Jimmy Savile

The recent revelations over Jimmy Savile have been a shock to almost all of us who grew up with him regularly on the television. It has also led to the BBC being scrutinised like never before. Over 400 lines of enquiry are now being followed up by the Police, with many former victims emerging from the shadows with shocking tales to tell.

With the perpetrator of these evil crimes dead and buried, many are looking for a direction for their anger and the BBC is so far taking a lot of the hits. Indeed the BBC has many questions to answer, not least why there was an apparent delay in responding when the storm over Jimmy Savile’s conduct broke and why the Newsnight programme was dropped. Yet for all the fire to be aimed at the BBC is to miss the full picture. Is it not also right to ask why the Crown Prosecution Service dropped a prosecution against Savile? Or why was he given so much access to hospitals and an approved school for vulnerable girls when staff apparently were not comfortable with him being there? Why also did Police enquiries finish without any action being taken against Jimmy Savile?  Many questions are yet to be answered and we need to give the organisations involved time to investigate properly.

Throughout the forthcoming inquiries I hope that we do not lose sight of the fact that the real perpetrator is Jimmy Savile himself. His behaviour was that of a repugnant and abusive paedophile, and there are no other excuses. By all means, the BBC should be scrutinised and any lessons that can be learned from this should be. The true injustice is that Savile’s victims will never see him held to account.