Cardinal Keith O'Brien Was Friends with Sex Predator Jimmy Savile

Daily Record
February 26, 2013

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/cardinal-keith-obrien-friends-sex-1731381

Savil and O'Brien with two youngsters at a charity event at Edinburgh's St Mary's Cathedral

THE shamed TV star helped the clergyman raise money for charity years before his sex crimes came out.

O’BRIEN was a friend of paedophile Jimmy Savile – decades before the disgraced DJ’s crimes were known.

But he demanded Savile be stripped of his papal knighthood – bestowed in 1990 – after his offences came to light.

O’Brien’s spokesman said at the time: “We would absolutely endorse and support that move.

“It seems to be an appropriate response and echoes exactly what every other institution and organisation who had an association with Jimmy Savile are doing.”

The pair met when O’Brien was priest at St Patrick’s Church in Kilsyth, Lanarkshire, in 1971.

Savile was a regular visitor because his mother Agnes was friends with O’Brien’s colleague, Fr Denis O’Connell.

One man from Kilsyth, who was a schoolboy at the time, said: “Savile was here often over a period covering the mid-1970s. We were amazed to see him at first because he was always on TV. When we saw him about the town, he was always with Fr O’Connell or Fr O’Brien.

“They went out of their way to court publicity, because they were raising money for charity.

“We would see the flash Roller parked outside the school because it was right next to the priests’ house and we’d know Savile was in town.

“Over the next few days, you would see him out and about in the town, normally with the priests.

“They were always on a fundraising exercise. It was always assumed that Savile stayed with the priests overnight. I’d say over three to four years, you would see Savile twice a year. It got to the stage that it was no longer a surprise.

“As I got older, there were stories that Savile had stopped coming to Kilsyth because he had been interfering with young girls. It was the talk of the place for a while.

“We were always told that Savile came to Kilsyth because his mother was friends with Fr O’Connell.”

Agnes became convinced that her son had been saved from a life-threatening illness when aged two, because she had prayed to the Venerable Margaret Sinclair.

Sinclair was a Scots nun who died aged 25 in 1925 from tuberculosis after taking the religious name Sister Mary Francis of the Five Wounds and helping the poor in London.

Savile’s mother saw a photo of the Edinburgh-born nun while praying in Leeds Cathedral. Fr O’Connell was a leading light in the campaign to have Sinclair canonised.