Jimmy Savile Police 'Reluctant to Investigate Because of Celebrity Status'

By Josh Halliday and Haroon Siddique
The Guardian
March 12, 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/mar/12/jimmy-savile-police-celebrity-status

The HMIC's report warned that police officers could fail to prevent a Jimmy Savile-like scandal happening again.

Jimmy Savile's celebrity status contributed to the police's failure to prevent him sexually abusing hundreds of young people over five decades when they could have stopped him in the 1960s, the compiler of a highly critical report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has said.

The watchdog's inquiry into the police's handling of Savile revealed that the disgraced DJ, who died in October 2011, could have been stopped as early as 1964 but police mishandled evidence and dismissed victims.

Drusilla Sharpling, from HMIC, said police appeared to be reluctant to investigate Savile because of his high public profile.

"It is clear that because of several Savile's celebrity status and the power, maybe people do look for that extra piece of evidence, behaving with an extra sense of caution, because of the power he wielded," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday.

In a 61-page report to the home secretary, Theresa May, HMIC raised fresh concerns about information sharing in the police and warned that officers could fail to prevent a Savile-like scandal happening again.

The inspectorate described a "cultural mistrust" of evidence from children, warning that procedures adopted by various agencies over many years had left vulnerable young people unprotected by the criminal justice system.

"The findings in this report are of deep concern, and clearly there were mistakes in how the police handled the allegations made against Savile during his lifetime," said Sharpling.

"However, an equally profound problem is that victims felt unable to come forward and report crimes of sexual abuse."

She said there were two key recommendations identified by HMIC. The first was an obligation on those who, in the course of their professional duties, become aware of information or evidence that a child is or has been the victim of abuse, to notify others. The second was to make the management of information on the Police National Database (PND) "slicker and more comprehensive".

Five allegations of sexual assault were recorded against Savile in his lifetime, according to HMIC – compared with the 600 made since October last year, when the Metropolitan police launched its Operation Yewtree investigation.

Meanwhile, eight victims have so far come forward with concerns about how their allegations against Savile were handled – and the inspectorate revealed examples of how a series of complaints about him were dismissed by police officers.

In 1963, a Cheshire man was told by a police officer to "forget about it" and "move on" when he reported an allegation of rape by Savile, according to HMIC.

Another man who tried to report an assault his girlfriend had suffered at a recording of Top of the Pops was told by police he "could be arrested for making such allegations" and dismissed.

The inspectorate investigated seven incidents – including five sexual assault complaints by victims and two pieces of intelligence – and concluded that a failure to join the dots left police unable to derail Savile's five-decade reign of abuse.

In an alarming finding, HMIC warned that inconsistencies in intelligence-sharing by police forces meant there was a "distinct possibility" the failure to identify Savile's pattern of abuse could be repeated.

HMIC said it was sufficiently concerned that it will review information management in the police later this year – just two years after the PND was set up.

Referring to Michael Bichard's recommendations to reform intelligence sharing in 2004, the HMIC report said: "It is a matter of some concern that, in 2007, in the post-Bichard era, the failures of the past may still have been repeated."

Evidence uncovered by HMIC suggests Savile was known to Met officers investigating child sex offences as early as 1964 – the same year he presented the first edition of Top of the Pops.

The inquiry also turned up an anonymous letter received by the Metropolitan police in 1998, which it said was "never properly investigated", despite suggesting that Savile changed his telephone number as a result of a blackmail attempt.

HMIC's report also raises further questions for West Yorkshire police, which said in February that some officers regularly visited Savile's Leeds home while on duty.

Two former West Yorkshire police officers and a relative of an officer have come forward to state they were aware of concerns surrounding Savile's contact with young girls, the report said.

As the force for the area where Savile lived throughout his life, West Yorkshire should have received three key pieces of intelligence, according to HMIC, but has only been able to confirm receipt of a letter from the Met in 1998.

An inspector from the force who may have "acted on behalf" of Savile is under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

Chief Constable Mike Barton, who speaks on intelligence for the Association of Chief Police Officers, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he was confident improvements had been made. He said if allegations were reported anywhere in the country and similar allegations were made simultaneously elsewhere, they would now be able to "join the dots".