The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
BBC was‘too slow’to deal with Savile, says ex-chief
A MONTHS-LONG police surveillance operation which operated in Tayside and Fife smashed a Scotland-wide drugs ring and netted a major haul of heroin.
One of the dealers told Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday he had feared for the safety of his family, who had their home firebombed on two occasions if he didn’t bring drugs into the area.
However, Sheriff William Taylor QC had no sympathy and jailed 32-year-old father of four Cyril Williamson, of Carnarc Crescent, Inverness, for two years after he admitted being concerned in the supply of two cargos of heroin with a total street value of almost £50,000 from Fife and Tayside to the Highlands in April and May 2011.
He told him: “You harbour pro-criminal values and inclinations.”
The Sheriff also jailed fellow drug dealer 30-year-old John Fraser, described as a prisoner in Inverness, for two years for his role in the network after he admitted facilitating one of the deliveries from the Dundee area to Inverness.
A third accused, Michael Martin (22), a father of a seven week old baby girl, of Townlands Park, Cromarty, escaped jail because he had a minor role in supplying small quantities of the drug to individuals in Inverness.
He admitted being concerned in heroin supply between February 2011 and March 31 2011 at an address in Lilac Grove, Inverness and elsewhere in Inverness.
More than £2,660 worth of the Class A narcotic was found by police hidden in his dressing gown at his home.
The court heard the transactions were all filmed by police, who had been tipped off about the ring in February 2011 and called their covert task Operation Attire.
Constant surveillance was carried out on all three in Inverness and a travelling people’s site in Fife, where Williamson had moved his family in a bid to escape the threats of other dealers to whom he owed money for feeding his own drug habit.
Depute fiscal Iain Smith told the court nine packages containing more than a quarter kilo of heroin, worth £26,049, found in a rucksack in an Audi car being driven north from Fife on April 29 2011 had Cyril Williamson’s DNA on them.
Then on May 7 police saw Williamson meet up with another drugs courier, who has since been jailed for two years, in Dundee, drive him to Fife and give him a quarter kilo package of heroin worth £22,237 to hide in his car.
That vehicle was also stopped on a journey north. The court was told Fraser had recruited the driver to transport the drugs.
As part of Operation Attire, Martin was seen by police making two transactions to individuals in March 2011. He admitted making other transactions for a £600 payment.
His defence advocate Lorenzo Alonsi said: “My client does not have a drug problem although he experimented with them.
“But he ran up debts to finance a car and other things, having borrowed it from certain older people who imposed upon him and took advantage of his position at that time.”
Sheriff Taylor accepted he had a minor role and sentenced him to 150 hours of unpaid community work and banned him from associating with drug dealers or users.
He has also to attend an offending awareness programme and remain under supervision for two years.
Williamson’s defence advocate Bill Adam said his client had built up a £3,500 drugs debt and could not pay it.
“He tried to resist the pressures of those he owed the money to and became concerned for the safety of his family after threats were made and his Inverness home was fire-bombed twice. He didn’t make any money from his involvement.”
Fraser’s defence advocate Shahid Latif said his client expected a custodial sentence but added he was on the road to rehabilitation after attending a course in prison, where he has been on remand since June.
His sentence was backdated by the sheriff, who told all three: “I am satisfied there are a number of men and women who stand behind these events to exploit weak and immoral people like you.” THE BBC was too slow to deal with the unfolding Jimmy Savile sex scandal, according to a former high ranking corporation executive.
Richard Sambrook, the former BBC director of global news, who also served on the corporation’s management board, said the BBC was “very slow to spot the toxic nature of the story”.
He told Radio 4’s Media Show: “I think initially they thought this was about what a BBC contracted performer had done privately a long time ago and ‘we’ll let the police deal with it’, failing to realise it was actually about what may have occurred on the premises with BBC guests, for which they shared a responsibility.
“As soon as you have a major star who has appeared in lots of programmes accused of paedophilia on the premises, it’s not something you can say ‘Well that’s just a matter for the police”’.
Mr Sambrook said the BBC had suffered from not replacing the role of deputy director-general which was eliminated as part of a costcutting exercise last year.
He said Mark Byford, the last man to hold the role, had a “lot of clout” on the BBC board and could “force that journalistic perspective into the board”.