Jimmy Savile Report Leak Reveals Scathing Criticism of BBC

By Nicola Slawson
The Guardian
January 21, 2016

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/20/jimmy-savile-inquiry-leak-reveals-scathing-criticism-of-bbc

DJ Jimmy Savile presenting Top of the Pops in 1976. Photograph: BBC

A leaked draft report into the BBC’s practices during the years that Jimmy Savile worked there has revealed the full extent of the former DJ’s predatory sexual activity.

The report, extracts of which were published by the investigative news website Exaro, is said to include “devastating detail” of the corporation’s “sheer scale of awareness” of the late star’s activities.

Dame Janet Smith’s draft report is said to point to a “deferential culture”, “untouchable stars” and “above the law” managers at the corporation. However, the BBC cannot be criticised for failing to uncover Savile’s “sexual deviancy”, it says.

The retired judge’s report outlines multiple rapes and indecent assaults on children by Savile, which she claims were all “in some way associated with the BBC”.

A BBC spokesman said they would not be commenting as they had not yet seen the final report or the draft. He said: “We cannot confirm the authenticity or contents of the leaked report and we don’t believe Exaro has the full version.”

Smith responded to the leak on Thursday morning, saying in a statement that the “document is out of date and significant changes have been made to its contents and conclusions. The document should not have been made public and cannot be relied upon in any circumstances.

“The review will work with the BBC to arrange publication of its final report as quickly as possible to ensure that accurate and responsible reporting can take place.”

In the afterword of the leaked report, which runs to more than 500 pages, the retired judge states: “Finally, I wish to consider whether it is possible that a predatory child abuser could be lurking undiscovered in the BBC even today. The answer is that I think it is possible.”

Dame Janet Smith, whose review into the culture and practices of the BBC during the years that Jimmy Savile worked there has been leaked. Photograph: Phil Noble/PA

Mark Watts, the editor-in-chief of Exaro, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday morning: “It is the draft from which criticisms were passed to individuals as relevant, and indeed to the BBC as an institution. It is quite important to realise that the BBC as an institution knew about these criticisms, and they are extensive, more than a year ago. It [the draft] is more than a year ago.”

According to Exaro – which published 37,500 words of extracts from the draft report – one section says: “[Savile] would indulge in sexual touching while working on the set [of Top of the Pops or Jim’ll Fix It] and on at least one occasion, he was actually on camera. Savile would seize the opportunity for sexual contact even in public places such as corridors, staircases and canteens.”

Savile indecently assaulted an underage girl on the set of Top of the Pops in 1969, the report says. The girl told a member of floor staff, who ejected her from the building.

Savile also assaulted a 17-year-old girl on camera on Top of the Pops in 1976. She too complained to floor staff but “her complaint was brushed aside with the explanation that that was ‘just Jimmy fooling about’,” writes Smith in the leaked report.

Savile would arrange for particular girls to be on the podium next to him during the making of Top of the Pops and a producer said in the late 1970s: “Savile always used to choose the girls and boys he wanted close to him … instead of letting the director or floor manager choose them.”

One witness in the report states: “Apart from the regular members of Savile’s team, I know of at least two young girls [both underage] who were invited back to Savile’s dressing room, where he abused them sexually.”

Smith says most of Savile’s rapes and sex abuse crimes took place in his flat or caravans, but admitted that she had heard of incidents occurring in “virtually every one of the BBC premises at which he worked”.

In the chapter on the BBC’s management culture, Exaro reports that Smith tells how a production assistant complained of a sexual assault by a colleague at the World Service between 1981 and 1984. The assistant was told by the personnel department that making a complaint would be “not making the right decision”.

The report reads: “Several people who suffered at Savile’s hands were not prepared to make any complaint.

“Perhaps the most stark example is [unnamed witness]. She was 19 and almost raped by Savile in his caravan, but, after having discussed the matter with colleagues, decided not to make any complaint either to the police or to the BBC.

“It was difficult in the BBC to make a complaint about another member of staff, it is not hard to imagine how much more difficult it must have been to make a complaint about a member of the ‘talent’ such as Savile.”

Smith’s investigation has interviewed 375 witnesses in connection with Savile, who died in 2011.

Earlier on Wednesday, it was announced that the final report would be published within six weeks, after police said they were no longer concerned about the report prejudicing ongoing investigations.

• This article was amended on 21 January 2015 to clarify details of the leak of the draft report. An earlier version suggested the report “contains more than 37,500 words over 500 pages”.