generalspeaking

Saturday, January 19, 2013

In His Position

"He could do anything he wanted. He only picked on the most vulnerable. He was clever enough to know the ones less likely to speak out against him."
"He could turn up at a school and say, 'Is anyone interested in meeting me?'
"He spent every waking minute of every day thinking about it. Whenever an opportunity came along he has taken it. He is programmed to think and act in that way."
Det.Supt. David Gray

Now past tense, and the world is better for it. The much-celebrated, knighted and benighted Jimmy Savile will never pay the penalty in life that should have been his in recognition of the lives he impacted and made horrendously miserable when fame protected him from suspicion of sexual abuse of children.

Dead, but not forgotten. One can only wonder whether the megalomaniacal child predator had no thought to posterity. Preferring to live wholly for the day. He was the supreme psychopath. Wreaking destruction in his wake, and happily aware that no one would take steps to stop him. It was not as though this skilled showman, egotist supreme and predator was operating without the knowledge of others.

Jimmy Savile and the BBC's Children in Need mascot, Pudsey Photo: REX/Getty Images

That would be 'others' who were in full knowledge of his predilection, but felt that to unmask him and deter him from preying on the weak and the vulnerable; trusting children, children under medical care, would be to unhelpfully staunch the flow of charitable funds streaming toward their various causes. The little victory of attaining funding to support their cherished causes trumped the large failure to apprehend his victimization of children, somewhat less cherished.

That the charitable foundations that Jimmy Savile's fame allowed him to bring in huge financial support for were invested in improving children's lives and their health represents a wry paradox, and increases the horror of the unforgivable fallibility of those who knew and remained silent.

An amazing litany of sexual crimes represented the outcome of a three-month police investigation; a total of 214 offences inclusive of 34 rapes - all taking place over a fifty-year span. With the majority of the victims being children under 18. Even with that staggering number, police caution that they fully anticipate more, as they continue to investigate other allegations brought against this hallowed celebrity.

One in five of his victims were boys. Mr. Savile is described in the police report as a "prolific, predatory sex offender", who was unctuously ushered into institutions across Britain, ranging from hospitals where he served as a hugely respected fundraiser, to schools, where his celebrity status and television visibility made him a highly popular figure.

"It could be said that he groomed a nation. He was hiding in plain sight, but none of us were able to do anything about it", explained "Cmdr. Peter Spindler, head of the Metropolitan Police specialist crimes unit. And because of those circumstances most beneficial to Mr. Savile's way of life, the youngest of his victims was eight, the oldest 47 - and nowhere to turn, to be believed.

"Savile cunningly built his entire life around gaining access to vulnerable children", agreed Peter Watt of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Children. What a perfectly quaint bit of nomenclature, and how perfectly dreadful that their mandate to prevent cruelty to children was such a manifest failure in this cardinal instance.

According to the police investigators, the man committed 50 assaults at 14 medical establishments, including a cancer hospice and a number of psychiatric hospitals. His targets included children so ill they were confined to their beds. Not all his victims were silent. Several women reported to police. That was in 2003, then again in 2007 and also in 2008. The complaints were obviously inconvenient and not pursued.

To be sure, Surrey Police did take steps to interview the entertainer about those allegations in October 2009. The interview was 50 minutes in length, and he was most undoubtedly his charming self. Understandably unequivocal in denying any impropriety, let alone sexual assaults, goodness gracious. The accusations said more about peoples' morals than much else, for they were "after money".

And as Mr. Savile helpfully pointed out to his interrogators, sexual abuse accusations represented an "occupational hazard" for someone in "his position". He rests in peace, his victims can find none.