The Savile Scandal

The Jimmy ­­Savile scandal is getting bigger day by day, if you’re from the UK and haven’t heard of this – you must be living under a boulder. Literally. To anyone from outside the UK, Jimmy Savile was a very famous British celebrity who died last year. Until a few weeks ago he was still highly popular, but an ITV documentary revealed accusations that Savile had sexually abused teenage girls during his time as a celebrity. Since then there have been numerous twists and turns with more accusations flying and more institutions being called into question. The police across the UK are currently following 400 separate leads into the affair, they have also identified up to 200 victims! This number is likely to rise.

The accusations span half a century and have mired many institutions in controversy. Savile was a well-known philanthropist who had helped rise up to £40 million for charity. Most of his work involved charities for children and ‘helping’ those children at their most vulnerable. Many institutions, including ones run by the NHS such as Stoke Mandeville and Broadmoor Hospital, allowed him to go about alone and some even had rooms set aside for his personal use. It was in these places that most of the abuse appears to have happened. His primary employer, the BBC, has also faced criticism for its actions as some of the abused is alleged to have occurred on BBC property. As well as this, a couple of weeks before the ITV documentary was broadcast the editor of Newsnight pulled the plug on an investigation of the accusations.

The fallout from the scandal is far from over; the police have begun criminal investigations into actions taken by a ‘handful’ of living people. The investigations range from people helping Savile to escape justice and even taking part in the abusing of children themselves.