Jimmy Savile: Difference between revisions

{{Mature}}

{{Villain_Infobox

|fullname = Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile

|alias =Jimmy Savile<br>

|origin = Leeds, Yorkshire, England

|type of villain = Serial Rapist

==Early life==

Savile, born at Consort Terrace, in the Burley area of Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, was the youngest of seven children (his elder siblings were Mary, Marjory, Vincent, John, Joan, and Christina) in a Roman Catholic family. His parents were Vincent Joseph Marie Savile (1886–1953), a bookmaker's clerk and insurance agent, and his wife, Agnes Monica Kelly (1886–1972). His paternal grandmother was Scottish.

Savile is estimated to have raised £40 million for charity.[1] One cause for which he raised money was Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where he volunteered for many years as a porter. He raised money for the Spinal Unit, NSIC (National Spinal Injuries Centre), and St Francis Ward – a ward for children and teens with spinal cord injuries. Savile also volunteered at Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor Hospital. In August 1988, he was appointed by junior health minister Edwina Currie chair of an interim task force overseeing the management of Broadmoor Hospital, after its board members had been suspended. Savile had his own room at both Stoke Mandeville and Broadmoor.[58] In 1989, Savile started legal proceedings against News Group Newspapers after the News of the World published an article, in January 1988, suggesting he had been in a position to secure the release of patients from Broadmoor who were considered "dangerous". Savile won on 11 July 1989; News Group paid his legal costs, and he received an apology from editors Kelvin MacKenzie and Patsy Chapman. In 2012, it was reported that Savile had sexually abused vulnerable patients at the hospitals.

Savile was a participant in marathons (many for Phab, including its annual half marathon around Hyde Park, London). He also cycled from Land's End to John o'Groats in 10 days for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and ran in the Scottish People's Marathon. It was reported that he completed the London Marathon at the age of 79; rumours that he was driven round in a lead vehicle as an "observer", were denied by marathon officials.

== Death and sex scandal ==

[[File:Jimmy Savile last photo.jpg|thumb|247x247px|The last photo of Savile, taken days before his death.]]

Savile was found dead at his home in Roundhay on 29 October 2011, two days before his 85th birthday. He had been in hospital with pneumonia, and his death was not suspicious. Immediately after Savile's death, the BBC's Newsnight programme began an investigation into reports that he was a sexual abuser. Meirion Jones and Liz MacKean interviewed one victim on camera and others agreed to have their stories told. The interviewees alleged abuse at Duncroft approved school for girls in Staines, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and the BBC. The item was scheduled for broadcast in Newsnight on 7 December 2011, but was never shown; the BBC broadcast tributes to Savile at Christmas 2011. Newsnight also discovered that Surrey Police had investigated allegations of abuse against Savile. In December 2012, a review led by Nick Pollard of the BBC's handling of the issue described the decision not to broadcast the Newsnight investigation as "flawed". The review said that Jones and MacKean had found "cogent evidence" that Savile was an abuser. George Entwistle – at that time the Director of BBC Vision – who had been told about the plan to broadcast the Newsnight item, was described by the review as "unnecessarily cautious, and an opportunity was lost". There was no public mention of the Newsnight investigation into Savile at the time but in early 2012, several newspapers reported that the BBC had investigated but not broadcast (its report of) allegations of sexual abuse immediately after his death. The Oldie alleged there had been a cover-up by the BBC. On 28 September 2012, almost a year after his death, ITV said it would broadcast a documentary as part of its Exposure series, The Other Side of Jimmy Savile. The documentary, presented by Mark Williams-Thomas, a consultant on the original Newsnight investigation, revealed claims by up to 10 women, including one aged under 14 at the time, that they had been molested or raped by Savile during the 1960s and 1970s. The announcement attracted national attention, and more reports and claims of abuse against him accumulated. The documentary was broadcast on 3 October. The next day, the Metropolitan Police said the Child Abuse Investigation Command would assess the allegations.

Former professional wrestler Adrian Street described in a November 2013 interview how "Savile used to go on and on about the young girls who’d wait in line for him outside his dressing room ... He'd pick the ones he wanted and say to the rest, 'Unlucky, come back again tomorrow night'." Savile, who cultivated a "tough guy" image promoted by his entourage, was hit with real blows during a 1971 bout with Street, who commented that had he "known then the full extent of what I know about [Savile] now, I’d have given him an even bigger hiding – were that physically possible." During the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in March 2019, it was reported that Robert Armstrong, the head of the Honours Committee, had resisted attempts by Margaret Thatcher to award Savile a knighthood in the 1980s, due to concerns about his private life. An anonymous letter received by the committee in 1998 said that "reports of a paedophilia nature" could emerge about Savile.

[[Category:List]]

[[Category:Male]]

[[Category:United Kingdom]]

[[Category:Egotist]]

[[Category:Modern Villains]]

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[[Category:Deceased]]

[[Category:Wolves in sheep's clothing]]

[[Category:Stalker]]

[[Category:Dimwits]]

[[Category:Misogynists]]