lot of questions which continue to remain unanswered.
For example:
- Why was Savile given such open access to care homes, and secure hospitals, where vulnerable teenagers should have felt protected and safe?
- Why was he permitted to remove children from those homes without direct supervision and (allegedly) take them to recordings of his programmes at the BBC, and for drives in the countryside (and more) in his Rolls Royce?
- Why was he allowed access to Duncroft House, in Staines, where many of his victims are said to have been abused while in care?
- Why have none of the other ‘famous’ people who are said to have visited the mysterious Duncroft House been identified?
- Why, following an investigation by Surrey police, and when the CPS decided there was not enough evidence of a crime for Savile to answer, did the Newsnight team still feel so confident Savile was a paedophile?
- Why, when so many differing people have now come forward to voice their long held suspicions, was he allowed to go unchallenged for so long?
- Why have successive governments avoided taking action to protect the young and vulnerable from someone who is alleged to have been such a predatory paedophile, and who is said to have enjoyed frequent contact with members of The Royal Family? – If the allegations are true, it seems highly unlikely the rumours surrounding Savile would have escaped the attention of the security services.
- Why is the spotlight being focussed so intensely on the BBC? Is it to distract the public, and media, from others who may have had involvement in his activities?
BBC veteran journalist, John Simpson, has described the BBC’s present situation as the worst crisis it has had to face in the fifty years he has worked for them.
Does the Savile affair have the potential to be an even bigger crisis for those who are holding the answers to some of the most unwanted questions?