Police force admits mistakes that let Jimmy Savile escape justice

 
Kiran Randhawa11 May 2013
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A police force today denied a cover-up of Jimmy Savile’s five-decade reign of sex crimes but admitted to “mistakes” and missed opportunities which allowed the DJ to escape justice.

According to a new review, the disgraced entertainer was rumoured to be a “pervert” and officers were passed on information about his possible sex offending while he was alive.

One officer even commented on the late DJ getting “so many of these type of complaints”.

Despite this, he was left free to sexually assault 68 victims in his hometown of Leeds, including eight under the age of nine, and one as young as five.

The inquiry, dubbed Operation Newgreen, examined the history of the TV presenter’s relationship with West Yorkshire Police, including how officers attended his well-known Friday Morning Club at his Leeds flat.

But although the force admitted there was an “over-reliance on personal friendships” between the Jim’ll Fix It host and officers who socialised with him, it found he was not shielded or protected from arrest.

The report stated: “There is no evidence that he was protected from arrest or prosecution for any offences as a result of his relationship with West Yorkshire Police, or individual friendships with officers.”

The review found intelligence about his offending was mishandled a number of times, including in 1998 when West Yorkshire police failed to properly record an anonymous letter that made sexual abuse allegations about the former Top of the Pops host.

The letter was forwarded by a Metropolitan police officer from its clubs and vice unit, who told Operation Newgreen that it was “common knowledge within the team in the late 1980s and early 1990s that Savile was a paedophile”.

The letter is being separately investigated by the police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The report also examined the way in which West Yorkshire used Savile’s celebrity status to front a range of campaigns and appeals.

It said: “The review team have concerns regarding the absence of a process to secure Savile’s services for some of these events and also the over-reliance on personal friendships that developed between Savile and some officers over a number of years to secure that support.”

The report added it was “of greater concern” that the force continued to used Savile as part of crime prevention campaigns even after it received a request from Surrey Police in 2007 to check what records were held on the broadcaster as part of its investigation into abuse at Duncroft School in Surrey.

The report said: “Although rumours did exist of previous investigations taking place into allegations made against Savile, when these were explored they were found to be without any foundation.”

Despite numerous interviews, system searches and inquiries with other agencies, the review team found no evidence of any previous allegations being made to West Yorkshire Police against Savile.

But Alan Collins, who represents 40 victims of the disgraced broadcaster, said the report “begs a lot more questions”.

“Savile was able to run rings around the police for decades. He used police officers,” he said. “He was engrained with them, dovetailed with them.

“The report begs a lot more questions. It doesn’t add up.”

Peter Watt, Director of the NSPCC helpline, said: “This report reveals yet more potential missed opportunities by the police to catch Savile whilst he was still alive and there are clearly some questions to answer.

“The report also shows that we may never know the full extent of his abuse with yet more victims coming forward and the youngest now being just five years-old when the abuse occurred.”

Assistant Chief Constable Ingrid Lee said in her introduction to the report, which describes Savile as a “predatory paedophile and manipulative liar”: “There is no doubt that police forces made mistakes in relation to sharing and keeping information relating to Savile so no single clear picture of his offending could be made.

“As Savile’s home police force, West Yorkshire Police would have been the obvious place to collect all such information, but investigation has shown that much of the available information during Savile’s lifetime was never shared with West Yorkshire Police and, when it was, West Yorkshire Police did not connect the events to recognise a potential pattern of offending.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in