A children’s charity kept pedophile British television presenter Jimmy Savile away from its annual fundraiser, media reports from London said today as the UK government funded broadcaster, reeling from a sex abuse scandal opened an inquiry into a sordid affair that played out in its studios and elsewhere.
“He was a creepy sort of character – we didn’t want him anywhere near the charity," Sir Roger Jones, the former chairman of Children in Need was reported as saying in The Telegraph newspaper today. Sir Roger was chairman of BBC Children in Need and the BBC's Pension Fund Trustees. He also served as BBC Governor from December 1996 to December 2002.
His comments came as the BBC, which now has been accused of being secretive by a UK government minister, opened an inquiry led by a former Court of Appeal judge Janet Smith. She will investigate the BBC’s culture and practices in the years that celebrated presenter was at the broadcaster.
The inquiry begins at a time the public trust in the BBC has taken a battering. The BBC, waited for six days before responding to allegations of sexual abuse of teenagers by Savile, who had been knighted by the Queen and hailed as a “national treasure.’’ The BBC also had planned a tribute to the late presenter.
The inquiry will also examine whether the BBC's child protection and whistle-blowing policies are fit for purpose, AFP reported.
Sir Roger, 69, was also a governor of BBC Wales. He said he did not have have evidence to report Savile to management at the BBC, the Telegraph reports.
But he said Savile was banned from any involvement at the annual Children in Need TV fundraiser because of “rumors’’ about his interest in young girls.
He told the paper that the charity had “recognized he [Savile] is a creepy sort of character’’ and that it was decided that the presenter was not wanted at the charity.
He said the charity stepped up child protection policies. “A charity like Children In Need knew the biggest thing to guard against was paedophiles. They were just like flies around the honey pot.’’
Sir Roger, a member of the board of governors between 1996 and 2002, said he would have stepped down from his Children in Need role if Savile had become involved with the charity, the paper reports.
Yesterday, in connection with the investigation, police arrested convicted British pedophile Gary Glitter, on suspicion of sexual offences.
Calls are also growing for BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten, the last Governor of Hong Kong, to resign for his failures in relation to the sexual abuse scandal at BBC. The London SUN has branded him ‘Lord Smug’ and a demanded that he go.
Columnist Trevor Kavanagh said: “Patten’s job as leader was to step in on Day One, immerse himself in the facts, and act as the commanding face and voice of the BBC Trust. Instead, he stoked the blaze with stupid swipes at Government ministers, left hapless new Director General George Entwistle to swing in the wind and revealed to the world that the Trust and everything they stand for are a pointless waste of space. Lord Smug must go.’’