This is the third installment of Bill Donohue’s report on the BBC sexual abuse scandal and its implications for the New York Times:
Scotland Yard is hot on the trail of Jimmy Savile’s victims, and there appears to be no end to them. Not only are the top cops pursuing 340 inquiries, dating back to 1959, they are being assisted by 14 other police agencies. Savile, the celebrity BBC icon, was not only a child rapist, he was known for groping women on the air. Indeed, he may even have had sex with the dead.
One of the many investigations now underway is being undertaken by Stoke Mandeville Hospital, a venue where Savile is alleged to have abused young disabled patients. The hospital is probing his “unaccompanied mortuary visits.” They have reason to do so.
In 1990, Savile admitted that he liked to hang around Buckinghamshire hospital in the wee hours of the morning. He said in his Q magazine interview that he took great pleasure being alone with the dead. “One of my jobs is to take away the deceased. You can look after somebody, be alone with somebody, who has lived a whole lifetime, and I’m just saying goodbye.”
It may very well be that Savile, a rough approximation of Dick Clark and Michael Jackson rolled into one, did more than pay his last respects to the dead. Why else would he volunteer, “I’m not a necrophiliac.” After all, the child rapist always said he never abused children.
How far up the chain of command did knowledge of Savile’s perversions extend? George Entwistle, the new BBC director general, will appear before Parliament next week amidst several independent investigations. If Entwistle is being called, it is only a matter of time before they call Mark Thompson to testify: he has been working at the BBC since 1979, and was the director general at the time of a spiked BBC investigation of Savile. He is also the incoming president and CEO of the New York Times Company. More tomorrow.
