Is Tony Blackburn being made a scapegoat to deflect attention from scandal of BBC Savile inquiry whitewash?
THE BBC was accused of a whitewash yesterday after a £6.5million inquiry into the Jimmy Savile scandal cleared bosses of any blame.
In her long-awaited report, Dame Janet Smith said that although she had spoken to 117 people at the corporation who had heard rumours of the DJ’s paedophile behaviour, that did not mean senior managers must have known.
Liz Dux, a lawyer for some of victims, condemned the inquiry as an ‘expensive whitewash’.
The BBC was left humiliated after being forced to admit that its culture masked a ‘monstrous’ campaign of sex abuse by Savile and by TV presenter Stuart Hall.
Its director general, Tony Hall, told victims: ‘A serial rapist and a predatory sexual abuser both hid in plain sight at the BBC for decades. The BBC failed you when it should have protected you.’
Lord Hall’s mea culpa came as Dame Janet published her inquiry into how Savile, who presented Jim’ll Fix It and Top Of The Pops, was able to get away with his crimes.
She sparked controversy by insisting that there was no evidence BBC bosses knew about his ‘grotesque’ activities.
‘I simply could not draw the inference from the fact that some people had heard rumours that the senior managers had,’ Dame Janet said.
‘I am sorry if the victims do not have confidence in my conclusions [but] you just simply cannot make that leap from “People have heard rumours ergo the BBC must have known”. It simply doesn’t work.’
In a leaked draft of her report, published last month, Dame Janet had warned another ‘predatory child abuser could be lurking undiscovered in the BBC even today’.
But in the final version, she concluded more vaguely that ‘I don’t think there is any organisation’ that could be completely confident it does not harbour a child abuser. She insisted ‘nobody put me under any pressure’ to change the wording but admitted the culture of fear that silenced so many victims persists today.
Yesterday sacked Radio 2 DJ Tony Blackburn threatened to sue the BBC, for making him a ‘scapegoat’ and letting him be ‘hung out to dry’ in the wake of the inquiry.
Dame Janet’s report rejected the 73-year-old’s testimony that he was not quizzed by BBC bosses in 1971 after a 15-year-old dancer claimed that he molested her. The teenager later committed suicide. Lord Hall said the version of events Blackburn gave to the review panel ‘fell short of the standards of evidence that such an inquiry demanded’.
Dame Janet’s three-year review found:
Savile abused at least 72 victims at the BBC, including 34 girls and boys under 16. One was aged eight. Eight victims, including a ten-yearold, were raped. Two were attacked while he wore a Womble costume
The BBC missed ‘clear’ opportunities to uncover his misconduct, showing more concern for its own reputation than for the victims
Incidents of abuse were reported to BBC staff, but victims were dismissed as ‘silly’ and brushed aside
Staff may have helped ‘procure’ women to be abused.
The 1,000-page report painted a picture of a ‘bullying’ culture at the BBC where ‘virtually unassailable’ presenters were treated with ‘kid gloves’, and staff were afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.
Abuse victims who complained were often told not to make a fuss. One of Savile’s victims was advised, ‘Keep your mouth shut, he’s a VIP’.
‘The BBC regarded these girls as something of a nuisance,’ Dame Janet said.
Yesterday, Lord Hall admitted that Savile’s VIP status was a problem of the BBC’s own making.
‘Savile used his celebrity to promise access to excitement and fun and then grotesquely exploited it… We, the BBC, did that. Jimmy Savile committed many crimes in many places. But, uniquely, it was the BBC that made him famous. We made him a VIP,’ he said.
Savile and Stuart Hall – the subject of a separate damning report yesterday – were allowed to pick off their targets almost unchecked.
Savile’s producer on his Radio 1 show, Ted Beston, was ‘prepared to act as a provider’, while the DJ used his fame to ‘gratify himself sexually’ in virtually every BBC building, ‘whenever the opportunity arose’, Dame Janet said.
Her report – which spans four volumes – is a shocking catalogue of abuse by BBC stars, and subsequent cover ups.
It comes more than three years after the Savile scandal sparked the biggest crisis in the BBC’s history.
Savile died in October 2011, two days before his 85th birthday. He had been knighted in 1990 for his charity work and although known to be eccentric was respected.
But a year after his death allegations began to emerge that he had used his work for the BBC and for the NHS to sexually abuse children and young women. The revelations led to Dame Janet’s inquiry but victims criticised her findings as a whitewash and a waste of time.
Miss Dux, a lawyer at the firm representing 168 victims of Savile at the BBC and NHS, said: ‘Despite millions having been spent on the inquiry, my clients will feel let down that the truth has still not been unearthed.’
Sylvia Edwards, 58, who was groped live on Top Of The Pops by Savile in 1976 when she was 18, said: ‘It’s on video, for God’s sake. The report is diabolical, a waste of time. How could the BBC not have known? I think it’s atrocious. How high do they have to be before they can say they didn’t know about it?’
Lord Hall said he took ‘no satisfaction’ from Dame Janet’s findings. ‘It seems to me that the BBC could have known. Just as powerful as the accusation, “You knew” is the question, “How could you not have known?” he said. He vowed to crack down on the BBC’s ‘culture of deference’, and do more to make staff aware that they can raise the alarm without negative consequences.
It would appear that the broadcaster has a mammoth task on its hands. Dame Janet said that the ‘atmosphere of fear’ that left Savile free to abuse his victims still persists. Many staff spoke to the review only if they were guaranteed anonymity to protect their careers.
‘The BBC has failed you’