Silence as council leader asked ‘will you say sorry for Jaconelli?’
Leader yet to respond to increased calls to issue an apology that group has been seeking
There are heightened calls for the new leader of Scarborough Council to say sorry for Peter Jaconelli.
Police say the disgraced exMayor was a predatory paedophile who abused children along with his friend Jimmy Savile.
The North Yorkshire Enquirer, a group of campaigning citizen journalists, want council leader Derek Bastiman to follow the example of his county council counterpart and say sorry to his victims on behalf of the authority.
The Scarborough News this week asked Cllr Bastiman if he would apoligse, and as of going to print, we have not had an official response.
But the Enquirer’s Nigel Ward said that while some say sorry would be nothing but an empty gesture, years after death spared Jaconelli from prosecution, it would show the council do acknowledge that the man dubbed ‘Fat Jac’ did breach the public’s trust.
“It is true that ‘sorry’ affords no justice; it affords no redress for the horrific psychological trauma experienced by victims of sexual abuse. It does not wind back the clock or eradicate the crimes,” said the Whitby man.
“What is does achieve is an acknowledgement that Peter Jaconelli’s many breaches of the public trust in his roles both at Scarborough Council, where he was a long-standing Conservative councillor, mayor and alderman, and at North Yorkshire County Council, really did take place.
“It is thus a legitimisation of genuine grievances long unacknowledged by the authorities until their hands were forced.”
Earlier this month, the head of North Yorkshire County Council Carl Les said he was “sorry for the hurt that has been caused to the victims, survivors and families” of Jaconelli.
Last year, North Yorkshire Police apologised after admitting they missed the chance to arrest the sordid duo, who are believed to have abused hundreds of children between them.
But a Jaconelli victim told The Scarborough News that he would regularly mingle in police circles, and that his obsession with boys was the “worst kept secret in Scarborough”. A former inspector has been cleared by the police watchdog over claims he “acted on behalf” of Jimmy Savile by contacting officers before an interview. The officer, who was from West Yorkshire Police, was accused of contacting Surrey Police before they questioned Savile over alleged sexual offences in 2009. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) tonight said the officer, referred to in official reports as “Inspector 5” but thought to be Mick Starkey, has “no case to answer”. An IPCC spokesman said: “An IPCC investigation has concluded that a former West Yorkshire Police officer has no case to answer over allegations that he ‘acted on behalf’ of Jimmy Savile by inappropriately contacting Surrey Police ahead of a police interview in 2009.” West Yorkshire Police was ordered by the IPCC in 2013 to refer the conduct of the officer.