Allegations about the late Jimmy Savile’s abuse of young girls have led to a curious binary set of reactions. On the one hand, we are shocked and appalled. On the other hand, we knew all along.
There were always rumours, of course. Journalist Lynn Barber, in a 1990 interview, put the allegation to Savile: “What people say is that you like little girls.”
But a mixture of fear of privacy and libel laws, and the censorious pressure that prominent, well-connected figures can impose not just on weak and insecure young girls and their families, meant the rumours were never properly confronted. Even the BBC’s Newsnight would not broadcast the allegations .
Former tabloid editor Brian Hitchen wrote yesterday that England’s libel laws “too often help make those like Savile untouchable.”
Even now, the threat of libel suits could hang over newspapers seeking to further investigate allegations made by women who testified in ITV’s documentary about Savile.
The law should not be a tool for the powerful to silence the weak. And this is all about power: men over women, celebrity over the unknown, rich over poor.
As more stories emerge about the likes of Savile and Gary Glitter, I cannot help but compare it with the widespread clerical abuse that gripped the state of Ireland for many years. The enormity of this child Gulag has been revealed in a series of official reports in the past few years, with grim testimony given as victims finally found a space where they could speak of their experiences.
The reaction to those reports was revulsion. But it came from that same place of knowing and not knowing as the reaction to the Savile story. There cannot have been a person in Ireland who did not know that the church covered up child abuse. But we were reassured that they were bad apples, and it felt wrong to complain when there were so many good priests who did so much for our spiritual and physical wellbeing.
Savile pulled the same trick. How could you attack a man who did so much for the community?
In even the worst totalitarian regime, rumours about the rulers can circulate below the censor’s radar. But it’s only when we can proclaim, on the record and with confidence, our doubts about the rich, famous and powerful, that we can actually bring about change.
Padraig Reidy is News Editor of Index on Censorship
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18 Comments
Oh it’s not about libel Padraig – it wasn’t a fear of libel that kept the BBC renewing his contracts was it? It wasn’t that the guy was flinging out injunction or writs – it wasn’t even *tried*. The BBC and media were not in fear of him, they were fucking COMPLICIT. The BBC supplied him with young girls to sit on his knee on Saturday night prime time.
This is not something you can blame on our libel laws. This is a poisoned, arrogant, out-of-control state broadcaster that for too long as thought of itself as a moral being, and so its actions as supremely moral.
This is not about a legal failing, at all. At all. It simply isn’t. This is about a moral calamity.
The link between Savile and the Catholic church is stronger than you might think.
This article was written before all this kicked off: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2011/11/07/jimmy-savile%E2%80%99s-obituaries-mentioned-his-charity-work-but-why-the-conspiracy-of-silence-about-his-faith/
Funnily enough, the comments section was closed yesterday.
Frank, what the hell are you talking about? Simply look at the facts:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/tv-star-is-third-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-girl-in-saviles-dressing-room-8198500.html
‘A well-known television personality has become the third man to be accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Jimmy Savile’s BBC dressing room. The entertainer, who denies the allegation and cannot be named here for legal reasons, is accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl while Gary Glitter and Savile abused girls nearby.’
If they’re alive, you can’t name them. That’s how our legal system works. Get a grip, man, and don’t let your ideological hatred of the BBC blind you to the bleedin’ obvious.
Evidence first -
http://aangirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/jimmy-savile-fixed-it-for-israel.html
Please not the masonic rituals in the Jersy case.
Jimmy savile is a typical example of a high ranking freemason. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS.
The sexual abuse. The megalomania. The connections into the corridors of power and monarchy ( who head the masons ) & church. THIS IMPLICATES THEM ALL.
They use the cover of CHARITY work.( this way they can access children )
The oath they must swear which is an oath above the laws of the land, to protect fellow masons at all costs.( even with sexual abuse & murder)
Their secrecy explains the oath, which is why savile was exposed AFTER DEATH.
Every institution & organisation has members of boards who are freemasons.( head police officers included )
Only when masons rise above the 28th degree, do they learn the ‘FREEDOM’ of crime, abuse, corruption.
Many business men are low ranking masons, so are fooled into seeing the ‘lower levels only’
THE POLICE WILL NOT HELP BECAUSE THEY ARE PART OF IT. THE TOP OF THE SYSTEM IS PART OF IT.
As i noted above, the Monarchy heads the masonic order.
So, considering the jimmy savile case above, look at this suspect story of the Queen and her hustband.
http://inpursuitofhappiness.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/the-queen-and-missing-kids/
Having sex with fans (groupies) was all part of the pop scene and was accepted. As for underage girls, nobody was really bothered. When no-one in authourity was bothered, it escalated. That’s the situation we had.
He always gave me the creeps. A teacher colleague who took a group of young children to the studio for a Fixit episode said he never seen anyone whose on screen persona differed so markedly from their off-screen one. When the camera stopped rolling Savile was cold, menacing and not the slightest scrap interested in the eager, excited children. He shot himself in the foot when defending some fellow paedo who’d been charged with downloading images of child porn. Savile said the man had only looked at the images but hadn’t done anything with them. Did Savile think these images had been created without exploiting children? As for those images of him clutching and repeatedly squeezing that young girl on camera in the Clunk Click show – just shocking. Lets hope that those poor girls can get some sort of closure on those dreadfully damaging events..
I think Savile’s connections with the elite paedophile ring seem fairly substantial. But I guess these links won’t be followed up in the MSM any time soon.
What about the paedophiles within St John ambulance who are about to receive awards from the Queen’s representative:
http://bit.ly/ourNZexperience
The parallels with the Frank Beck case are significant. I think the masons are LONG overdue for a serious overhaul.
Savile the Freemason is like Gerry McCann and his wife Kate Healy. All are or were Freemasons and all are protected by the craft of Anglican Freemasonry with the Queen at it’s head.
Jimmy Savile would never have been a freemason! his connection to the catholic church would never have aloud it. So all the conspiricy theorists your wrong.
dev francis
Jimmy Savile would never have been a freemason! his connection to the catholic church would never have aloud it. So all the conspiricy theorists your wrong.
Dev, whats the catholic church got to do with it? The heads of the church are masons also. The heads of state also head the freemasonry order.
So dev, going by your logic, the Queen should be the head of the church of england only.
So why does the palace have a freemasonry temple?
Why does the monarchy head freemasonry and the church? pure contradiction.
King Athelstan , in 950AD, was a freemason and headed the order. As did every other king following. And Queen.
Freemasons are buried at an angle. And a mirror is placed inside the coffin.
Jimmy savile was buried at an angle. He was
nighted by the pope and queen. Clear links into masonry.
Some people, like this dev, would lie to us. Just as Jimmy savile did when he said he was buried at an angle so he would be facing the sea. In real life, jimmys grave faces a primary school. NOT THE SEA.
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