Hall abuse ‘an open secret but he was untouchable’
PAEDOPHILE Stuart Hall was allowed to abuse girls as young as ten at the BBC for almost 25 years because of his ‘untouchable’ status, a damning report found yesterday.
It was an open secret that the It’s A Knockout presenter smuggled girls to his dressing rooms at the BBC’s Manchester studios, but no one dared complain, a former High Court judge concluded.
A senior manager knew of Hall’s reputation as a womaniser but took no meaningful action to end the sleazy behaviour, Dame Linda Dobbs said. However she accepted that colleagues had no idea he was preying on underage girls.
Hall was able to abuse 21 women and girls through his broadcasting work between 19 7 and 1991, and was jailed in 2013 after being exposed as a paedophile. The 8 -year-old was freed in December, but hit out at his accusers on the eve of the report’s publication, calling them ‘vindictive people’.
Dame Linda was appointed to the inquiry after it emerged that Dame Janet Smith, author of the Savile review, knew Hall’s former boss Ray Colley. Her report reveals floor manager Peter Barlow helped Hall to ‘procure’ women and girls and to smuggle them to his room for sex. News editor Tom German was also said to have warned a colleague that Hall had a ‘glint in his eye’ when a schoolgirl came to interview him.
The report reveals regional television manager Mr Colley gave Hall a dressingdown over his behaviour with women as early as the 1970s, but he said he received no further misconduct complaints.
However Dame Linda concludes that had Mr Colley taken ‘basic steps’ to monitor Hall’s actions, the presenter ‘could have been prevented from committing some of the offences’ for which he was jailed.
The report said witnesses gave various reasons for not reporting Hall, including fears they might lose their job. It added: ‘There were concerns that management would not deal with it because of Hall’s importance – he became “untouchable”.’
Dame Linda wrote that it is ‘difficult not to conclude’ that the BBC should have put in place measures to protect girls on its premises. Summarising the report yesterday, Dame Janet said: ‘Ray Colley and Tom German could have stopped him.’
There was no sign of Hall yesterday at his bail hostel in north-west England. But he told The Sun: ‘To go from a national treasure to the bottom of the pond has been very difficult. The vindictive people who have impugned me will think again.’
Now 85, Mr Colley declined to comment yesterday, but his wife Anne, 74, condemned Hall as a ‘rat’. Mr Barlow is now dead, as is Mr German.