(BBC sex abuse scandal) Watchdog says UK police bungling let predator Savile thrive
(03-12 16:36)
An independent report into how British police handled allegations against sexual predator Jimmy Savile, the TV presenter celebrated by the UK state broadcaster BBC, said police held records that connected him to sexual abuse as early as 1964, but failed to carry out an investigation.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, an independent police oversight group, found that police recorded five allegations and two pieces of intelligence against Savile, 84, during his lifetime, AP reports.
Known for his garish clothes, oversized accessories and cigar, honored by the Queen, and hailed as a national treasure, Savile who died in 2011, is suspected to have abused hundreds of women in the BBC studios, camper vans and even in hospitals. Hundreds of witnesses and victims have now come forward accusing him of perverted behavior.
His youngest abuse victim was an 8-year-old boy. Many were girls between 13 and 16 years old.
Police describe the television and radio presenter as a serial sexual predator who used his fame to target young victims across Britain.
Today's report suggested that Savile could have been stopped decades ago.
The earliest found intelligence record held by the pedophile unit at Scotland Yard dates from about 1964, but was only uncovered last year, the report said. The record, which just contained brief notes, referred to Savile as a “well known disc jockey’’ and to sexual abuse involving students at a children's home. No investigation was carried out as a result of that intelligence, the report said.
“Its existence suggests that, by 1964, Savile was known to [police] officers investigating sexual offences against children,’’ the report said. “On the basis of what we know now, there appears to have been, at the very least, an opportunity to investigate his behavior then.’’
The second intelligence record was an anonymous letter sent to police in 1998. It urged Scotland Yard to stop Savile's activities, but police marked it as “sensitive’’ because of his celebrity status. It was never investigated and not shared with other police forces.
The report also said that five victims filed to various police forces complaints alleging that Savile had indecently assaulted them from 2003 to 2008, but that authorities' failure to “join the dots’’ meant a chance to prosecute was missed.
Today’s report comes after a police investigation concluded in January that the presenter's abuse history spanned half a century, from 1955 to 2009, including 214 offenses mostly against victims under 18.
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