The Late Sir Jimmy Saville: National Treasure, Charity Saint and Sexual Predator

[DanaC]

Things have taken a very dark turn, darker by far than the Savile scandal itself.

In the wake of the allegations against Savile, and then against the BBC for cover-ups and pulled sytories, some badly handled historic cases of abuse have been reopened.

Home Secretary Theresa May has announced a new police inquiry into allegations of child abuse in north Wales in the 1970s and 1980s.

She said the head of the National Crime Agency would investigate any fresh allegations, and examine the way the police handled the original complaints.

Separately, Mrs Justice Macur will investigate the terms of the Waterhouse abuse inquiry, which began in 1996.

Some victims say that inquiry did not examine all of their claims of abuse.

One alleges that a senior Conservative figure from the Thatcher era was involved in the abuse.

One of the victims of that abuse attempted at the Waterhouse enquiry, to give names, descriptions and details of serious abuse committed outside the home, in other areas of the country with boys, himself included effectively sold/loaned for use by a paedophile ring extending way beyond the local area.

His evidence was disallowed, as beyond the remit of the enquiry and as constituting insufficient evidence for continued investigation. He is at the forefront now of trying to get this properly investigated.

At the time, as a lad, he got his hands on some of the photographs taken of the boys (himself included) being raped, some with the rapists clearly in view, including an advisor to the then Prime Minister. According to his testimony, when he went to the police, they took the photographs away and that was the last anybody saw of them. They also called him a liar.

Years later, when the Waterhouse enquiry was launched, lots of people were prosecuted and many went to jail: from the local area, from the home, from the paedophile ring that operated within it. But the men that came from outside, picking up boys in their expensive cars and taking them off to do horrific things to them were never prosecuted, and never investigated.

I saw him interviewed. He's calm, but clearly scarred by his experiences. He seems like someone who has been through hell and back, and now knows who he is. I was impressed and moved by him.

"In the home it was the standard abuse which was violent and sexual. Outside it was like you were sold," he told BBC Newsnight last week, and detailed being tied down and raped in a hotel room.

A second victim corroborates many of the details.


Full Newsnight report from last week. Terrifying the level of system breakdown during every stage: