Did police cover for Jimmy Savile?
Authorities now say former DJ one of Britain’s worst sex attackers
‘I’m waiting for midnight when she turns 16 … so piss off if you want to keep your job.’
JIMMY SAVILE
As recalled by police officer
The photograph of the old man with the wild eyes and wispy grey hair has long been removed from the walls of the Flying Pizza in Leeds.
But during a busy lunchtime at the bar of what was his favourite restaurant, the ghost of disgraced British TV host and disc jockey Jimmy Savile lingers.
The Flying Pizza and his nearby penthouse apartment were — until his death two years ago — the centre of Savile’s wicked empire. He would swan in at least once every few weeks, boasting to regulars of his celebrity status. It was like he had the “keys to the city,” one recalls.
Police now say Savile is one of the worst-ever sex attackers in Britain. A man who is suspected of raping 34 women and girls, and sexually assaulting up to 450 people, including children as young as eight. But what is only starting to emerge is the extent to which the police appeared to have enabled Savile to claim he was untouchable. A retired Leeds policeman has claimed “there wasn’t a (police officer) in the city who didn’t know Savile was a pervert.”
The former Leeds City Police officer, speaking under the alias Paul Leonard, said that in 1965 he had come across Savile’s Rolls-Royce parked in a secluded area. The then-DJ reportedly warned: “I’m waiting for midnight when she turns 16 … so piss off if you want to keep your job.”
After reporting the incident to a sergeant, Leonard says he was told: “Shut up, son. He’s got friends in high places.”
The claim came days after the publication of the transcript of a 2009 interview in which Surrey Police questioned Savile over accusations that he had abused girls at the Duncroft children’s home in Berkshire in the 1970s. The serial pedophile told detectives he had not done anything wrong in 83 years and boasted of “senior police persons” who came to visit him every week at his apartment in Leeds in what was known as the “Friday morning club.”
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has now launched an investigation into a recently retired West Yorkshire Police inspector, revealed for the first time Sunday as Mick Starkey. The 61-year-old is alleged to have contacted Surrey Police before the interview in 2009 and “acted on behalf” of Savile. Starkey had previously been known as a regular at the Friday morning club, which was frequented by serving and retired West Yorkshire police officers, and he would regularly chauffeur the celebrity around in his Rolls-Royce.
The influence Savile claimed to wield over the police is shocking, but was no secret at the Flying Pizza, where the TV host would talk of his “hotline” to officers.
“He used to come in here on his own and talk about the Friday meetings,” says Francis, a 63-year-old retired doorman who knew Savile well from the late 1960s onward.
“He used to take great delight in telling people that if he had any problems, his friends at Millgarth (the former city centre West Yorkshire Police headquarters) would sort it out.”
Francis’s friend Steve — also a doorman — recalls: “He would say it specifically to us because he knew what we did for our jobs. Basically, he had the keys to the city.”
Another friend bought a converted Range Rover that had belonged to Savile in which he kept a mattress in the back. Francis recalls the DJ “chasing anyone under 19 wearing a skirt” in Leeds nightclubs. But despite Savile’s predilection for young girls, he says nobody suspected he was a pedophile. “At that point, nobody knew he was messing about with children. He was very discreet.”