Yes, the BBC has some serious questions to answer, but who gave Savile the key to care homes and hospitals?
Daily Mail UK, 26 October 2012
Given free reign: Savile
Beyond the hysterical media feeding frenzy surrounding the BBC, little has changed since I wrote about Jimmy Savile a couple of weeks ago. He’s still dead.
Of course, the BBC has serious questions to answer. But I have to admit I felt a twinge of sympathy for new Director-General George Entwistle when he was subjected to snide, grandstanding interrogation by self-important MPs this week.
He was evasive, and hasn’t properly explained his own role in screening two tributes to Savile when he knew that Newsnight had been investigating the abuse allegations.
Yet Entwistle didn’t deserve the contemptuous treatment he received from some members of the select committee. Trying to hold him responsible for behaviour at the BBC that happened when he was still at school is patently absurd.
While it is apparent that some people at the Beeb were complicit in covering up Savile’s crimes — and others may also have been involved in abusing minors — proving it could be impossible.
What concerns me is that the focus on the BBC is diverting attention from the far more serious aspect of this scandal.
That is the way in which vulnerable children were abused in state-funded institutions, which had a statutory duty of care towards them.
How the hell was Savile given the run of supposedly secure care homes and special schools, as well as Broadmoor and Stoke Mandeville hospitals?
The most chilling photo produced so far was
Savile posing for pictures inside Broadmoor with the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe.
Say cheese, Jim. Big grin, Pete. Thumbs up, three sombreros.
Posed with Savile: Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper
Who thought it a good idea to give Savile access to Britain’s most notorious psychopath and serial killer? That name must be on file. ???
So must the identities of those who handed him the keys to the wards at Stoke Mandeville and allowed him unsupervised access to children in their care.
Other patients have come forward to complain that they were molested
not just by Savile but by doctors, medical staff and social workers.
The lawyers are circling and the multi-million-pound claims for damages are being prepared.
Picking the fluff out of Auntie’s navel may be great sport. But don’t let’s lose sight of the bigger picture, which includes the inability of the police and the CPS to bring prosecutions against Savile when he was still alive.
This explosive, stomach-churning scandal is about much, much more than
who knew what and when at the BBC.