Monday, October 1, 2012

Sir Jimmy Savile - a child molester and pervert?

In a post last year called Losing Sir Jimmy I wrote about Sir Jimmy Savile in nostalgic, if not altogether glowing terms.

Certainly the guy was an ego maniac and at times unpleasant. And the paedo rumors were there swirling around him but not substantiated. Like idiots we gave him the benefit of the doubt.



It's, therefore, a real shock to me to read in The Sun about how a number of women have come forward to claim how the late flaboyant Top of the Pops presenter and DJ sexually abused them when they were teenagers.

This is a really horrible and shocking tale. It reveals what you can get away with just because you happen to be a celebrity and how the word of a victim means nothing if it's up against a TV star. And while we should pepper this account with a few "allegedlys," I really can't see why a number of grown women would come forward 38 years later to make allegations against a dead man that weren't true.

I was particularly taken aback by the line that when one of Savile's 14-year-old victims complained to her school staff did not believe her and put her in a padded cell for five days in solitary confinement until she withdrew her story.

On Wednesday ITV will air a documentary claiming Sir Jimmy abused under-age girls including at the BBC TV Center and in his Rolls Royce.

This is sickening on so many levels. When I was growing up Sir Jimmy was chosen to front the most famous children's TV show at the time Jim'll Fix It - a show in which he bounced kids happily on his knee and made their dreams come true. We all wrote in and expressed our disappointment when we weren't picked. It's a disconcerting feeling to know the real JS; it's a bit like discovering Santa was a kiddie fiddler.

There's another disturbing dimension to this. Last year BBC 2's Newsnight show was investigating an allegation of another of Sir Jimmy's alleged victims. Newsnight has a repuation for hard-hitting journalism (supposedly) but the report was axed.

According to the Sun bosses at the BBC were "incredibly uncomfortable" about the report because so much money had already been spent on a lavish tribute to Sir Jimmy last Christmas and it was pulled. So much for investigative journalism.

It seems nobody was brave enought to get the truth on Sir Jimmy when he was alive and they were even reticent to do so after his death.

I'm going to cut this rant short as I'm feeling queasy and it's gone midnight.

13 comments:

  1. Queasy is the word. He acted with impunity protected by his fame and complicit lackeys. One wonders who else has behaved similarly and is behaving similarly.

    In some ways it's so disappointingly predictable.

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    1. I know Sarah and the last time I wrote about him everyone just thought he was a 'character'

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  2. Have we not learned anything from all the Catholic sex scandals of the last 20 years? Despicable.

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  3. Reminds me of the Michael Jackson sex scandals...

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    1. Yup Sandra - there are certain parallels - thanks for the visit.

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  4. Also, thanks to him for A Fix with the Santorans (I'm being sarcastic here ¬¬).

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  5. That's just horrible. :( And what's worse is everyone looking the other way b/c he was a celebrity.

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    1. yes there's certainly an institutional aspect JoJo

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  6. I'm really about fed up with the whole worshipping celebs culture. We treat them like gods who can do no wrong, and many of them are getting away with all sorts of nastiness, criminal or not. What is our fixation with some of these people, particularly the ones who haven't even got a scrap of talent and do nothing with their lives but showcase their excesses? *Sigh* Of course, it's nothing new. Jerry Lee Lewis married a 13 year old cousin, reportedly with the blessing of her parents...

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    1. That's true Li - and Bill Wyman and Mandy Smith - well put.

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  7. There's a double standard, for sure. An adoring public refuses to drop the created image. I once met an actor whose image was heart-felt, home-spun goodness. He was anything but and had the foulest mouth possible and drank like a fish. Yet, others in the little group around him for about two minutes later bragged about meeting this guy, how wonderful he was. Huh?

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On Blog PTSD

Now then. What the heck. It seems I had forgotten about my blog completely rather than just neglecting it this time. To return after so long...