Savile was a volunteer for more than four decades at the hospital, had keys to its secure unit and at one point in 1988 was appointed to lead a “taskforce” overseeing the management of the hospital after its management board was dismissed by the then health secretary, Kenneth Clarke.
A Tory MP who worked at the BBC when Savile was their top star said: “senior staff must have known the star was sexually abusing young children.”
Roger Gale worked for the BBC children’s show ‘Swap Shop’. He became head of department for children’s TV at the BBC during the 1970s. He said: “I don’t believe that previous director-generals didn’t know about it.
If senior people were in the know then action should be taken against them. If people were aiding and abetting then they should be prosecuted.”
Many decent staff at the BBC resigned after Newsnight editor Peter Rippon pulled an expose into Jimmy Savile’s crimes shortly after the child predator died. This action is widely rumoured to be the reason Jeremy Paxman resigned from the show.
BBC Staff feared Newsnight editor Rippon binned the shocking report because BBC top brass were actually going to make tribute shows to Savile after his death – they didn’t want the expose to ruin these shows, or the planned resurrection of Savile’s BBC show, Jim’ll Fix It.
A Newsnight source said: “Newsnight is in a bad way, a very bad position which is entirely of Peter Rippon’s making. People are really angry and depressed about it. Rippon is just another one of these people who want to advance up the greasy pole. The whole thing is a farce and we are just bracing ourselves for more revelations.”
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “We will investigate the Department of Health’s conduct in apparently appointing Savile to this role.
Although the framework for child protection and safeguarding for Broadmoor and other special hospital patients changed radically in 1999, we of course want to establish the circumstances and see if any lessons can be learned.
In hindsight he should very obviously not have been appointed. Had anyone involved in the appointment been aware of allegations of abuse against Savile, we would not have expected him to have been appointed.”
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