Domino

now I (naively?) thought that a police officer had a duty to uphold the law, to take action on any transgression.

however, in this matter, as with the NoW and the girl grooming in Derby (and AFAIK other places), the police and their fellow criminals the CPS, have been making decisions about what they will prosecute, who they will prosecute.
it would appear that these are not because the evidence is tenuous but because of other reasons such as political or racial or because the guy concerned was "a bit of an oddball" or "a bit of a lad" or even "one of the lads".

whilst I do not condone what may have occurred, 40 years on is too late to start raising the subject and shouting about how traumatised you have been all your life and it is all because of him you have had 5 marriages and feel a failure. So many of them did it for a dare, it was part of the lifestyle they had - just they didnt realise until afterwards it meant nothing to him and he would never leave his mum.

ISTR there were love boat trips to Radio Caroline so I am sure that there are many from those days of "free love", the pill, etc who wondering if their previous sex partners will start shouting about their actions.

HBG

I saw Des O'Connor on TV the other day, a sad sight at seventy, I thought he was long dead.

He had a new wife, a fat woman about 50 years younger than him. He was telling how they first met and I calculated that she must have been around 12 years old.

I suppose as long as you marry them, there's no fuss.

I'm not speaking up for pedos, no way, but perhaps people should look up the age of consent in the country we live in.

rugbymatt

I am quite shocked by some of the attitudes to what is essentially statutory rape and molestation. You could easily argue that because of Gary Glitters fame the kids he fiddled with deserved it, or that it was the fault of the parents, or maybe it was the Soham girls fault that Huntley killed them because lets face it, they basically led them on...


Unreal, you can see why its estimated that unto 90% of all rape cases go unreported eh?

Pocaloca

I don't know much about Jimmy Saville, except he sounds like a right creep, but is it possible that our definition of sexual abuse has changed? Wasn't it the "swinging sixties" when everyone was screwing everyone else and celebrating their sexual liberation because of the Pill? Those 14 or 15 year old girls might just have wanted to be part of the action, but were too naive to realise they were being taken advantage of. These days we are all much more aware, but maybe it's wrong to be too judgemental in retrospect.

RichardP

This is where you become puerile and silly, as I said before, when they are found guilty in a court of law,(except in Hitlers case) then all the abuse hurled at them is just and deserved. ( by the way Raoul Moat ?? i don't think HE ws a child molester)

HBG

And Saville would have been fine in Spain, the age of consent is 13.

rugbymatt

Im not surprised in the least you came in with this comment.... anything to justify backward thinking eh?

HBG

This is a discussion Matt, a discussion between sensible people.

Do you really think your snide comments should be part of it?

rugbymatt

So saying that the age of consent is contributing to the discussion is it? No, it isn't, you haven't even said why this fact is relevant, its just a comment thrown in to try and justify the fact the Saville and a few others involved with Top of the Pops preyed on young girls. They weren't there to have sex with celebrities, they were there to be part of the music show. He abused his position and all you can do is type "And Saville would have been fine in Spain, the age of consent is 13."

I mean are you serious? Point me in the direction of a mother on this forum who thinks it would be absolutely fine for their 13 year old daughter to be ****ed by a 40, 50 and 60 year old man! Sometimes I actually think you lot live in another world! Good to know where you stand on statutory rape though....

agoreira

Hopefully we do!

rugbymatt

I know I do, thats for sure!

moneypenny20

Rapist and sexual abusers have, since the year dot, scared their victims, often to the point of suicide. Even today many many women and children, and indeed men, are terrified of coming forward and admitting they have been abused. They still believe, and rightly so considering some of the comments on this thread, that they either won't be believed or that it will be assumed that it was their fault, that they led the abuser on.

Think back 40/50 years, such attitudes were the accepted norm. Police/CPS rarely carried through on accusations. Families pretended such things never happened. The young girl who allegedly became pregnant after being raped by Savile was able to borrow the money from a grandmother for an illegal abortion. The family covered it up. The man the girl accused was a very famous, apparently untouchable 'god' almost. Who on earth would they tell? Who would believe them? It wouldn't just be the girl's name brought into disrepute, the whole family would be.

It would be brilliant if every person, of whatever age or gender, was able to come forward as soon as the abuse started and report it. Unfortunately, as long as there are those who immediately believe 'they were asking for it/encouraging it, this will never happen.

Savile was a sleazy, deeply unpleasant person (my opinion only since I was a child watching him on TOTP and shuddering because he repulsed me) who blackmailed people with the idea that if they came forward, all the money he raised for charity would be lost.

He doesn't care what happens now he's dead but these women who are now coming forward are able to do so simply because he is dead, they fear him no longer, they will never have to face him and they may simply want to get some closure, some acceptance that wrong was done, cannot be undone, but it will help them psychologically to finally shout out yes he did these things. They don't want money, they want freedom from their memories.

Dick Dasterdly

Whilst their were complaints about him in his lifetime,it's understandable that many individuals had enough sense to realise that any complaint they made would be swept away in the wink of an eye and they would simply suffer extreme humiliation for even daring to mention it.

Millions of folk believed the sun shone out of his backside.
Because of his popularity and widespread influence he was virtually untouchable and hardly answerable to anyone.

His charity events added even more to this virtual position of absolute power and we've all learned what that's all about.
The fact that he openly bragged in his autobiography about taking an absconded approved schoolgirl to his home for the night rather than handing her back in, speaks for itself in this respect.

Not only that but he tells about taking her to the police station the next day knowing full well that the police would take no action against him.after committing an offence simply by harbouring her for the night regardless of whatever else took place.

What individual would even believe they had the faintest prayer of justice up against such influence or power ?

The sickening thing is how he took full advantage of his untouchability and the total trust placed in him.

It reminds me somewhat of the UN aid workers in Africa who repeatedly abused their position of influence for devious sexual gratification.

Hopefully some good will come out of the police enquiry and lessons will be learnt to try to avoid or watch out for any such forms of illegal exploitation in similar situations.

Domino

when I came on here originally to say I had heard rumours about him back in late 60's early 70's I thought I would be shouted down, so it is nice to to see some form of acceptance.
when you look back at the old ToTP he is shown as "the man" and none of the girls he was always shown as being with, cuddling etc looked as if they were unhappy with his attention.

however, the statements from youngsters at the time show there was a defect in his character.
but good old Aunty BBC is running around like a chicken without a head, knowing full well that many of their current people were involved in the production of programmes and knew what was going on and condoned it.
But as you say, fame hides so much, and the "luvvie" businesses are littered with wide age disparities i.e. Hayley Mills marrying a man 33 years older.

But as to "lessons being learnt", sorry but that is too late. The horse has bolted. It will happen again, is probably happening right now, somewhere.

moneypenny20

And now she's with a guy 20 years younger than her. Not fussy is she?