UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Josh Halliday and Haroon Siddique
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 March 2013
Jimmy Savile’s celebrity status contributed to the police’s failure to prevent him sexually abusing hundreds of young people over five decades when they could have stopped him in the 1960s, the compiler of a highly critical report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has said.
The watchdog’s inquiry into the police’s handling of Savile revealed that the disgraced DJ, who died in October 2011, could have been stopped as early as 1964 but police mishandled evidence and dismissed victims.
Drusilla Sharpling, from HMIC, said police appeared to be reluctant to investigate Savile because of his high public profile.
“It is clear that because of several Savile’s celebrity status and the power, maybe people do look for that extra piece of evidence, behaving with an extra sense of caution, because of the power he wielded,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday.
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