New Savile Abuse Victims Are Still Coming Forward a Year after Paedophile Presenter's Reign of Terror Was Exposed

By Daniel Martin
Daily Mail
October 5, 2013

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2442231/Jimmy-Savile-abuse-victims-STILL-coming-forward-year-terror-exposed.html

The NSPCC is still receiving calls from victims of Jimmy Savile a year on from the TV documentary which exposed the serial paedophile’s reign of terror.

Police say there the former BBC broadcaster abused at least 1,300 people over 54 years - but the children’s charity said more were still coming forward.

The charity revealed that publicity over the scandal has led to an overall surge in the number of child victims of sexual abuse and rape contacting the NSPCC.

Shocking figures: Police believe Jimmy Savile abused at least 1,300 people over 54 years while children's charity NSPCC says more victims are still coming forward

Over the past year, the number of referrals from the charity’s helpline to police and social services has almost doubled - up 84 per cent - in response to publicity surrounding the scandal.

In June and July this year, almost 600 calls were referred - up from 323 over the same two months the year before.

The chief executive of the NSPCC hailed the increase, saying it showed that the Savile scandal was encouraging victims to come forward after years of silence.

But Peter Wanless warned that, unless the country does more to step in sooner, we could find that another Savile has long been in our midst going unpunished.

He said the Savile scandal had served to push the problem of child abuse up the news agenda.

‘Police now believe there could be up to 1,300 victims, some as young as five. Incredibly, calls from people saying they were abused by Savile are still being taken by the NSPCC to this day,’ he said.

‘And as the media has followed the narrative and focused on some of the darkness beneath this upturned stone, we have seen more and more stories of child abuse punctuating the headlines.

The NSPCC believes the publicity surrounding the Jimmy Savile scandal has pushed child abuse up the news agenda and has helped encourage victims to come forward after years of silence

‘From grooming gang scandals and unfolding revelations surrounding other celebrities, to care home abuse in Wales, the spotlight has continued to highlight increasingly scandalous evidence of child mistreatment which 21st century Britain hoped it had left behind long ago.’

Mr Wanless said fewer people now believed that lots of sex accusations are false, or that young girls were ‘asking for it’ or were predatory groupies.

‘It’s good that people now seem far more willing to take action, to pick up the phone in an effort to secure justice,’ he said. ‘We’ve seen a huge surge in calls to the NSPCC about a whole range of abuse which continues to this day, a full year later.

‘There has been an 84 per cent increase in referrals about sexual abuse from our helpline to police and social services. Each referral is a child protected so thousands of additional children have been safeguarded by calls to the NSPCC alone.

Chief Executive of the NSPCC, Peter Wanless, pictured, warned more must be done to stop another Savile developing into a sex offender

There has been a 77 per cent increase in reporting of child rape and serious sexual assault in London and a 23 per cent increase in reporting of adult rape.

‘This isn’t because more people are being abused, raped or assaulted, it’s because more of the majority who don’t speak out now feel more confident about doing so.’

Mr Wanless praised the police and the court service for making it easier for potential victims to come forward and cope with the ordeal of a trial.

‘I sense a change in attitudes,’ he said. ‘People will no longer say that something just happened and there isn’t much you can do.

‘People are prepared to challenge injustice no matter how powerful the perpetrator is. If we can see major celebrities like Stuart Hall go to jail, then no sex offender should feel safe.

‘But we are not there yet. Sadly we still live in a society where some well-educated, influential people think that a drunk girl who is raped is “partly to blame” for what happened to her.’

The NSPCC boss said society had to do more to stop abuse before it starts - rather than just reacting when harm is done.

‘We have to stop another Savile developing into a sex offender in the first place and, if he does, stop him after his first attack not his 500th,’ he said.

‘To do this, we have to make child abuse everybody’s business. And we must maintain the pressure on our politicians even when the headlines are a distant memory.

‘The time is right for change; in fact it may be a once in a generation opportunity. If we don’t grasp it with both hands we may find, in years to come, another Savile has been living amongst us.’