Jimmy Savile report: institutions in the line of fire
The BBC faces compensation claims, the government is investigating itself, and police acknowledge significant failings
The BBC
The report revealed for the first time that Savile’s abuses on BBC premises had taken place as recently as 2006, at the recording of the final edition of Top of the Pops, when he sexually assaulted a teenage girl.
That revelation heaps further pressure on the BBC, which has commissioned the former court of appeal judge Dame Janet Smith to head an inquiry into its culture and practices during the 41-year period in which Savile abused people at the corporation.
The BBC rejected the accusation from Peter Saunders, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, that it had dropped plans to set up a Childline-style helpline, saying it had been advised it was not necessary.
The BBC now faces dozens of civil compensation claims.
The government
The Department of Health was forced to open an investigation into its own conduct when it came to light in October that Savile had been appointed to chair a task force overseeing Broadmoor’s management in 1988, when the secure hospital was directly run by the department.
Kate Lampard QC, a barrister and former deputy chair of the Financial Ombudsman Service, is leading that investigation, as well as overseeing the inquiries into Savile’s conduct at Stoke Mandeville, Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor.
Ministers have now asked all 14 health institutions – 13 hospitals and a hospice – named as scenes of Savile’s abuse to conduct their own internal inquiries and feed in to Lampard, who will complete a report of lessons to be learned.
The police
Surrey police’s report into its investigation of allegations against Savile in 2007 acknowledges significant failings including lengthy delays in the handling of the case, which took 29 months to conclude in no further action. Savile’s name was not placed on the original investigation crimereport for more than six months because, the force said, of his celebrity, meaning that any other forces searching for him would not have been aware of Surrey’s investigation.
The force did not inform Thames Valley police of a report at Stoke Mandeville hospital (“a missed opportunity for information sharing and potential safeguarding of future victims”) and delayed in telling West Yorkshire police, Savile’s home force, about the allegations.
Savile was given only a “perfunctory” interview, conducted on his terms at Stoke Mandeville (“not good practice”) and with a friend present, about whose status officers did not inquire.
The force acknowledges that most of the victims were offered no support.
No officers have been disciplined.
The Crown Prosecution Service
Jimmy Savile should have faced three sex assault charges in 2009, the CPS admitted. The review, by CPS legal adviser Alison Levitt QC, said police treated victims with a “degree of caution which is not generally justified”. The director of public prosecutions apologised to victims and pledged to issue new guidance on police handling of vulnerable complainants. Police forces could be forced to reinvestigate thousands of cases where victims feel complaints were not handled properly.
Source: BBC
