By Elliott West
“I grew up with adults, which meant I didn’t have anything to say. I finished up with big ears, listening to everything, and big eyes, watching everything, and a brain that wondered why grown-ups did what they did”.
Jimmy Savile
Introduction
This is the most harrowing piece I have felt the need to write. I am doing this for the hundreds of victims of Jimmy Savile and anyone who has gone through or is going through a similar situation. Jimmy Savile used his fame and fortune to infiltrate all walks of life. He socialised with Margaret Thatcher, members of the Royal Family and the Pope. A man who was trusted to walk freely around Duncroft School for Girls, Stoke Mandeville Hospital and given a set of keys to Broadmoor Prison. A serial rapist, paedophile and loner who hoodwinked so many with his so-called love of charity work but behind the scenes abused, raped and molested hundreds of young men and women for his sexual gratification. A Roman Catholic who had an unhealthy love for his mother Agnes. He constantly sought approval from the woman he called ‘The Duchess’. A person who struggled with her love for her son, recognising the darkness that she could see in his character.
Savile was one of a number of famous people in his era, Gary Glitter, Stuart Hall and Rolf Harris to name a few, who preyed on young fans. Innocent victims who just wanted an autograph or to see a famous face close up but in reality were subjected to atrocious sexual crimes in Savile’s dressing room, house and in his Rolls Royce that he lured them into. A man who was intimidated by women, shunning committal and talking in riddles to journalists when he was pressed on the issue. A Jekyll and Hyde character who avoided prosecution with threats and power, even adorned in death with a gold coffin.
Behind the Cigar Smoke
I grew up watching Jimmy Savile on the BBC programme, Jim’ll Fix It. A show where children write letters to Jim and he fixes them for them to fulfil a dream. They were then given a badge on a red ribbon to wear around their neck. Then in advancing years, Savile looked like someone in his element, sitting in a large comfortable armchair, dripping in gold jewellery and puffing on a Cuban cigar. He was given a godlike status, a Father Christmas who answered a child’s call of “ Dear Jim, please could you fix it for me…” with five minutes of television fame and a badge with the words ‘Jim Fixed It For Me’ etched on it. A prize that was sought after by children of my era and as precious as a Blue Peter badge. As an innocent child, I could see this presenter to be eccentric and slightly weird. Yet beyond the tinted glasses, lay an evil man who used human kindness as a smoke screen for his depravity.
Now Then
This former wrestler turned disc jockey spun countless records in the clubs around Leeds. Young Jimmy lovers crammed into these dark and crowded dance halls to listen to the latest songs from the hit parade. Yet as they danced to the music, Savile scoured the crowd for his next victim. He whispered in his sidekick’s ear to bring a girl back to his dressing room where he would hoodwink his victim with his fame, checking their ticket and getting them to perform a sexual act on him. A traumatised young fan would then wake up to his pure evil but by then it was too late. The act had been committed and they ran away in tears. Too scared to tell and sentenced to a life of nightmares and fear with some on the verge of suicide.
There are countless stories of Jimmy’s abuse including one of Kevin Cook. Cook was nine years old at the time and took part in a Cubs dream day out at Brands Hatch. However, when the group filmed a second day at the BBC studios, Kevin was singled out by Jimmy. He thinks it was because his parents bought Savile a tie. Thinking the group would be presented with an enormous badge, draped around the group, Cook was instead led off to Jimmy’s dressing room with the promise to earn his own badge. What followed is truly shocking. Cook was led into a dark dressing room and sexually abused by Savile. A second man then entered the room and showered Kevin with a number of punches until Jimmy stopped him. A rape and physical assault that he kept secret until 2012 when he felt the courage to open up to his wife Sharon when he learned that Jimmy had abused a boy in Jersey.
Why?
It is clear that the root of Jimmy Savile’s depravity stems from his own childhood. Savile was the last-born child of seven and claimed in interviews that he hadn’t had much of a childhood. Growing up in a Roman Catholic family, Jimmy was the youngest, having four older sisters and brothers. He described himself as his parents’ ‘not again child’. His mother Agnes had Jimmy when she was 40 and he was said to be neither planned nor wanted. His father Vincent, a bookmaker had previously died and Jimmy spent the rest of her life, seeking her love and attention. He bought her a flat in Scarborough’s Esplanade, went to Sunday Mass with her, on holidays including a trip to Rome and was even there when he collected his OBE in 1971. After her death, he moved into her flat and spent five days next to her open coffin. Jimmy kept her memory alive by keeping her bedroom as it was with her clothes freshened up by his cleaner every year and hung back neatly in the wardrobe. An example that is shown in the 2000 BBC Louis Theroux documentary. He describes his mother Agnes as the only true love of his life, the only woman he ever loved” and describes his unusual vigil as “the best five days of my life”. He had a warped view of his mother, objecting to sharing her with other people when she was alive but boasting that when she died she was okay all his.
Savile like Peter Sellers had an obsession with his mother. Years after her death, he still greeted her when he walked through the front door, a guise that covered up his hurt for his mother not trusting and believing that he was doing evil things. She believed that he was going to eventually get arrested and slung into the pokey (prison). A secret that was kept to her grave and only alluded to in an interview shortly before her death. The truth that she only whispered to a priest in a confession box through the iron grill.
Jimmy could only show fake love as a result. This doesn’t excuse his vile crimes but gives an indication of where this darkness may have originated from. A classic example is when he took some of his family to a local fish and chip shop and paid for the meal in vouchers that he had collected. He was a wealthy man. His estate was valued at £4.3 million when he died in 2011. He owned a penthouse which overlooked Roundhay Park, a cottage at Glencoe, Scotland, a flat on Scarborough’s famous Esplanade and a Rolls Royce with a personalised JS 247 plate. Yet he couldn’t spend it on others, preferring to live a thrifty life. His friends and relatives only received a small share of his wealth with the majority of his money going to the Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust, established in 1985. His estate was worth £3.3m, after expenses.
No Remorse
Despite two investigations during his life, Savile took his darkness to the grave. His victims were given a life sentence following his abuse but despite so many knowing the truth, Jimmy was given an open door to carry out his acts. This silence was appalling, blamed on the lame excuses of the times and Savile’s popularity. He is just one example of a breed of people who think it is right to abuse others without any remorse. I have only been able to watch one episode of the current BBC drama, The Reckoning. I must say that Steve Coogan does play an eerily similar Savile but barring the harrowing appearances of his victims at the start and end of the episode, it does little to expand this well-known timeline.
Hopefully, this and the Netflix documentary will give others the courage to come forward in not just this case but situations in the here and now. Jimmy Savile got away with his sexual crimes because he surrounded himself with a ring of people who knew what he was doing, some even joined in but they chose to turn a blind eye to it. Savile took this as a green light and whether in a costume or his trademark tracksuit, he continued to abuse in the region of 1,000 young boys, girls and teenagers. A shocking example of abuse and one that remains one of the worst examples.
