Jimmy Savile scandal: How police and prosecutors failed to put Savile in dock

Details of a review of the decision not to prosecute Savile in 2009 by Alison Levitt QC, legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), were disclosed yesterday.

She found that “had the police and prosecutors taken a different approach” prosecutions could have been possible in relation to three victims.

Ms Levitt said that there was nothing to suggest the victims had colluded in their stories, or that they were unreliable.

Police and prosecutors treated their claims “with a degree of caution which was neither justified nor required”, she said. Surrey Police received an allegation in May 2007 that Savile had sexually assaulted a teenage girl at Duncroft Children’s Home in the late 1970s.

In the investigation that followed, two more allegations emerged – the first that around 1973 Savile had sexually assaulted a girl aged about 14 outside Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire.

The second was that in the 1970s, Savile had suggested to a girl aged about 17, again at Duncroft, that she perform oral sex on him.

In March 2008, Sussex Police received a complaint that Savile had sexually assaulted a woman in her early 20s in a caravan in Sussex in about 1970.

Surrey Police consulted with the CPS about the allegations, and in October 2009 it was decided that no prosecution could be brought because the alleged victims would not support police action. Ms Levitt found that Surrey Police did not tell each alleged victim that other complaints had been made. It told the complainant that corroboration was needed and the prosecutor did not question why victims would not support court action or seek to build a case.

The victims told Ms Levitt that if they had known that other people were making complaints, they probably would have been prepared to give evidence in court.

Surrey Police assistant chief constable Jerry Kirkby said: “It is important the actions taken by the investigation team are viewed in context.

“This should take into account what information was known about Jimmy Savile in 2007 and the necessary consideration given by police to the impact of their actions on securing successful court action against him.

“At the time, there was nothing to suggest the level of offending now being reported on a national scale.”

The DPP’s Keir Starmer said he wanted the case to be “a watershed moment”.

“In my view, these cases do not simply reflect errors of judgment by individual officers or prosecutors on the facts before them,” he said. “If that were the case, they would, in many respects, be easier to deal with.

“These were errors of judgment by experienced and committed police officers and a prosecuting lawyer acting in good faith and attempting to apply the correct principles. That makes the findings of Ms Levitt’s report more profound and calls for a more robust response.”

Mr Starmer said new guidance will be drawn up on prosecuting child sexual exploitation cases to underline that “the credibility of the complainant’s account has to be seen in its proper context”.

An agreement has been drawn up with the Association of Chief Police Officers that:

n The approach of police and prosecutors to credibility in sexual assault cases must change, with testing the suspect’s account and building cases being treated as importantly as testing the alleged victim’s story;

• More support should be given to those who make allegations, and the number of times vulnerable victims can be cross-examined in court will be reconsidered;

• Victims who have made allegations they feel have not been properly dealt with will have the chance to ask for their cases to be looked at again by joint police and CPS panels.

Mr Starmer said information on cases where a prosecution cannot be brought will be shared more fully with police and other agencies.

Predatory star targeted most vulnerable

Jimmy Savile victimised some of the most vulnerable people in society in the places where they should have felt safest.

Detectives have been contacted about 50 cases of abuse at 14 medical institutions, including hospitals, psychiatric units and a hospice.

Four alleged offences took place at psychiatric hospitals, and Savile is also said to have abused a teenage visitor to a hospice.

He gained access to vulnerable patients by using his growing celebrity status, according to the report.

“At Leeds General Infirmary, Broadmoor Hospital and Stoke Mandeville Hospital he was taken at face value as a volunteer and fundraiser, probably because of his growing celebrity status,” the report states. “Having been accepted at these institutions, he gained access to vulnerable children and adults.”

Healthcare organisations at the centre of the scandal have described the report into

the abuse as “extremely distressing”.

The majority of the NHS institutions involved have launched investigations into abuse allegations and the Department of Health is conducting a separate investigation.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that investigations should look into whether any health service employee knew what was going on and turned a blind eye to the abuse.

Hospital incidents

Leeds General Infirmary - 16 offences, 1965-95

Stoke Mandeville Hospital - 22 offences, 1965-88

Broadmoor Hospital - 1 offence, 1991

St James Teaching Hospital, Leeds - 1 offence, 1962

High Royds Psychiatric Hospital, Leeds – 1 offence, 1989

Dewsbury Hospital – 1 offence, 1969

Wycombe General Hospital – 1 offence

Great Ormond Street Hospital – 1 offence, 1971

Ashworth Hospital High Secure Unit – 1 offence, 1971

Exeter Hospital – 1 offence, 1970

Portsmouth Royal Hospital - 1 offence, 1968

St Catherine’s Hospital, Birkenhead - 1 offence, 1964

Saxondale Mental Health Hospital, Notts - 1 offence, 1971

Wheatfield hospice, Leeds (part of Sue Ryder) - 1 offence, 1977

At the BBC

33 incidents alleged to have taken place at television or radio studios

Schools

14 incidents alleged to have taken place at schools