Savile & the Broadmoor abuse allegations:

The Scarborough & Whitby connection – by Tim Hicks

Following the furore over Jimmy Savile after his exposure by the former Surrey Police Detective Mark Williams-Thomas in the ITV programme “Exposure:  The Other Side of Jimmy Savile”, Real Whitby investigative-journalists have been conducting an investigation into Jimmy Savile and his activities in Scarborough and Whitby, locations largely ignored by the national media.

In his follow up programme, shown on Wednesday the 21^st of November, Mr Williams-Thomas commented on Savile’s activities at Broadmoor Secure Mental Hospital, Leeds General Infirmary and Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Stoke Mandeville Hospital

Savile is alleged to have committed a variety of offences at Stoke Mandeville, ranging from indecent assault to rape, which were reported to staff and ignored.

At the time of writing, there is no mention of the abuse allegations on the hospital website. The only mention of Savile posted after the 3^rd of October (when Mr Williams-Thomas’ allegations were first made public) praises his fundraising activities and refers to him as Sir Jimmy Savile.

Broadmoor Secure Mental Hospital

However, it is the incredible revelations about Broadmoor and the link to his “Scarborough and Whitby set” that principally concern this article:

• Although he was not a member of the medical staff and had no training in how to operate in a secure hospital, Savile was given a full set of keys which gave him, as an “honorary entertainments officer”, complete access to every part of what was supposed to be a secure institution containing dangerous prisoners.  His Personal Assistant described his access to the ‘secure’ hospital as “Total”.

• Savile is alleged to have used this unrestricted access to sexually assault patients. He had access to patients bathrooms and it is alleged he was allowed to watch while female patients were bathed, although he was not a member of the medical staff and this had nothing to do with his role as “honorary entertainments officer” at Broadmoor.

• Savile had an official office, a garage and a bedroom at Broadmoor, to which he is alleged to have brought underage girls after hours.

• One member of staff, Mr Ray Rowden, was so shocked at Savile’s free access as a non-qualified person, to a high secure environment containing deeply disturbed, dangerous patients, that he says he made a complaint to the then General Manager Mr Alan Franey (subsequently Chief Executive of Broadmoor) about it.  He also states that Mr Franey ignored his complaint.

Mr Franey was interviewed on the ITV programme and (incredibly) confirmed that he allowed Mr Savile access to every part of the supposedly secure hospital except patients bedrooms.

It therefore seems to me that Mr Franey’s decision to allow Savile’s access was extraordinary; particularly as former members of staff – many of them experts in recognising psychiatric disorder – have alleged it was well known that Savile was a threat and have also alleged that complaints about him were routinely ignored.

So why should Mr Franey ignore procedures to restrict access, which were designed to protect patients and staff and which it was his duty to uphold?  

And why would Jimmy Savile sponsor Mr Franey’s appointment to a sensitive and specialist rôle requiring extensive experience in security, mental  health and the criminal justice system when he had no experience in any of these critically important fields?

The Leeds General Infirmary connection

Mr Franey, was a very close personal friend of Savile and they maintained this lifelong friendship long after they had both departed from Broadmoor, right up until Savile’s death.

They first met at the Leeds General Infirmary when Savile worked there as a volunteer porter and where Mr Franey was a member of the management team from 1975 to 1985. They socialised together and he was a close member of Savile’s set. It has been alleged that Mr Franey’s used to drive Savile around nightclubs in Leeds in the 1980s, although Mr Franey denies this.

There have subsequently been allegations that Savile was allowed complete access at the Leeds General Infirmary, that he abused patients at the Leeds General Infirmary there and clubbers at nightclubs he managed in the city, detaining them in the boiler-room and abusing them once the club was closed.

The programme alleges that Savile requested Mr Franey for appointment to Broadmoor and was present when the rôle was discussed with Mr Franey by civil servants at Savile’s private club in London (the Athenium).

Mr Franey had no experience in secure hospitals, the mental health system or criminal justice system, but was nevertheless appointed to a senior role in Broadmoor in 1988 – where this experience would normally have been a pre-requisite – at Savile’s own request, and stayed there for nine years.

According to the Telegraph, Mr Franey took early retirement from Broadmoor following an inquiry into the hospital in March 1997. The inquiry followed claims made in newspapers that a child pornography-ring was operating at Broadmoor.

Although the full report was never published, a summary found no evidence to support the allegations but made some criticisms of lax security while pointing out the hospital had actually improved under Mr Franey’s management; this despite the fact that Savile could “come and go as he pleased”.

Mr Franey is vehement that he only resigned because he wished to write a book and was ready to retire.

An inquiry into Ashworth Special Hospital in 1999 found serious concerns about security and abuses that came about from poor management and as a result, the security at all secure mental hospitals was reviewed. In 2003, the BBC reported that there had been allegations of high levels of sexual abuse of female patients at Broadmoor and that reports of abuse were routinely ignored.

The Scarborough and Whitby connection

Mr Franey, along with Mr Jimmy Corrigan, Mr Neil Littlewood and Mr Howard Silverman, gave a tribute to Jimmy Savile on “This is Your Life”, and they were collectively described as ‘special mates’ who all ran marathons together with Jimmy Savile. A clip is available here, where they are all shown (at 5m39s) wearing their uniform club running strip.

On Savile’s death, Mr Franey gave his close friend a fullsome and heartfelt tribute:

• “I spent a lot of time with him and would say I knew him probably as well as anybody else knew him . . . I spoke to him last Wednesday and asked him how he was, and he said he was feeling very tired and short of breath. Mentally, he was very alert. But he said to me: ‘I’m coming to the end of the tunnel’”.

How can it be right for someone whose friendship for this man was so close to be put in charge of him at Broadmoor? How could he be expected to maintain detachment and exercise impartial control over him?

Could it be that Jimmy Savile – a highly intelligent, ruthless and cunning man – selected Mr Franey for the post precisely because he knew he could not? We will never know.

One of the Real Whitby articles on Savile contains a photograph of Jimmy Savile and his close friends from his running-club, running in Scarborough, including the late Mr Jimmy Corrigan. They are all shown wearing their uniform club running-strip.

Mr Franey’s friends, Mr Corrigan and Jimmy Savile, have been alleged in the national press to have been ‘persons of interest’ to North Yorkshire Police during an investigation into a paedophile-ring in Scarborough in 2003.

This ring is alleged to have included a number of highly influential people, including His Worship the Mayor of Scarborough Mr Peter Jaconelli (also of interest to the Police in 2003) and, of course, Jimmy Savile himself. As a result of the 2003 investigation two other men were convicted of abusing girls in Scarborough; John Thomas White was jailed for 20 sex offences. Another man, Brian Rutter, was later cleared on appeal.

Real Whitby investigative-journalist Nigel Ward has independently established that some members of Savile’s “Scarborough and Whitby set” including Jaconelli were active in Whitby in a group they called “the club” which it is alleged had access to a room with a “whipping post” in it.

According to press reports, there were allegations about Savile made during the 2003 police investigation, yet they ignored this line of enquiry and Savile was never even interviewed by North Yorkshire Police.

The North Yorkshire Police position on Savile is:

• “When the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile were publicised, we carried out extensive searches of force records which did not reveal a local connection.” 

 Although it is absolutely clear that a prominent local connection did exist and according to at least one Real Whitby reader/commenter the Police must have known about it:

• “It is impossible for . . . Scarborough Police in particular not to be aware of either Savile or Jaconelli’s activities. Everybody I knew in the 70’s and 80’s knew Jaconelli’s reputation. Whether he was guilty or not is almost irrelevant. The fact is the town was alive with rumours and accusations which should have been, at the very least, investigated. The Police are saying there is no record of an investigation; outrageous. I frankly don’t believe that. I heard a story, again maybe not true, that one youngster’s family were paid-off by Jaconelli to keep quite. That was at the time he was a Councillor for the Barrowcliff ward. If I heard that story, hundreds of others did as well.  Where the police aware of that? If not, how did they miss it, it was common currency in Scarborough.”

There is a pattern emerging here; a pattern of complaints about Savile being universally ignored by the various authorities at the major Saville locations because of his status and connections.

Esther Rantzen appeared on the ITV Exposure documentary, responding to the allegations about Jimmy Savile’s sexual assaults on young girls, and admitted she had known of the rumours and had not done anything. As a consequence the dedicated campaigner against child abuse was removed as one of The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) patrons, after a lifetime of devoted service to the protection of children.  Another of Savile’s victims, who at least had the honesty to confirm what was actually going on.

The ITV programme aired on Wednesday last alleges that although complaints were made about Savile to the Police in Leeds, they were ignored and associates of Savile have alleged that he routinely bribed police officers there.

Mr Savile’s PA has alleged that Savile’s fundraising was so important to Stoke Mandeville Hospital and complaints would have been ignored because of his celebrity status and because his fund-raising activities were too important to the hospital.

Mr Franey stated that he has no recollection of Mr Rowden’s complaint at Broadmoor and that it was not Mr Rowden’s place to raise these concerns anyway. This, of course, is incorrect. All members of staff have a duty to report anything which endangers patient safety or the security of the hospital.

Further, if Mr Franey had ensured that the normal security procedures for a secure unit had been observed, or Mr Rowden’s concerns had been addressed, the vulnerable patients Mr Franey was responsible for would have been protected and perfectly safe from his close and dear friend Mr Savile.

The former Chief Inspector Tom Fox commanding policing in Scarborough even recommended Savile to be an Honorary Freeman of the Borough when, as Councillor Tom Fox, he was also Leader of the Council!

It appears that North Yorkshire Police and the press backed off from investigating Savile because of his prominent position and friends, as everyone else did. The then Chief Inspector Tom Fox, who commanded policing in Scarborough at that time, even recommended Savile to be an Honorary Freeman of the Borough, when as Councillor Tom Fox he was Leader of the Council, after Savile had been the subject of police interest in 2003!

To be fair, North Yorkshire was probably no different in relation to Scarborough and Whitby.  Jaconelli was a prominent local business man, Scarborough Councillor, County Councillor and the Mayor of Scarborough. Jimmy Saville was a major media-personality connected at the highest levels in Yorkshire, nationally and internationally, who cultivated close relations with the Police and is alleged to have routinely bribed Police Officers.

Although Real Whitby has developed a lot of fresh information on Savile and his associates in Whitby, which was previously unknown and have formally passed this information to North Yorkshire Police through the force website, in response North Yorkshire Police have not acknowledged it or confirmed what action they have taken over it, nor have they contacted us or shown any interest in responding or aggressively investigating this matter.

In short, they appear to be adopting exactly the same ineffective response now, that they did when Savile was alive, presumably to escape any criticism over their failure to arrest him.

Councillor Fox is refusing to comment on what he knew when he was responsible for policing in Scarborough. Neither the Chief Constable or the then Chief Inspector Fox (Retired) have offered any explanation for the failure of their force to protect local people by breaking up a paedophile-ring that was operating fairly openly in the area, or indeed any apology or expression of regret for their failure.

They have confined their actions to removing all traces of Savile from Scarborough, and although we continue to hope for a full statement, as it currently stands their position remains the ridiculous and blatantly untenable:

• “When the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile were publicised, we carried out extensive searches of force records which did not reveal a local connection.”
  

One detects here the pungent tang of bullshit in the rarified atmosphere surrounding Chief Inspector Tom Fox (Retired) at his new office at the Town Hall.

It is time for Chief Inspector Fox (Retired) and Chief Constable Madgwick to clear the air with a full statement.

Related reading:

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/did-north-yorks-police-fix-it-for-jim

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/savile-north-yorks-policecouncil-cover-up

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/savile-and-other-party-animals

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/north-yorkshire-police-and-jimmy-how-much-did-they-know

Jimmy Savile:  The FOUR Rings?

Tim Hicks up-dates some major developments in the Savile investigation in Scarborough and Whitby.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Further to my recent “Corruption Busters” article on Jimmy Savile, we have received more information from Whitby and Scarborough residents, liaised with some national and local press organizations and accessed additional open sources.  We have also had access to the Operation Yewtree and Operation Ornament Reports into Savile.

This has allowed us to develop fresh information on Savile.  In particular, it appears he operated in paedophile-rings and we believe we have now identified three or four of them, and I am investigating a possible fifth.

Although Savile was a loner, never married and apparently did not form normal human relationships very easily – or indeed at all – he seems to have had close relationships with these five people:

1) His mother Mrs Agnes Savile, with whom he lived in her flat at the Esplanade, Scarborough, for much of his life.

2) Mr Alan Franey, who was a member of the Leeds General Infirmary Management Team when Savile worked there as a volunteer, and who became the General Manager at Broadmoor after Savile specifically requested Mr Franey to assist in his Broadmoor taskforce.

3) Mr Peter Jaconelli, who was a local Councillor and former Mayor of Scarbrough.

4) Mr Jimmy Corrigan, who was a Scarborough businessman and member of the same running club as Savile.

5) Mr Cyril Smith MP, who was first identified as a paedophile in 1979 by “Private Eye”.

The fresh information we have developed is as follows:

• A local man has confirmed that Jaconelli did commit sexual offences against many boys at his Judo Club, which he ran from 1955 onwards, and at his ice-cream parlours.

• Corrigan, Savile and Jaconelli frequented “Michaels’s” night-club in St Nicholas St, Scarborough, which was owned by Jimmy Corrigan and was subsequently sold and re-named “The Penthouse”. It was a highly popular venue with a reputation far beyond Scarborough as can be seen from the list of famous groups it attracted, frequented by young people from far beyond Scarborough, giving rise to further concerns that they may have used it to procure victims.

• The owner of the property in Whitby that had Satanist paraphernalia in a room called “the chamber”, also used the “Michael’s/The Penthouse Club” and it seems to have been central to their operating.

• Corrigan knew the owner of the property in Whitby containing “the chamber”, which was visited regularly by Savile and Jaconelli, although we have no evidence that Corrigan participated in any of the activities – whatever they may have been – that took place in “the chamber” or rituals room located there.

We have obtained further evidence of the close friendship between Savile and Mr Corrigan, which was not just limited to the running-club that Mr Franey, Mr Corrigan and Savile were members of: 

“Jimmy was a close friend of Jimmy Corrigan who owned the amusement arcade on the Foreshore and Jimmy was one of my customers. I spent a lot of time with him through work and socially and was aware that he and Jimmy Saville had lots in common. They both had a “Roller” and when they took delivery they immediately ordered another one because there was a waiting time of 3 or 4 years. Then they would sell the old one on at nearly the same price they paid for it.“

In his 1974 autobiography “As it Happens”, Savile boasts that he and a millionaire friend had sex with six girls provided for him by a Council Chairman as a reward for attending. We suspect that the ‘millionaire friend’ was Jimmy Corrigan.  It appears from the description “girls”, and the fact that one of their fathers took the girl away, that they were under age.

Prior to moving to The Esplanade, Savile’s mother lived in Foley Street, Scarborough, very close to the May Lodge National Children’s Home. Savile visited his mother in Scarborough frequently and although we have no evidence to suggest there were any offences committed against children from the home, it remains a concern.  It also appears he had some contact with at least one child from the home as a result of his charity fundraising, although this appears to have been completely innocent and not a cause for concern.

In the last article, we pointed out that Savile travelled regularly between Leeds and Scarborough by train and frequented the Wimpy Bar that stood opposite Scarborough station; our concern being that he may have been committing sexual offences on the Leeds to Scarborough line.  The Operation Yewtree report confirmed that Savile committed at least one offence on a train, having assaulted a woman on a train from Leeds to London in 2009.  A spokesman for British Transport Police (BTP) said,“BTP received a historic allegation against Mr Savile in October 2012. This was in relation to an incident on board a train traveling between Doncaster and Leeds in 1974. This offence was investigation by the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Yewtree team.  BTP have not received any further allegations of Mr Savile committing offences on the railway network”.

Savile’s close relationship with Cyril Smith, referred to above, is very interesting and revealing. Both men shared a close friendship for forty years, no doubt reinforced by their common sexual preferences. Both were devoted to their mothers (Smith made his mother the Lady Mayoress of Rochdale and Savile referred to his mother as “The Duchess”), never married, escaped detection by the Police, evaded prosecution by the Crown Prosecution Service for the whole of their criminal paedophile careers, thereby escaping any consequences for their crimes during their lifetimes, although they were known to the Police and the CPS.

The decision by the CPS not to prosecute Savile and Smith at the time has been extensively criticised.

According to The Mirror, Cyril Smith was connected to another paedophile named Horgan who was also involved in the Satanic and sado-masochistic abuse of children. The article alleges “The shock revelation over the satanist and MP’s friendship raises questions over any role Smith and Jimmy Savile may have played in Horgan’s paedo ring. Horgan organised a series of satanic-themed orgies for like-minded paedos.  In one of them he raped little Michael and an even younger female child before watching on as others did the same. The monster, whose youngest victim was only two, also hung up his stepson and the girl on hooks.  In further horrendous episodes he stripped the children naked, blindfolded them and tied them to a cross next to a black magic altar so that his “disciples” could use them for sex.  Youngsters from two to 13 were drugged, tortured and sexually abused during the satanic ‘ceremonies’.”

The Rings

According to Operation Yewtree, there is “no clear evidence” he operated in paedophile rings, although “whether he was part of an informal network” is still being investigated.

However, according to the BBC, Savile “had different groups of friends in different places. They were his “‘teams’, he called them”.   It appears from the above that Savile operated in the following “Teams” (to use his term instead of the usual ring, sect, covern, network or gang):

1. A paedophile “Team”/Ring in Scarborough, involving Mr Corrigan, Mr Jaconelli and possibly others.

2. A Satanist “Team”/Ring in Whitby, involving Mr Jaconelli and possibly others, centered on the property in Whitby which had “the chamber’ in it.  Whilst we do not know what went on there and it could have been entirely innocent, when you have a cocktail of satanist and sadomasochistic paraphernalia, and Savile, an innocent explanation is unlikely.

3. A Satanist “Team”/Ring in Stoke Mandeville Hospital, involving Savile and several others.

4. There was also a fourth “Team”/Ring in Rochdale, led by Horgan, who was closely associated with Cyril Smith.  Smith was certainly Savile’s oldest friend and a very close confidant.

Although it must be stated we only have circumstantial evidence linking Savile to the paedophiles who are alleged to have committed offences in the Rochdale “Team/Ring”.  Given his obsessions and that he is alleged of have thought of committing sexual offences against children “every waking minute”, it is unlikely that this was coincidence or that Savile would have been unable to resist the temptation or pass up the opportunity of participating.

It certainly raises a concern that remains unresolved.  In particular, the description of the room used in Stoke Mandeville is strikingly similar to the description of  “the chamber” in Whitby, and the description of rape is similar to the description of rape that occurred in Rochdale, providing further corroboration.

Although North Yorkshire Police did miss an opportunity to arrest Robert Smith (one of Britain’s worst offending paedophiles) in 1987, merely issuing a caution instead of arresting him,  their recent record for investigating paedophiles in Scarborough and Whitby is actually quite impressive. They seem generally to have quite an effective and aggressively-led Protecting Vulnerable Persons Unit and it appears it dealt with a lot of paedophile activity, particularly in Scarborough.

Yet North Yorkshire Police did not disrupt the longest running and most successful paedophile-ring in British history that was operating openly for over fifty years in small seaside towns where they were well known locally for their activities.

Surrey Police have confirmed that it contacted North Yorkshire Police on the 20^th of July 2007 asking if they had intelligence or information on Savile.  (Operation Ornament.  Report can be accessed here Reference: paragraph 7.15). They received a response confirming that North Yorkshire Police had no knowledge of him on the 21^st or 22^nd of July 2007; although according to The Express, Savile’s activities had been public knowledge locally and allegations of sexual abuse had been made against Savile to the Police in 2003 (during the successful investigation of Brian Rutter) and he had been a subject of interest in that inquiry.

If this is so, then the information and intelligence developed should have been recorded in the system in 2003, and then passed to Surrey Police in July 2007. It was not.

Savile was a nationally known and very influential figure, connected to the highest levels of British society, who had regular Friday morning meetings with nine police officers in his flat in Leeds.  It is not yet clear if officers from North Yorkshire police attended them, although a spokesman for British Transport Police (BTP) said “We are unaware of any BTP officers attending any private meetings with Mr Savile.”

Savile was also adept at manipulating the Police or intimidating them if necessary, and has been alleged to have routinely bribed Police Officers.  One serving Police officer acted as his driver and bodyguard, another officer “Inspector 5” who was the West Yorkshire Police Force Incident Manager based in their control room, acted as Savile’s PA when Surrey Police asked to interview Savile undr caution as part of a criminal investigation (Paragraph 7.25 of the Operation Ornament report above) and made arrangements for the interview to take place at Stoke Mandeville Hospital the next day, instead of a police station. During this interview set up by “Inspector 5”, Savile threatened Police Officers and was able to manage and dominate the interview easily, because it took place in Hospital premises, not a Police Station, as would be the normal practice.

Could this ability to influence an intimidate Police officers explain why the Surrey Police enquiry in 2007 elicited no mention of the 2003 Police interest in Savile, which should have existed in North Yorkshire Police computer records?

Although I am open to correction, it appears to me that either The Express report is wrong; the information gathered in 2003 was not entered into the computer; it was subsequently removed, or it existed and this information was not disclosed to Surrey Police. In this context, I am aware from another investigation of allegations of corruption against at least one Officer in the North Yorkshire Police Force Intelligence Bureau – which handles requests for information from outside forces – although this took place three and a half years later in 2010.

We will probably never know the explanation for this inconsistency, because North Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Tim Madgwick is refusing to comment or provide any explanation.  Contrrast this with the open, prompt and helpful response we received from the British Transport Police.

In summary, the worst serial offender in British history operated openly in Scarborough and Whitby in the longest running paedophile-ring in the history of policing in the UK despite being known to the police.

That is bad enough.

However, the final piece in this chain of events is that it was ex (Acting) Chief Inspector Tom Fox, who commanded policing in Scarborough for some time during Savile’s period of offending, who  as Councillor Tom Fox recommended that he be made a Freeman of the Borough in 2005.

To be fair, Councillor Fox has now moved that the honour is withdrawn. However, Councillor Fox makes no mention in his motion of any regret over his original recommendation.

At least his motion to withdraw the Honorary Freeman status from Savile has been published nationally, giving him excellent personal publicity.

OPERATION YEWTREE

If any reader has information they wish to pass on to the Metropolitan Police investigation into the activities of Savile and his associates in Scarborough and Whitby, they should contact:

The Operation Yewtree Incident Room, on 0208 217 6446

indicating they are doing so pursuant to the Real Whitby investigation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Related reading:

All Real Whitby ‘Savile’ articles

Jimmy Savile: the Hospitals investigations

• – Corruption Buster TIM HICKS reports on the latest hospital investigations of systemic abuse allegations  at Rampton, High Rouds and Leeds General Infirmary.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Regular readers of Real Whitby will have be aware that we have been pursuing an investigation into a paedophile ring that operated in Scarborough from about 1955 until about 2009, led by the Mayor of Scarbrough Mr Peter Jaconelli and involving Jimmy Savile, allegedly arcade owner Mr Jimmy Corrigan, and others.

One of the most disturbing revelations we uncovered is that Savile had access to Hospital patients from Rampton High Secure Psychiatric Hospital and brought them to Scarborough on day trips, where they were introduced to Jaconelli and Corrigan at Jaconelli’s ice-cream parlours, where he is known to have abused children. We were the first to discover this and it was subsequently covered in the national press

Other information then came into our possession indicating that there were visits from other hospitals involving Savile. The concern being that he was trafficking vulnerable hospital patients to Scarborough for abuse by himself, Jaconelli and the other members of the ring. Scarborough Hospital was not involved in this investigation in any way.

Real Whitby has contacted the hospitals we believe may have been involved in this and have had the following responses:

Rampton High Secure Psychiatric Hospital

Until the Real Whitby investigation, the official position of Rampton High Secure Psychiatric Hospital was that Savile had visited there once during the 1970’s.

However, upon being contacted by Real Whitby, Rampton High Secure Psychiatric Hospital immediately initiated an investigation conducted by Dr Mike Harris B.Sc, MB, BS, MRCS, LRCP, FRCPsych, Executive Director Forensic Services, Chief Officer for High Secure Services and a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist.  It was conducted openly and Real Whitby co-operated fully with the investigation at all times, making all of our information available to Dr Harris.

The investigation identified members of staff that were on the visit and also a group photograph of the patients, nurses, Savile, Jaconelli and Savile’s mother Mrs Agnes Savile on the steps of Scarborough Town Hall.  Understandably, the Hospital will not release this photograph because it has the faces of patients on it. The investigation fully confirmed the accuracy of the Original Real Whitby Report.

It also confirmed that Jimmy Savile had stayed at Rampton in his notorious camper-van for an unknown period, during which time according to one member of staff “he had a different woman every night”.  Only one of the ladies involved has been identified and she was over the age of consent. The others remain unidentified and it is therefore unclear if they were patients, members of staff or outsiders.

Happily, the members of staff who were present on both visits are adamant that the patients were properly supervised and no abuse took place.

A hospital spokesman confirmed:

“Upon receiving information relating to a visit by Jimmy Savile to Scarborough involving Rampton Hospital, the Trust (Nottinghamshire Healthcare) has undertaken an internal investigation into these historical visits. Our initial findings seem to confirm two visits to Scarborough by patients and staff from the Hospital on the 25^th of April 1971 and 21^st of September 1972.  We have the visits mentioned in a number of patient notes and a small number of patients have not yet been identified. We do not think there was any other involvement with patients as, anecdotally, we hear Jimmy Saville annoyed the Senior Nurse at the Hospital during this time and was discouraged from visiting again.

In the early 70s there were many visits out of the Hospital by patients, indeed many of them worked on a farm outside of the secure fenced area.  There were approximately 1300 patients at that time, many of whom did not need to be in high secure care. They were looked after by 300 staff. Currently every patient within the Hospital needs high secure care, 350 of them are cared for by 1900 staff. Visits outside the Hospital happen rarely, mainly for court appearances, medical treatment or for compassionate reasons and these have to be agreed with the Ministry of Justice. These figures are publically available in our Board Papers, which are published on our web site.

We now have stringent policies and procedures in place to deal with visitors to the Hospital and safeguard our patients, including advance booking of visitors, advanced CRB checks for volunteers and visitors are also accompanied by staff at all times.”

High Royds Psychiatric Hospital Leeds

Real Whitby contacted the High Royds Psychiatric Hospital in Leeds and asked them to investigate if Jimmy Savile had arranged visits to Scarborough for its patients.

A hospital spokesman commented:

 “An incident which occurred at High Royds Hospital in 1989 has been brought to our attention through the Giving Victims a Voice report into allegations made against Jimmy Savile.  We are not aware of any other allegations and we have no record or knowledge of Savile taking patients on any visits.  Any activities involving patients which take place off Trust premises are carefully risk-assessed and patients are always accompanied by our staff.

We consider it is unlikely that Savile took patients from the hospital on visits, but it is 21 years since the date of the allegation we have received.  Many of Savile’s other alleged offences took place between 20-40 years ago and can only do our best to look into allegations that we are made aware of.”

Clearly investigating historical allegations of sexual offences up to forty years ago is a difficult task and it is understandable that the hospital was not able to rule out the possibility of patients from the hospital having been involved in these visits to Jaconelli at Scarborough.

Leeds General Infirmary

Real Whitby contacted Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Leeds General Infirmary (LGI), and asked them to investigate if Jimmy Savile had arranged visits to Scarborough for its patients. A spokesman pointed out that patients undergoing medical or surgical care would be unlikely to leave the hospital on a trip and the Trust would need to have more detail of specific claims as it was not aware of any. Due to the length of time that has elapsed, the Trust was unable to confirm definitely whether these visits had taken place or not. The Trust has an independent Investigation Team looking into Savile’s involvement with the LGI and stressed that any evidence or concerns should be passed on to them.

We also asked for information on the dates that Mr Alan Franey (who was a close friend, a member of Savile’s running club and who was subsequently personally recommended by Savile for appointment at Broadmoor) was a member of the management team there.

The Trust spokesman commented:

“The Investigation Team based at the hospital is looking at issues including the historical management arrangements, which are quite complex to unravel. As you will appreciate such information about many years ago is not known to the current Trust.  That work is still ongoing and will be published as part of their eventual report.  Those facts about Mr Franey and Savile’s involvement with the hospital stretching back many decades are not fully known and that is why we have an Investigation Team who are looking into such matters.

Please see below our public statements about this – the first of which makes clear the investigation team will carry out their work in private prior to releasing a public report, plus the terms of reference which set down what exactly they are aiming to do, one of which is to establish a full chronology:

http://www.leedsth.nhs.uk/about-us/news-and-media/news-item/article/composition-and-approach-of-leeds-investigation-looking-into-matters-relating-to-jimmy-savile/

http://www.leedsth.nhs.uk/about-us/news-and-media/news-item/article/terms-of-reference-for-jimmy-savile-internal-investigation/

On the basis of these very clear statements we are declining to comment on matters which the panel are currently looking into – that policy applies to all media, so you are not being treated differently from anyone else. “

One of the members of the investigation team is Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway (retired), formerly the Director of North Yorkshire Police Force Intelligence, who commanded its Force Intelligence Bureau I believe until his retirement in January 2013.  He is internationally famous for his investigation of the disappearance of  Claudia Lawrence

This is of interest because in July 2007 North Yorkshire Police received an enquiry from Surrey Police for any intelligence they had on Jimmy Savile.  The Bureau sent back a negative response.  However, in fact Savile was well known as an associate of the known paedophile Peter Jaconelli.  Detectives from North Yorkshire Police had apparently questioned witnesses about Savile in the 2003 investigation referred to above.

The Surrey Police investigation was the best chance that existed of bringing Savile to justice.  It failed because:

1. A police officer referred to as “Inspector 5” of West Yorkshire Police who was a member of Savile’s notorious “Friday Morning Tea Club” (a regular gathering for twenty years, of senior officers for tea with Savile while they were on duty, where Savile alleged  “blackmail letters”  -i.e. complaints about Savile- were destroyed) rang Surrey Police and arranged for Savile to be interviewed at Stoke Mandeville Hospital instead of being interviewed at a police station.
2. North Yorkshire Police Force Intelligence Bureau failed to pass on the intelligence they undoubtedly had about Saville and Jaconelli, to the Surrey investigation.    It should be further noted that the Force Intelligence Bureau features prominently in the series of articles on corruption and misconduct in North Yorkshire Police called Operation Countryman II which we will be running shortly.

I found it intriguing that an officer who had access to all force intelligence and therefore may have had knowledge of the original bungled investigation into Savile and Jaconelli was also involved in the present NHS investigation.  I therefore asked the following additional questions of Mr Galloway.

1. At what date did Mr Galloway take up his appointment as Director of Force Intelligence?
2.  Did he know or meet Jimmy Savile at any time either socially or through his duties?
3.  Was he a member of Savile’s Friday Morning Tea Club?
4.  Does he know if any officers of North Yorkshire Police were members of the Friday Morning Tea Club?
5.  Did he at any time know Inspector Mick Starkey or any other member of the Friday Morning Tea Club?
6.  Did he know or meet Peter Jaconelli, (NAME REDACTED) or Jimmy Corrigan at any time either socially or through his duties?
7.  Was he involved at all in the investigation into Rutter and White in 2003?
8.  Does he have any explanation for the failure of North Yorkshire Police to pass on information to the Surrey investigation?

I received the following prompt and courteous response from a Leeds Teaching Hospitals spokesman:

“I have put this question to Mr Galloway and he has confirmed he was not the Director of Intelligence for North Yorkshire Police in July 2007, nor has he ever been involved, in any way whatsoever, with any investigation or enquiry relating to Jimmy Savile.  He does not wish to add any more to that statement.  Reporting to the formal panel is an investigation team, their names and roles are spelled out on a separate public website set up specifically for the investigation, which is accessible via the link below:

http://www.speakingoutleeds.co.uk/

when you go on to that site click on investigation in the menu in the top left and then scroll down to the membership.

As you will see it includes brief biographies for the investigation team members, including Mr Galloway.  This sets outs the why Mr Galloway is suitably qualified to be involved in the Leeds investigation, and you will also note that there are a number of other well qualified and independent individuals who are part of the same team.

I really don’t have anything else I can add on the matters you raised relating to Mr Galloway or North Yorkshire Police – as I said in my last message these are not questions for our Trust.”

Clearly, having a retired senior police officer on the team is an asset to the investigation. Having taken up an appointment to an investigation of this nature of his own free will, Mr Galloway has accepted a duty to behave openly and has voluntarily agreed to some degree of public scrutiny of his experience and credentials.

Given the public allegations that blatant corruption in North Yorkshire Police allowed Jaconelli and Savile to operate openly in Scarborough, because of Jaconelli’s position as Mayor and his close connections to the Police and the Council; that there is now potentially a link between Savile’s offending at the LGI (in the West Yorkshire Police Area, where one police officer has been referred to the IPCC) and Jaconelli and Savile’s offending in Scarborough (in the North Yorkshire Police area), it seems to me to be completely unsatisfactory that Mr Galloway refuses to answer these questions and carries on as a member of the investigation with this unresolved conflict of interest.

Under these circumstances, it appears to me that the integrity of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust investigation is fatally compromised.

A spokesperson for the trust responded to this concern:

“We do not intend to answer the questions you raise whilst the investigation is underway.  We do not accept that the investigation into Jimmy Savile’s activities is in any way compromised or flawed and are assured that it is being conducted with the utmost integrity.”

I can only pose the question: If indeed this is the case, why should Mr Galloway refuse to answer the above questions about any knowledge he or North Yorkshire Police may or may not have had about Savile’s close associate and fellow paedophile Jaconelli? Particularly as a simple answer confirming he knew nothing would resolve these concerns and add to the credibility of the investigation.

Summary

This latest line of enquiry pursued into Savile by Real Whitby has established that:

• Savile stayed at Rampton in his camper-van for an unknown period, during which time he had sexual relations with unidentified women of unknown age and origin who could have been patients, members of staff or outsiders. So it is possible that offences of sexual abuse did occur at Rampton High Secure Mental Hospital, as they did at Broadmoor.

• Savile was trafficking hospital patients into Scarborough to meet at Jaconelli and Corrigan, (the two men that allegedly featured in the 2003 investigation into Rutter and White) from Rampton on two occasions and probably from other hospitals we have not as yet been able to identify.

• The patients were taken to the meet Jaconelli (a known abuser of children) at the Town Hall, his ice cream parlours (scenes of abuse) and Corrigan’s amusement arcades.

• The investigation of the visits to Scarborough by Rampton patients has confirmed that no abuse took place on those two visits.

Frustratingly, the investigation has been inconclusive, because we have been unable to identify which other hospital(s) were involved or what happened. This is because the events under investigation happened up to forty years ago and the Rampton investigation was assisted by the existence of the original Sunday People article.  However, if any Real Whitby reader has any further information on hospital visits, please contact us using the comments section, or alternatively the Real Whitby email address in complete confidence

Savile did not do anything for anyone without something in it for himself. According to Commander Peter Spindler commanding Operation Yewtree, Savile was “a prolific, predatory sex offender spent every minute of every waking day thinking about abuse” and we can therefore be confident that if he had the opportunity to abuse patients who had been taken away from the close supervision in a hospital ward for a day visit he and Jaconelli would have done so. It still therefore remains a concern that abuse of hospital patients may have occurred.

Savile the unanswered questions

Real Whitby and others have consistently alleged that Jaconeli was left alone by the local police and council because of his status as Mayor and prominent businessman. This allowed him to provide his cronies (including Savile) a benign environment to operate in completely unhindered by the police.  Hence perhaps the reason that Savile stayed in Scarborough after his mother’s death in 1972 and gave Jaconelli and others access to vulnerable people.

• Jimmy Savile’s ability to commit hundreds of serious sexual offences inside public institutions and Peter Jaconelli’s to commit them in his ice cream parlours, his judo club and local schools without the police knowing is simply not credible

This latest line of enquiry by Real Whitby and the publication of the Report into allegations of collusion by West Yorkshire Police has uncovered more questions about the actions of Scarborough Borough Council and officers North Yorkshire Police, which remain unanswered:

• Why will North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire Police not confirm the names of the officers that were members of Savile’s infamous “Friday Morning Tea Club” Given that the West Yorkshire Police report admitted “over-reliance on personal friendships” between Savile and some officers, and said “mistakes were made” in handling intelligence.  In contrast, the British Transport Police responded openly and promptly that none of their officers were involved.

To quote the above BBC report:

• “West Yorkshire Police (WYP) said there were “currently 76 crimes involving 68 victims committed in the West Yorkshire area relating to Savile”, but claimed none of these were reported to the force before his death. How can it be that West Yorkshire police have no record of any allegations against Jimmy Savile while he was alive but have since received dozens of complaints of historical abuse?
  

• Why was the 1998 “anonymous letter” claiming the presenter was a paedophile not entered on the force’s database and acted upon? And how deeply did Savile’s friendships with police officers really go?

• Then there are the mysterious links to the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry: the presenter’s details were on four “index cards”. Perhaps a detective suspected he might be involved.
  

It adds to an uneasy sense that the review hasn’t established the full story of Jimmy Savile’s relationships with the force.”

• Why will North Yorkshire Police comment on why they failed to pass on the intelligence they had on Jaconelli, Corrigan and Savile to the Surrey investigation in 2007?
  

• How can it be that North Yorkshire Police claim that a search of their records revealed no local connection, when he and Jaconelli were offending in Scarborough from 1955 and 1960 onwards respectively, and it has no record of any allegations against Jimmy Savile while he was alive, but have since received eight complaints of historical abuse?
  

• Why will the former Director of North Yorkshire Force Intelligence, Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway (Retired) not confirm what North Yorkshire Police knew about Peter Jaconelli and the paedophile ring he operated openly in Scarborough from 1955 onwards (which included Savile), which every schoolboy in Scarborough was aware of?

• The IPCC has written to Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley, Greater Manchester, the Metropolitan, Lancashire and West Yorkshire forces asking them to review all relevant material and information to establish whether there are conduct matters that should be referred to the IPCC and to re-look at all information relating to the late Jimmy Savile. The IPCC has asked that each force provides the relevant documents and, if they decide not to record or refer any matters, the rationale for not doing so.  Why has the IPCC excluded North Yorkshire Police from this enquiry, given the open public allegations of corruption in that force? 

• Why will Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway (retired) or the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Investigation Team not comment on the concerns that Mr Galloway has a potential conflict of interest in participating in the investigation and resolve this.

• Why will Councillor Tom Fox leader of the Council and formerly the Chief Inspector in charge of Scarborough Police not answer Nigel Ward’s eminently reasonable question “Would the Leader confirm or deny that, as a former ranking Police Officer in Scarborough, and as long-serving leading Councillor since that time, he was aware that elements within the Authorities were cognisant of concerns of the gravest nature in respect of the activities of Sir Jimmy Savile, yet nevertheless played a leading role in the lavish civic honours bestowed upon a man now widely reviled as the worst and most degenerate sexual predator in the Borough’s history?”
  

• Why will Scarborough Borough Council not respond to Trevor Harrington’s complaint about Peter Jaconelli, alleging he was a paedophile and asking him to be stripped of his honorary title of Alderman?
  

North Yorkshire Police were offered the opportunity to comment on this article but did not do so.

Operation Countryman II (4) – Update

• – a brief update by TIM HICKS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The initial Sunday Express investigation into Jimmy Savile’s activities in Scarborough stated “Jimmy Savile was named by police as being part of a paedophile ring which allegedly involved two prominent businessmen in Scarborough it has been claimed.” The allegations concern a 2003 investigation into an alleged paedophile-ring in Scarborough in which it is claimed by two witnesses that independently came forward to the Scarborough News alleging that they were interviewed by detectives from North Yorkshire Police about  Jimmy Savile,  Peter Jaconelli and  Jimmy Corrigan during a paedophile investigation in 2003.

In the Louis Theroux documentary, Savile stated that he took girls to his caravan in the Scarborough area; in his autobiography Savile described being among a group of naked young girls in his caravan – “we all resembled some great human octopus” – when the parents of one girl came and banged on the door to retrieve their daughter.  It appears that because parents were involved, that the girls were under age.  In the original Express article it specifically mentions that during the 2003 investigation “Police then believed a number of paedophiles were operating within the Scarborough area including a man who abused children at his caravan overlooking the seaside resort.”.

It has been alleged to Real Whitby that this caravan was also used by Jimmy Corrigan.

In 1966, Jimmy Savile opened the Otley Carnival.  Afterwards, according to his biography, Savile and a millionaire friend of his called “Jimmy” had sex with six under-age girls Savile had procured for them both on the pretext that they were his “bodyguards”, in a tent.

We know that Savile moved hospital patients from Rampton and possibly another hospital that I have been unable to identify to Scarborough in 1971 and 1972 and that they met Corrigan at the Arcades he managed and Jaconelli at one of his  ice -cream parlours, which were places where Jaconelli was known to abuse boys.

New Information 

New information has emerged about Savile and his relationship with Jimmy Corrigan.  It is alleged that Savile and Corrigan went to a Scouts campsite in Doncaster to stay over, as part of a fund raising effort by Savile.  They allegedly took a motor-home with them.  According to this third party account that originated from Savile, they stayed in a tent on a raft in the middle of a river while the scouts slept on the river bank.  I have tried to obtain verification of this, but this has proven to be impossible because of the lapse in time, a common issue in historical investigations.  A spokesman for the Scouting Association stated:

“We are aware of only one case (which you document below) in which Savile was alleged to have abused a young person who was a member of the Scout Movement. We are not aware of any regular or ongoing links between Savile and any Scout Groups in the UK.

We have over 500,000 Members who go camping on a regular basis. It is impossible for us to comment upon an alleged incident that might have or might not have occurred  in the 1960’s or 1970’s at an unspecified location on an unspecified date with unspecified individuals.

What we can say is that if any of our members believes they have been a victim of Savile they should report this to the relevant authorities and we will support them in any way we can.”

The Scouting Association also provided their current safeguarding policy which appears comprehensive and now “applies to all situations in which Scouting operates”.

Savile had an association with the Otley Scout Group and invited scouts from Sutton-in-Ashfield onto the BBC, when a group of Cub Scouts were filmed eating their packed lunches while upside down on a rollercoaster.  It has now emerged that Savile is known to have abused a scout in his BBC dressing room in 1976.

Whilst the account of the Doncaster visit by Savile and Corrigan does not mention any instance of abuse and asserts that Savile and Corrigan slept on their own, away from the scouts, obviously it is a cause of concern that someone like Savile would have access to scouts at a camp site. This is now prohibited. There must still be a concern that someone as obsessed with insatiable appetites for sexual abuse as Savile would not have been able to leave the scouts alone. Particularly as he had access to a mobile home  –  a type of vehicle he is known to have used to commit sexual offences safely and securely without being seen or discovered.

This is all indicative of the very close friendship that existed between Savile and Corrigan.  They belonged to the same running club, ran marathons together, Savile was a frequent visitor to Corrigan’s arcades, it appears they shared a tent together, used the same motorhome and were seen driving together. Savile also frequented “Michael’s” nightclub in Scarborough which was  part of the Corrigan  empire, and always spent Christmas with Corrigan.

North Yorkshire Police make an arrest.

Given his close association with Savile it is hardly surprising that Corrigan was a person of interest to North Yorkshire Police when they investigated Savile and Jaconelli in 2003.  Yet North Yorkshire Police has consistently exercised its right to silence on:

• Its failure to arrest Jaconelli or Savile, although Jaconelli was obviously well known to the force as a paedophile.

• Its failure to pass on the intelligence it had developed about Savile and his associates to Surrey Police in 2007.

• If an Officer or Officers of North Yorkshire Police attended Savile’s infamous Friday Morning Tea Club in Leeds or had other social contacts.

• The complaint about Peter Jaconelli made by Mr Trevor Harrington, passed to it by Scarborough Borough Council.

It has instead arrested celebrity Jimmy Tarbuck.   Mr Tarbuck appeared regularly in Scarborough, his last appearance being at the Spa Theatre in 2009. He denies the allegations.

Interestingly, Mr Stuart Hall was also arrested and charged with offences of indecent assault and initially denied any wrongdoing, calling the charges “pernicious, callous, cruel and, above all, spurious.”  Then at the pre-trial hearing on he pleaded guilty to 14 charges of indecent assault involving 13 girls aged between 9 and 17. All but four of the offences took place between 1972 and 1982, during the time Hall was at the height of his fame with It’s a Knockout, one episode of which was filmed in Scarborough.

Councillor Fox is still refusing to comment on Jaconelli and Scarborough Borough Council is also refusing to comment on the complaint made by Mr Trevor Harrington about Mr Jaconelli.  It therefore appears to me that everyone is keeping quiet and hoping this will all go away.

North Yorkshire Police investigates itself.

Following information received from Real Whitby, the IPCC has directed North Yorkshire Police to review all relevant material and information to establish whether there are conduct matters that should be referred to it.

Following on from the blatantly perverse West Yorkshire Police investigation, in which that force exonerated itself from any responsibility for its failure to arrest Savile and which has been widely condemned as a disgraceful whitewash, I wrote to the Metropolitan Police, the IPCC, Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire and Chief Constable Madgwick of North Yorkshire Police asking for the investigation to be conducted independently by officers from another force.

The IPCC and Metropolitan Police passed the correspondence to North Yorkshire Police, the investigation is to be conducted by the North Yorkshire Police Professional Standards Directorate.  So in summary, North Yorkshire Police are now investigating themselves, in the same way as the West Yorkshire Police did.  Real Whitby will keep you posted on the outcome of their investigation, but I confidently predict another whitewash.  We shall see.

If you are affected by the issues raised by this article you may wish to contact the charity HOPE.

“Operation Countryman II” (5):  Jaconelli:  NYP responds

In my last article on corruption in North Yorkshire Police, I finished with the following passage:

“Following on from the blatantly perverse West Yorkshire Police investigation, in which that force exonerated itself from any responsibility for its failure to arrest Savile and which has been widely condemned as a disgraceful whitewash, I wrote to the Metropolitan Police, the IPCC, Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire and Chief Constable Madgwick of North Yorkshire Police asking for the investigation to be conducted independently by officers from another force.

The IPCC and Metropolitan Police passed the correspondence to North Yorkshire Police, the investigation is to be conducted by the North Yorkshire Police Professional Standards Directorate.  So in summary, North Yorkshire Police are now investigating themselves, in the same way as the West Yorkshire Police did.  Real Whitby will keep you posted on the outcome of their investigation, but I confidently predict another whitewash.  We shall see.”

Well, we have now had a response from North Yorkshire Police and my words transpired to be prophetic.

The Wall of silence

• On the 13^th of February 2013 Mr Trevor Harrington alleged formally to Scarborough Borough Council that Peter Jaconelli was a predatory paedophile and the police knew all about his offending. The Council passed the allegations to North Yorkshire Police, but Mr Harrington has had no response from the Police.  In short, witness evidence of offending and Police misconduct within the remit of the second tier of Operation Yewtree has been ignored and suppressed by North Yorkshire Police.
• On the 20^th of February 2013 Scarborough Borough Councillor Geoff Evans also alleged formally to Scarborough Borough Council that Peter Jaconelli was a predatory paedophile and the police knew all about him. The Council passed the allegations to North Yorkshire Police, but Councillor Evans has had no response from the Police and North Yorkshire Police refused to comment on the press articles.  In short, witness evidence of offending and Police misconduct within the remit of the second tier of Operation Yewtree has been ignored and suppressed by North Yorkshire Police.

• On the 18^th of February 2013 Nigel Ward asked former the leader of SBC Councillor Tom Fox (formerly the Chief Inspector in charge of policing for Scarborough) the following question “What is the intention of the Leader in respect of the many serious allegations, every bit as horrific as those against Jimmy Savile, against former Councillor and Mayor Peter Jaconelli, in respect of his status as Alderman of the Borough. Is there a process in train for the Council to adopt the same approach as in the Savile case?”  He received no response.

• On the 27^th of April 2013 I wrote to Operation Yewtree stating that Mr Harrington had heard nothing back about his complaint and this led me to conclude that North Yorkshire Police were ignoring the evidence of offending by Jaconelli (as they did when he was alive), to prevent the investigation of allegations of misconduct by its own Officers. I received no response.

• On the 11^th of May 2013 I wrote to Detective Chief Inspector Orchard of Operation Yewtree raising concerns about the integrity of any investigation conducted into Jimmy Savile by North Yorkshire Police and asking that it be conducted by another Force. I received no response.

• On the 11^th of May 2013 I also wrote to Chief Constable Madgwick asking for another Force to be called in to conduct the Jimmy Savile investigation, asserting that for some time witnesses have alleged that there was institutionalised corruption in North Yorkshire Police; which allowed Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Savile to offend unhindered in Scarborough because of their local and national status. The complaints from Mr Harrington and Councillor Evans were sent to North Yorkshire Police by Scarborough Borough Council at the time, however no action has been taken and neither complainant has been contacted. Chief Constable Madgwick did not respond.

• On the 16^th of May 2013, I submitted a complaint to the IPCC.  The text is as follows:

“North Yorkshire Police were fully aware of the offending of Peter Jaconelli and did nothing to prevent him having access to children or to arrest him because he was the Mayor of Scarborough, a prominent business man and an influential conservative politician.

 Had North Yorkshire Police investigated Peter Jaconelli, it would have led them to the other members of the ring including Jimmy Savile and its failure to apply the law without fear or favour to Jaconelli allowed Savile to escape justice.

 North Yorkshire Police were aware of the offending of Corrigan and Savile, and did nothing to arrest them because of Savile’s media status.

 North Yorkshire Police had extensive knowledge of Peter Jaconelli’s offending (every schoolboy, teacher and Councillor in Scarborough was also aware) and that of Savile and Corrigan, and that all three were close associates.  This information was not entered into the police intelligence systems to protect Jaconelli and conceal the failure of North Yorkshire Police to arrest him.  

 That in response to an enquiry from Surrey Police in 2007, North Yorkshire Police Force Intelligence Bureau did not respond fully and properly to this enquiry with the information it had or should have had.

 That in the period 2007 – Savile’s death in 2011, despite knowing that Surrey Police were investigating Savile, North Yorkshire Police Force Intelligence Bureau continued this policy of withholding information.

 That North Yorkshire Police failed to search key locations or interview key witnesses once news of Savile’s offending was known.

 That North Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Police have ignored legitimate enquiries asking for confirmation that no member of North Yorkshire Police ever socialised inappropriately or attended any meetings of the Friday Morning Club in Leeds, when both forces had a duty to address public concerns over the contacts between police officers from North Yorkshire and Jimmy Savile.”

• On the 18^th of May 2013, I also wrote to the Mrs Julia Mulligan, Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire, asking her to support an investigation by another Force. Mrs Mulligan did not respond either.

• Also on the 18^th of May 2013, I wrote to North Yorkshire Police asking it to confirm if Officers of North Yorkshire Police socialised with Savile or were members of his Friday Morning Tea Club. I received no response. Contrast that with the response of the British Transport Police, which confirmed promptly and openly that none of their officers were involved.

The response of the Police

The response to all of this correspondence raising issues of Police corruption in the Savile and Jaconelli case was immediate and impressively well co-ordinated.

• On the 20^th of May 2013, Detective Inspector Maddocks of the Metropolitan Police SC&O 5(6) Major Investigation Team Child Abuse Command emailed me to confirm that all of my correspondence had been forwarded to North Yorkshire Police, that any future correspondence received from me by Officers of Operation Yewtree “will be dealt with in the same way’ and the Metropolitan Police would not comment any further.

• On the 21^st of May 2013, Ms Bethan Meredith of the IPCC notified me that she had forwarded my correspondence to North Yorkshire Police and instead of directing it to investigate these concerns, she had instead directed its Professional Standards Department to “consider whether your complaint would come under the Police Reform Act 2002” (PRA 2002).

• Predictably, on the 28^th of May 2013, North Yorkshire Police confirmed that it will not investigate the allegations above because I do not have the necessary status under the PRA 2002 to be a complainant – thereby vindicating my prediction of a whitewash referred to above. 
  

• On the 4^th of June 2013 I wrote to Ms Meredith of the IPCC pointing out that the issues of Police corruption I have raised will not be investigated.  The same day I received a response from Ms Rebecca Reed of the IPCC.

“The decision letter from North Yorkshire Police PSD is a decision that the concerns you have raised are not eligible to be recorded as a police complaint because you do not fit the definition of a complainant under the Police Reform Act 2002. This is a technical assessment of your status and is a separate and distinct decision to whether the concerns that you have raised should be addressed regardless”.

I responded asking that the IPCC ensured the issues I had raised in my complaint would be considered as part of the conduct investigation; this being in accordance with the IPCC press release quoted above. The IPCC did not address this question but simply reiterated the statement it issued on the 17th of May 2013.

• On the 5^th of June 2013, I wrote to new Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police, Mr Dave Jones, stating that the decision by his Force not to register a complaint within the meaning of the PRA 2002 did not preclude him from commenting on the issues I have raised in my complaint, regardless of the definitions contained in the Act. Given the fact that allegations of corruption and incompetence by North Yorkshire Police were being made in the national and local press, it would seem appropriate that North Yorkshire Police should investigate the issues raised, or issue a statement denying the allegations. I have received no response.

• Surrey, Metropolitan and North Yorkshire Police were given sight of a draft of this article and had the opportunity to comment, but I have received no comment from them.

• I have asked the IPCC to confirm that the information contained in the above complaint has been forwarded to the IPCC team within the IPCC scoping Savile matters and have had no response.

Summary

Of all the failures by the British Police Service that allowed Savile to go unpunished, the two most critical were made by North Yorkshire Police:

1.  The inexcusable failure by North Yorkshire Police to arrest Jaconelli, which would surely have led them to wind up the vice ring he led in Scarborough, including Savile.
2.  The apparent failure to pass on the intelligence North Yorkshire Police had developed on Savile during the 2003 paedophile investigation in 2007, which would certainly have led to his arrest by Surrey Police.

Scarborough was the area with the longest period of offending by Jimmy Savile, allegedly as part of a paedophile ring led by Peter Jaconelli and involving others. If North Yorkshire Police had followed up on the allegations about Jaconelli, Savile could conceivably have been arrested in the 1970’s. As it is, Jaconelli’s status as Mayor, prominent businessman and Conservative politician ensured that the Police left him alone so he could operate with impunity in Scarborough from at least 1955 (but probably earlier) until about 1999. Because of his association with Jaconelli, Savile was also able to operate with impunity in Scarborough from his arrival there in 1960 (living in a property he purchased next to a children’s home) until about 2009.

I submit that any impartial and rigorous investigation into Savile and Jaconelli may reveal offences of misconduct by North Yorkshire Police Officers over a number of years, some of whom could still be prosecuted.

However, it is a concern that North Yorkshire Police will not conduct an impartial investigation into itself that will reveal publicly such embarrassing shortcomings. It appears that now North Yorkshire Police is to investigate itself, (in exactly the same way as West Yorkshire Police did) it has used a legal stratagem, to ensure the issues of how it allowed Savile and Jaconelli to operate with impunity in Scarborough for fifty years will not be addressed and the allegations of incompetence and/or corruption by Officers of North Yorkshire Police will be conveniently swept under the carpet.

This is symptomatic of a wider malaise in the British Police service known in the United States as the Blue Code of Silence or Blue Wall Corruption.

Put simply, it doesn’t matter which Force they are from, many Police Officers will not report misconduct by another police officer. In the context of the Savile case, although the police are happy to go after high profile celebrities, they will not arrest, criticise or impartially investigate fellow Police Officers in high profile cases like Savile and Jaconelli.  Hence, the Blue Wall of Silence I have faced, which is documented above.

This and the ongoing failure to address these issues by successive Chief Constables by retreating into a policy of maintaining its right to silence, damages public confidence in the police.

I would again call for a full and open statement by Chief Constable Jones making it clear that he supports an impartial and rigorous investigation into the grave allegations of corruption in his Force, and that he is determined to move away from the defensive and closed response North Yorkshire Police have traditionally maintained towards complaints against its officers.

The Rampton High Secure Psychiatric Hospital investigation into Savile’s activities there

Finally, I have now had access to the report detailing the Rampton High Secure Psychiatric Hospital investigation into Savile’s activities there.  Until the Real Whitby investigation, the official position of Rampton was that Savile had visited there once during the 1970’s and no abuse had taken place.

However, Real Whitby proved he had been allowed access to patients from Rampton and had taken them to Scarborough to meet Jimmy Corrigan and Peter Jaconelli, who are alleged to have also been sexual abusers that operated in a paedophile-ring there.  Upon being contacted by Real Whitby, Rampton High Secure Psychiatric Hospital immediately initiated an investigation which Real Whitby co-operated fully with at all times, making all of our information available to it.

The report is written by Dr Mike Ferriter, Lead for Research (Forensic Division), Ms Louise Landreth, Support Manager: Performance and Contracting (Forensic Division) and Mr Ian Fidler, Senior Clinical Security Manager (Forensic Division) and if you remove the terms of reference, is less than a page long.  It states that Savile’s visit and the trips were made at the suggestion of a Charge Nurse, that he entered the secure area of the hospital on at least 3 occasions and that the two visits to Scarborough did take place.

The report confirms he was escorted by staff at all times, had no keys, was not left alone with any patients and that during his visits Savile was treated the same as any other professional visiting the Secure Psychiatric Hospital (although in fact he was not a professional i.e. medical professional visitor).  It comes to the impressive conclusion that “Although the evidence is clear that JS had contact with some patients at Rampton Hospital, no evidence had been found in any documentation reviewed or during discussions with retired staff that anything untoward took place involving patients.”

Often internal investigations are more interesting for what they do not say rather than what they do say.  This would seem to be a case in point:

None of the former patients who went on the trips were contacted by those conducting the internal investigation.

Savile wrote about the Rampton patients on the visits to Scarborough in the following terms:

• That they gave “incredible tenderness and affection.”

• ‘‘They can sit by you and stroke your face with a tenderness you could write beautiful poetry about.”
• “I love them, the mothers of these boys know exactly what I mean.”

This indicates much closer and unhealthy contact than simply attending a visit to the seaside, which are unexplained.

There is no mention of Jaconelli or Corrigan although I have made the investigation aware of the allegations surrounding them and that they had access to the patients.  Nor does it mention that Corrigan gave the patients money.

The fact that some of the people who are in the group photograph taken with Savile and Jaconelli at the Town Hall, who are not patients or staff have not been identified is also omitted.

In my discussions with Dr Harriss he confirmed that Jimmy Savile had stayed at Rampton in his notorious mobile home which he called his “passion wagon” for an unknown period, during which time according to one member of staff “he had a different woman every night”.  Only one of the ladies involved has been identified and she was over the age of consent. The others remain unidentified and it is therefore unclear if they were patients, members of staff or outsiders.  Yet this is not mentioned in the report.  This is particularly concerning following the recent revelations by Real Whitby that Corrigan and Savile used a mobile home to have a sleepover with scouts at a scout camp.

I have initiated further enquiries with the investigation team and will be reporting in full with a final article on the Rampton connection once I have had its response.

If you are affected by the issues raised by this article you may wish to contact the charity HOPE.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Related Reading

“Operation Countryman II” – Part One

“Operation Countryman II – Savilegate” – Part Two

“Operation Countryman II – Jaconelligate” – Part Three

“Operation Countryman II” – Part Four – Update 

“Sunday Express names Jimmy Corrigan – Savile’s companion at Scout camp sleepover”

Hicks’ SAVILE probe makes Sunday Express again!

For the second week running, the Sunday Express (see today’s issue, Sunday 9th June 2013) features an article corroborating important elements of the Tim Hicks “Operation Countryman II” investigation into an alleged paedophile-ring in Scarborough.

Entitled “Jimmy Savile photograph proves he took out Rampton patients”, the article is reproduced below. Stopping short of naming Savile’s companions, it describes how Savile took a group of Rampton patients to Scarborough, where they met Savile’s mother Agnes (‘The Duchess’), enjoyed a pleasure boat ride, visited an ice cream parlour and an amusement arcade, had tea with the Lord Mayor and posed for a group photograph in the Town Hall grounds. This corroborates the findings of Tim Hicks, as published on Real Whitby earlier this year.

Although the names of the proprietors of the ice cream parlour and the amusement arcade are not disclosed, Savile’s Rampton excursions took place in 1971 and 1972 (when Peter Jaconelli was Mayor) – some years after the abuses alleged by Councilor Geoff Evans and Mr Trevor Harrington – leaving little doubt as to their identities. Peter Jaconelli’s sexual proclivities were widely known in Scarborough and beyond, throughout the ‘Sixties – and thereafter.

Related reading

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/savile-sunday-express-names-jimmy-corrigan

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/operation-countryman-ii-5-jaconelli-nyp-responds

Jimmy Savile and the NHS

• Our Parliamentary Affairs & Crime Correspondent TIM HICKS writes with a deeply disturbing insight into the NHS investigations at Rampton Secure Psychiatric Hospital and the Leeds General Infirmary.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jimmy Savile and the NHS

Regular readers of Real Whitby will know that we have been covering the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal in Scarborough. Prior to the Real Whitby investigation, Scarborough and Rampton were not mentioned in the press or any of the various investigations that are running into Savile in the UK.

By patiently investigating every lead over the last six months, Real Whitby has developed a fuller picture of the extensive offending by Savile and his associates in Scarborough, attracting national press comment.

Background for new readers

Those who have been following the Real Whitby investigation into Jimmy Savile in Scarborough should move to the next section [“The Response of the Authorities”]

It is alleged that Savile offended in Scarborough in joint enterprise with the former Mayor Councillor Peter Jaconelli (Deceased), Mr Jimmy Corrigan (Deceased) who ran the arcades in Scarborough and others.  Because of Jaconelli’s status as a senior Conservative politician, prominent businessman and Mayor, it has been alleged that North Yorkshire Police left him and his entourage alone, even though it was aware of his offending.  Effectively they had immunity from prosecution, giving them a benevolent environment in which to offend and operate, and that in return, Savile rewarded Jaconelli and Corrigan with publicity, appearances on Television and visits to television studios.

Had North Yorkshire Police arrested Jaconelli, (Britain’s most successful paedophile who operated untouched for all of his life and was made an Alderman for his troubles) it would surely have led them to Savile, (Britain’s most prolific paedophile and rapist), both of whom operated with impunity in Scarborough.

When asked for intelligence on Savile by Surrey Police in 2007, North Yorkshire Police Force Intelligence Bureau replied that it had none, although according to newspaper reports Savile, Jaconelli and Corrigan had in fact featured in a 2003 paedophile investigation conducted by North Yorkshire Police.  As a result, Surrey Police did not have the intelligence from North Yorkshire to justify arresting Savile and the best opportunity of bringing him to justice was lost.

The Force Intelligence Bureau should have disclosed all it knew about the paedophile-ring operating in Scarborough to the Surrey investigation. However, this would of course have revealed that North Yorkshire Police had turned a blind eye to the activities of Jaconelli’s paedophile-ring in Scarborough for about forty years. Obviously a shameful admission to make to another force.

As a result of the Real Whitby investigation, we now know that:

• Savile and Corrigan went to a scout camp near Doncaster for a sleepover in a mobile-home.

• In 1966, Savile opened the Otley Town Fête in Leeds and that (incredibly) Otley Town Council provided Savile with six girls to act as ‘bodyguards’ who spent the night with Savile and Corrigan in a tent.  It is alleged they both spent the night having group sex with them.

• Savile took hospital patients on day trips to Scarborough from Rampton High Secure Psychiatric Hospital to Scarborough to meet Jaconelli and Corrigan.

• Jaconelli was a school governor and was alleged to have committed offences at the school where he probably introduced Savile to some of the pupils.

• Savile visited patients at Rampton on “at least” three occasions.

The response of the authorities

All of the considerable information that Real Whitby has amassed has been made available to the various organisations that are involved in the investigation.  We have cooperated fully with them all and one would think that they would be grateful for our assistance and the information that Real Whitby has amassed and passed on to them.

Consequently, the response of some of the organisations that are responsible for conducting investigations into this matter (which one would hope were fully and impartially committed to getting to the truth and bringing anyone guilty of any offence to book) has been somewhat surprising to say the least:

Rampton Secure Psychiatric Hospital Nottinghamshire:  Following correspondence from me raising questions about the Hospital’s report (below) into Savile, the Head of Communications (whilst answering all of my enquiries) wrote asking to conclude our correspondence because Nottinghamshire Healthcare had no more to add.

Metropolitan Police Operation Yewtree:  As soon as the investigation of offences in Scarbough was passed to North Yorkshire Police, including the allegations of corruption by that force, Operation Yewtree broke off all contact and said it would pass on any e mails to North Yorkshire Police without any further comment. When I contacted them about the possibility of offences being committed at Rampton Secure Psychiatric Hospital and asking that my information was forwarded to Nottinghamshire Police, they too did not respond.

Nottingham Police:  Nottingham Police have not responded to the information provided to Operation Yewtree. To be fair, this may be because the information has not been passed on to it by Operation Yewtree or by Rampton Secure Psychiatric Hospital.

North Yorkshire Police:  Following a request from Real Whitby, the IPCC has directed North Yorkshire Police to consider if there were any conduct matters that should be referred to it.  Full story here.  This and the criticism directed at it over its failure to intervene and protect local children from Jaconelli by Real Whitby and others may not have gone down all that well in Newby Wiske Hall. This may explain why neither Real Whitby or Trevor Harrington have had any comment from North Yorkshire Police, which is now responsible for investigating the allegations of corruption within its ranks, raised by Real Whitby and others.

Scarborough Borough Council (SBC):  SBC has ignored correspondence on Peter Jaconelli and refused to respond to Mr Trevor Harrington’s complaint about Peter Jaconelli asking for him to be stripped of his status of honorary Alderman.   It is always frustrating when as a journalist you can’t get a comment or a reaction, but we did at least get one from Scarborough Borough Council.  Borough Solicitor Ms Lisa Dixon tried to close down Real Whitby with threats of legal action.

Hmmm….

Pardon my cynicism, but methinks I hear the sounds of umbrella’s going up and ranks closing. Do you think this universally negative and somewhat icy response could indicate that by raising issues concerning Savile and Jaconelli’s offending, the Real Whitby investigation has revealed failings that many people would prefer had been left buried and forgotten??

Surely not…..

The Leeds General Infirmary NHS investigation

A joint police and NSPCC report has confirmed that Savile worked as a hospital porter at the Leeds General Infirmary for 30 years and there have been sixteen reported cases of sexual offences there.

According to the Yorkshire Post (full report can be seen here), Solicitor Liz Dux, of Slater & Gordon is representing two clients who have told investigators that after they were assaulted at Leeds General Infirmary they informed nursing staff but nothing was done.  In some cases hospital staff actually witnessed Savile committing offences, yet took no action, she added.  “The evidence against the NHS is just as bad, if not worse (than the BBC),” . . .  “We know that in both these hospitals (Leeds and Stoke Mandeville) that staff were told.”

Although Ms Dux said there was “no direct evidence” about whether Savile had been “helped” in his offending, the inference at Leeds is there had been some complicity.  “I can’t believe, knowing that there had been reports at Leeds and Stoke Mandeville (about Savile’s behaviour) that it wasn’t known about, because it was, I know it. It was reported to members of staff.”

A leading member of the LGI Investigation Team is former Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway (Retired), the former Head of the North Yorkshire Police Force Intelligence Bureau.  (Yes that’s right, the same unit of North Yorkshire Police that apparently did not respond fully to the inquiry from Surrey Police in 2007, which ensured that Savile again escaped prosecution).

Mr Galloway has confirmed that he was never involved in any investigation into Jimmy Savile and was not the Director of Force Intelligence at the time the enquiry from Surrey Police was received.

However, (as with Councillor Tom Fox), he has refused to confirm what – if anything – he knew about Peter Jaconelli; or the 2003 investigation mentioned above, in which it is alleged that witnesses were questioned about Corrigan, Jaconelli and Savile.  One cannot help but wonder why neither he nor North Yorkshire Police will not comment at all on this, when a simple denial would resolve the issue.

It has been alleged that patients from other hospitals were also taken to Scarborough.  The LGI has confirmed it is satisfied that no patients from the LGI visited Scarborough with Jimmy Savile and has issued a statement that it is confident that the integrity of its investigation has not been compromised and that it also had nothing further to add.  Despite these assurances, I nevertheless have grave concerns about the conduct of the investigation.

This is a criminal investigation in which there have been public allegations of corruption amongst the hospital staff. Under these circumstances it is obviously essential that the investigation is conducted in as independent and open a manner as possible, so public confidence in its independence and integrity, and the hospital itself is maintained. This must surely be a prime concern for the Hospital Board. Therefore having a senior experienced retired police officer on the investigation team who is independent and has been recruited from outside the hospital is obviously a critical appointment, which gives the investigation credibility.

Obviously the credibility of the investigation would be better maintained if the Police officer conducting the investigation was not a former member of a force that has had serious allegations of corruption repeatedly leveled at it in respect of the case he is investigating and had subsequently commanded the unit responsible for allowing Savile to evade arrest.  One would also expect he would be completely open in his responses to public concerns, instead of maintaining his right to silence about what –if anything- he knew about Jaconelli and Corrigan, which I consider is completely unacceptable and ignores his public duty and obligation to behave openly and submit himself to scrutiny as part of the role he has voluntarily accepted.

Detective Superintendent Galloway should either clear the air and respond fully to the enquiries put to him, or stand down in the public interest.

The Rampton Secure Psychiatric Hospital NHS investigation

Initially Rampton stated that Savile had visited Rampton once or twice in the 1970’s.  Following the Real Whitby investigation it initiated an investigation, which had to retract this statement.

The report of the investigation is reproduced in full below, ignoring the terms of reference; it consists of just thirteen short sentences. The names of those who wrote it have been withheld at their request:

     Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

     Forensic Division

     Summary Report – JS Investigation – May 2013

In response to a Freedom of Information Act Requests submitted by The Sunday Express and Tim Hicks and subsequent photographic material relating to a day trip to Scarborough obtained from a former staff member by staff / patients from Rampton Hospital and JS, Dr XXXX (Name redacted), Executive Director Forensic Services / Chief Officer for High Secure Care instigated an investigation.  The purpose of this investigation was to:-

• To confirm day trip to Scarborough (circa early 1970s)
• To identify the exact date of trip to Scarborough (circa early 1970s)
• To obtain any information relating to the trip
• To review documentation relating to Rampton Hospital held locally and at the Nottinghamshire County Archives for the period 1969 to 1973
• To identify staff and patients on the photograph
• To review the records of any patients identified in the photograph for the period 1969 to 1973
• To speak to retired members of staff who would have worked at Rampton Hospital in the late 1960s and 1970s

Dr XXXX (Name redacted) Lead for Research (Forensic Division), XXXX (Name redacted), Support Manager: Performance and Contracting (Forensic Division) and XXXX (Name redacted), Senior Clinical Security Manager (Forensic Division) were asked to undertake this investigation.

Findings

The review of documentation confirmed that following a suggestion made by a Charge Nurse to JS a group of 10 patients from Concord Ward and staff boarded a coach with JS on 2^nd August 1971 at 8.15 am heading for Scarborough.  During the excursion, patients visited an ice cream parlour, went on a boat trip, had tea with the Lord Mayor, met some Scarborough officials and The ‘Duchess’ (Mrs. Agnes Savile).  A group photograph was taken in the grounds of the Town Hall.  The documentation reviewed stated no incidents were reported and all patients behaved impeccably.

All the staff in the photograph have been identified.   8 patients have been identified and records for these patients have been reviewed.  The faces of the 2 remaining patients are hidden and cannot be identified.

During the review of the documentation it became apparent there had been a second trip to Scarborough on 21^st September 1972.  12 patients, 9 staff and JS boarded a special train from Retford Station to Scarborough, which was met by British Rail Officials.  During this trip, patients visited the amusements, the zoo and met The ‘Duchess’ again.

Two retired members of staff have confirmed that JS did enter the secure area at least on 3 occasions and gave assurance that JS was escorted by staff at all times, had no keys and was not left alone with any patients.  They re-iterated that during these visits JS was treated like any other professional (as opposed to patient’s family) visitor attending the hospital.

Conclusion

Staff and patients from Rampton Hospital attended two day excursions to Scarborough with JS on 3^rd August 1971 and 21^st September 1972. 

Although the evidence is clear that JS had contact with some patients at Rampton Hospital, no evidence has been found in any documentation reviewed or during discussions with retired staff that anything untoward took place involving patients.

     Prepared by:  XXXX (Name redacted)

     Job Title:        Support Manager: Performance & Contracting (Forensic Division)

     Date:               23^rd May 2013”

A prime concern of the Real Whitby investigation is that Savile took patients to meet Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Corrigan, who are alleged to have been operating together with Savile as sexual offenders.  Yet nowhere in the report is there any mention of these two men on the basis that they were not the subject of the Rampton internal investigation “which found no evidence that anything untoward happened with our patients. This is a matter for Operation Yewtree, not for Nottinghamshire Healthcare.  The remit of our investigation was Jimmy Savile’s contact with Rampton Hospital, not his wider contacts or colleagues. Whilst we do not underestimate the seriousness of the allegations being made against Savile, it is not within our remit to investigate those.”

I have other reservations about the Rampton investigation

• It is not an independent criminal investigation. The authors of the report have declined to provide details of their experience, so it is impossible to determine if it is strong enough to conduct an investigation of this nature. In comparison, the LGI investigation ensured it had the necessary experience by asking a retired senior detective to participate in the investigation.
• Rampton has confirmed separately that Jimmy Savile had his notorious camper van -which he routinely used to commit sexual offences- parked in the grounds of Rampton on a number of occasions and that he was visited there regularly each night by females.  Rampton has asserted that no patients were involved solely on the basis that .  “We are confident that no patients visited the mobile home.” “Patients would not be allowed to leave the Hospital unescorted”. This ignores the fact that Savile’s camper van was parked within the grounds of the hospital with no requirement for escort, because patients were not leaving the grounds of the hospital.  Savile was adept at ensuring the normal rules of conduct did not apply to him at Broadmoor and everywhere else, and could have done the same at Rampton.
• It remains unclear who these visitors to the camper van were.  “We cannot confirm that any visitors were not under age – we do not have any evidence to suggest who they were or what age they were.” The possibility of sexual offences being committed at Rampton against persons who were not patients in the camper van has been completely excluded from the report and has not been investigated at all.

The Sunday People article states that the party visited Jaconelli`s ice cream parlours (which were scenes of multiple incidents of abuse by Jaconelli), that he was present and that members of the public were excluded.  This contemporary evidence has been ignored on the basis that “We have no evidence to support this – this all happened a long time ago and staff have no recollection of who owned the ice cream parlour.”

The evidence in the Sunday People article is explicit that the amusements visited were amusement arcades belonging to Jimmy Corrigan he gave the patients bags of coins to gamble with on his slot machines. Yet this has been excluded on the basis that “The fact that the Sunday People states this does not make it true. We have uncovered no evidence relating to this. The Sunday People is not a source of reliable evidence. This Report is about Jimmy Savile not Jimmy Corrigan.  Documentation states: ”Next a trip to the amusements where by arrangement between the owner Mr Jim Corrigan and James  a sum of money was found for the lads to use on the machines.” The Sunday People article was published nationally, no one from Rampton denied any of its content at the time and no evidence has emerged of any inaccuracy which damages its credibility. However, it appears that whenever the evidence from the Sunday People contradicted the preferred view of the staff at Rampton, the contemporaneous evidence it contained was simply ignored.

It must surely be unacceptable and a cause of concern that vulnerable mental patients received money from a stranger and were encouraged to gamble on slot machines, amounting in my view to an act of misconduct by the staff concerned for permitting it at the time. Yet this is not mentioned anywhere in the report. Although the staff could not have known the stranger concerned (Jimmy Corrigan) is alleged to have been a sexual offender, giving the patients money may have been intended to provide a feeling of obligation towards him and to Savile on the part of the patients, to groom them for abuse later on.

• There are twenty-nine people in the photograph including Savile, Mrs Agnes Savile and Peter Jaconelli.  A number of the people in the photograph have not been identified.  Rampton will not provide a copy of the photograph with the patients and members of staff faces blacked out so the remaining witnesses can be identified and interviewed “for confidentiality reasons – if blacked out it adds nothing to your information. Also the photo is not our property but borrowed.” 
• In response to the question  Did any patients or staff visit Savile’s caravan or flat at Scarborough Rampton responded “Not patients, unsure about others” although no patient has been interviewed.
• In the Sunday People article Savile states that patients stroked his face (inappropriate touching) and that he loved them. No potential victims have been interviewed during this investigation because they were patients at Rampton at the time.  The patients have been completely ignored, as they were at Broadmoor while Savile was offending there.  Only the views of the staff that were present at the time or conducted the investigation are reflected in the report, on the basis that “As no concerns raised at the time this was not felt necessary.” 
• Although Operation Yewtree has been informed of the report, no criminal investigation of any sort has been conducted by anyone into what was going on at Rampton.

The Rampton investigation is the only investigation into Savile where potential victims have been deliberately excluded as an act of policy. I have never heard of any criminal investigation conducted on this basis. Contrast this with the current Broadmoor investigation by Doctor Bill Kirkup, which is doing everything possible to interview as many former patients as possible.

Clearly, no member of staff is going to admit that abuse took place while he/she was supposed to be there safeguarding patients, or to denounce Jimmy Savile for inappropriate touching. So it is obviously essential that patients are interviewed to ascertain what – if anything – happened, as shown by Dr Kirkup’s investigation at Broadmoor.

In my view, the credibility of the Rampton investigation stands completely destroyed. The conclusion is inescapable that Jimmy Savile, Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Corrigan’s connections to Rampton have not been fully or properly investigated by anyone and have been perfectly swept under the carpet without an adequate investigation. The Hospital Board at Rampton should set aside this report and request a full criminal investigation by Nottinghamshire Police in the normal way to get to the bottom of these allegations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Related Reading:

“Operation Countryman II” – Part One

“Operation Countryman II – Savilegate” – Part Two

“Operation Countryman II – Jaconelligate” – Part Three

“Operation Countryman II” – Part Four – Update 

“Sunday Express names Jimmy Corrigan – Savile’s companion at Scout camp sleepover”

“Operation Countryman II – (5):  Jaconelli:  NYP responds”

Operation Yewtree and the Cross Report.

• Crime and Parliamentary affairs correspondent TIM HICKS reports on the Cross Report – North Yorkshire Police’s response to our criticism over its investigation into its failure to detect Jimmy Savile and Peter Jaconelli for fifty years. 

• He also reveals exclusively that despite being under investigation for paedophile offences in Surrey and Sussex, North Yorkshire Police nevertheless provided Savile with a police car and driver to take him to a community event for young people it had organised and Savile shared the platform with the Chief Constable.

Operation Yewtree, the Cross Report and the need for one single Savile investigation.

Recently, victims of Jimmy Savile have been asking for there to be one single investigation into Jimmy Savile, headed by a High Court Judge

According to Solicitor Alan Collins, speaking to the BBC:

“It should be one inquiry, chaired by a high court judge. I fear if this does not happen, an opportunity will have been lost, not only for the victims but for the country as a whole. “The risk (of not having one inquiry) is justice may be incomplete.”

My best estimate is that there are approximately forty separate largely uncoordinated investigations into Savile and his associates as follows:

• Thames Valley Police
• Greater Manchester Police
• Cheshire Police
• Lancashire Police.
• West Yorkshire Police.
• Surrey Police.
• Sussex Police.
• Metropolitan Police.
• The BBC.
• The Crown Prosecution Service.
• HM Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC).
• The IPCC.
• Thirty NHS Hospitals (Including the Whitby Memorial Hospital and Rampton High Secure Psychiatric Hospital).
• North Yorkshire Police.

The Scarborough and Whitby aspect

The investigation by North Yorkshire Police, the IPCC, HMIC and the NHS investigations into Whitby Memorial Hospital and Rampton High Secure Psychiatric Hospital all concern the Scarborough and Whitby areas.  Real Whitby has been asked to give evidence to the NHS enquiry and to the HMIC investigation.

In summary, the concerns over the Savile Case in Scarborough and Whitby relevant to these enquiries raised in the national and local press, and by Real Whitby are:

1.     That Savile imported patients from Rampton Secure Psychiatric Hospital to Scarborough to meet with Peter Jaconelli at his ice-cream parlours and they may have been abused by them there.

2.     Officers from North Yorkshire Police may have been members of Savile’s Friday Morning Club, which met at his flat in Leeds. This has been denied by North Yorkshire Police and we have separately published the response of North Yorkshire Police to this concern, which was as follows: “The available information indicates that no members of North Yorkshire Police socialised regularly with Mr Savile.  Accordingly, the formal response I must give to your request is that there is no information held.”

3.     That Savile operated in Scarborough and Whitby in a paedophile Ring with Peter Jaconelli, who was well known locally to be a paedophile, but was left alone by the police because of his influence as a senior Conservative politician, Mayor and influential local businessman.  Consequently, North Yorkshire Police failed to arrest Jaconelli, (Britain’s most successful paedophile who operated untroubled by the police for all of his adult life) which would surely have led them to Savile, (Britain’s most prolific paedophile and rapist).

4.  That when asked for intelligence on Savile by Surrey Police in 2007, North Yorkshire Police Force Intelligence Bureau replied that it had none, although according to national newspaper reports, Savile, Jaconelli and Corrigan had in fact featured in a 2003 paedophile investigation conducted by North Yorkshire Police.  As a result, Surrey Police did not have the intelligence from North Yorkshire it needed to assist in its investigation and the best opportunity of bringing him to justice was lost.

In response, North Yorkshire Police has threatened to arrest a journalist from Real Whitby if we continue to cover stories on North Yorkshire Police – including of course its failure to arrest Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Savile. It has also submitted a report to the IPCC in which it asserts there are no conduct matters that should be referred to the IPCC

The North Yorkshire Police report to the IPCC

North Yorkshire Police have kindly provided Real Whitby with a copy of this report, which is available through the North Yorkshire Police Website and can be accessed here.

The author is Assistant Chief Constable Sue Cross, a highly experienced officer with extensive CID experience who retired recently after a distinguished career with North Yorkshire Police.

Some observations on the Cross Report

I would make the following comments on the report:

The initial response by North Yorkshire Police and the HMIC investigation

• The report does not mention that the initial response of North Yorkshire Police was to deny all knowledge.  A force spokesman commented in 2012:  “When the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile were publicised, we carried out extensive searches of force records which did not reveal a local connection”.  As a result of this misleading statement (which has now disappeared from the force website) North Yorkshire Police were omitted from the initial direction by the IPCC to forces involved in the Savile investigation to consider if there were conduct issues which should be referred to the IPCC over way the Savile investigation was handled.  As a result of information received from Real Whitby North Yorkshire Police was retrospectively directed by the IPCC to consider if there were any conduct matters that should be referred to it on the 15^th of May 2013.

• The Home Secretary directed HMIC to establish which police forces received reports and/or allegations in respect of Savile and related individuals prior to the launch of Operation Yewtree (5 October 2012); and, with regard to those forces, the extent to which those allegations were robustly investigated and if there were any police failings in so doing.  Because North Yorkshire Police initially denied any local connection with Savile and related individuals (Jaconelli), it was excluded from the HMIC investigation, which was completed in March 2013.
  

Rampton

• Although contemporary press reports and by the management of Rampton High Secure Psychiatric Hospital have confirmed that patients visited Scarborough on two occasons and met Jaconelli, Corrigan and Savile, there is no mention of the Rampton visit first revealed by the Sunday People in 1972, or of any investigation into it.
  

Inappropriate contacts with Savile by officers of North Yorkshire Police and participation in Savile’s Friday Morning Club (FMC)

• The report denies any inappropriate contacts with Savile by North Yorkshire Police officers, or that any North Yorkshire Police officer participated in the Friday Morning Club, which met at Savile’s flat in Leeds. This goes beyond the original comment we received from North Yorkshire Police following a Freedom of Information Act request that “The available information indicates that no members of North Yorkshire Police socialised regularly with Mr Savile.  Accordingly, the formal response I must give to your request is that there is no information held.” The report states that North Yorkshire Police confirmed that there were only eight members of the FMC, all of whom have been identified and interviewed and none of them were from North Yorkshire Police. It then goes on to state that North Yorkshire Police sent a police driver and vehicle to Savile’s Flat in Leeds in 2008. This may be the basis of the allegation that there was a ninth man from North Yorkshire Police in Savile’s circle.  (The reference to the alleged ninth member of his Friday Morning Club in Real Whitby referred to in the report comes from the upsd website).
• The report confirms inappropriate contact by Officers and Police staff of North Yorkshire Police who were based at Selby Police Station with Savile in 2008.  This occurred when a police driver visited Savile’s Flat in Leeds in a police vehicle, which was used as a taxi to transport him to Selby in North Yorkshire for a public event organized by officers and police staff from Selby Police Station.  The Report does not state the contacts of the individual officers with Savile, how these arrangements were made, who the driver was, who authorised the use of the vehicle, if the police car was a marked car or if the driver in uniform.  This In my view this was an inappropriate use of a police officer and vehicle.  Given the fact that North Yorkshire Police had received intelligence that Savile was investigation at that time for multiple paedophile offences by two other forces it also constitutes an inappropriate contact.  It also shows that the initial response of North Yorkshire Police denying any knowledge of any local connection with Savile was misleading.
• The (then) Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police Grahame Maxwell was one of the judges at the event and this is also withheld from the report. It was completely inappropriate for the Chief Constable to share a platform with Jimmy Savile at a social event for young people, while he was known to be under investigation for multiple paedophile offences by two other forces.
• Savile apparently was able to make his own way back to Leeds without difficulty after the event, which begs the question why was he provided with his own personal police car to get from Leeds to Selby in the first place.
• It now transpires that contrary to the above Freedom of Information Act response, “there is no information held” information was available which confirms that officers of North Yorkshire Police had contact with Savile on at least two occasions and probably misused a police car and driver. The report constantly uses the caveat “the available information indicates that”, which indicates it is possible there were other contacts with Savile which are not yet known, including possibly other contacts at his flat in Leeds.
• The report also confirms that Police officers from Selby Police Station met Savile at another public event in South Milford in 2008.
• No mention is made of social or duty contacts between police officers, Corrigan and Jaconelli.
  

The failure to arrest Peter Jaconelli, which could have led North Yorkshire Police directly to Jimmy Savile.

• The report states: “Checks of North Yorkshire Police databases (live and historic) do not show Savile as a Nominal in his own right or nor an associate of anyone else and there is no intelligence held regarding the alleged association of [Name Redacted but thought to be Peter Jaconelli] and Savile prior to the media coverage associated with Operation Yewtree”.  North Yorkshire Police simply claims it was unaware that Savile was an associate of Peter Jaconelli, (although this was reported in the national press, the television and well known locally) and therefore ignores this issue alltogether.
• According to the witness evidence we have collected, Peter Jaconelli was abusing children from 1947 until his death in 1999.  He seems -like his associate Savile- to have been an obsessive and addicted abuser, who used his access to children at his ice cream parlours, restaurants, local schools and his judo club to the full.  Assuming that he abused one child a week, his victims could run into thousands over a fifty two year reign of abuse.  Because he was an associate of Savile, Jaconelli he therefore fell within the second tier of Operation Yewtree which investigates Savile associates and should therefore feature heavily in the report.  Yet his status as a Tier 2 suspect for Operation Yewtree and the failure of North Yorkshire Police to arrest him or develop any intelligence on him at all, is not addressed anywhere in the report.

The 2003 Paedophile investigation and the failure to pass on intelligence to the Surrey and Sussex Police investigations into Savile

• The report claims that Savile was not held as a “nominal” (ie someone that had been notified as a person of interest to another force in police intelligence as a result of an all forces INI check), although this is flatly contradicted by HMIC, Surrey and Sussex police, which all confirm that he was, on at least three occasionsAccording to Surrey Police : “At the start of the enquiry [into Savile] in 2007, Surrey Police conducted a check via INI (Impact Nominal Index) – a system designed to share intelligence between forces. A request was sent to every police force in the country to check their records for information relating to Savile. This returned no trace of similar allegations. Sussex Police then received an allegation in 2008 and, as a result of them conducting an INI check, they liaised with Surrey Police. The Jimmy Savile Stoke Mandeville Hospital Trust were also aware of the details of our investigation and subsequent interview with Savile in 2009.” According to the  Full Surrey Police Operation Ornament Report (Paragraph 7.15) the initial INI was sent to North Yorkshire Police on the 20^th of July 2007 and responses were received on the 22^nd of July.  According to the HMIC Report Sussex Police also conducted an INI check (Paragraphs 2.13 and 7.4.).  It also subsequently filed a crime report on Savile which was made available to other forces via INI in April 2008 (Paragraph 7.7).
• The report is concerned throughout with rebutting comments by Real Whitby, but does not state that these allegations have been made by witnesses and other national and local media organisations, and are supported by evidence of HMIC, Surrey and Sussex Police.  Reports linking Savile, Jaconelli and Corrigan were made by the Scarborough News, Sunday People and the Daily Express Article here and here, before Real Whitby started to investigate.
• The Daily Express and Scarborough News linked Savile, Jaconelli and Corrigan because: “Two other women contacted Scarborough’s local paper last week saying officers interviewed them in 2003 while investigating a paedophile ring which focused on young girls on the seafront. They were not abused but both said Savile’s name was mentioned to them by the Officers. One said police also mentioned two other businessman, former Scarborough mayor Peter Jaconelli and arcade boss Jimmy Corrigan, both now dead.” This is completely omitted from the report.
• The report was written nine working-days after receipt of the request from the IPCC. This did not give enough time in the context of a historical enquiry going back to the late 1940’s to develop historical witness evidence. ACC Cross did not appeal for witnesses during her investigation and none are referred to in her report.  In contrast, by adopting a longer term approach, Real Whitby has tracked down ten witnesses that allege that Peter Jaconelli was a paedophile and abused them.  Their evidence is specified in the article here.
• ACC Cross has not interviewed most of the witnesses developed by Real Whitby, or referred to their evidence in the report.  Although some of them were not known at the time ACC Cross wrote her report, they should still have been interviewed retrospectively.
• ACC Cross has apparently not made any attempt to interview or trace the two witnesses referred to above that came forward to the Scarborough News as part of her investigation.
• The report does not deny the claims of the above two witnesses that they were interviewed by North Yorkshire Police and questioned about Savile, Jaconelli and Corrigan.
• It appears that ACC Cross has not questioned the officers who allegedly conducted these interviews, or examined their Police Notebooks or recordings of interviews to identify what was said in these alleged interviews.
• It should be noted that Sussex Police did maintain INI information. Consequently, when its investigation started in 2008 its officers knew to immediately contact Surrey Police, a classic example of good intelligence sharing and cooperation that the North Yorkshire Force Intelligence Bureau was unable to match.  In short, it appears that North Yorkshire Police lost intelligence from other forces on at least three occasions.  This is not addressed in the report.
• The Director of North Yorkshire Police Force Intelligence in May 2013 must have been aware from press comment in Real Whitby and elsewhere that INI information had been sent to North Yorkshire Police but apparently mislaid.   Yet this omission is not explained.
• I have no doubt the intelligence analysts in the Force Intelligence Bureau would have two remembered INI enquiries for as prominent a person as Jimmy Savile, yet they apparently said nothing.  This omission is also not explained.
• ACC Cross did not interview Real Whitby journalists or other journalists from other national and local newspapers that have covered this case, to ascertain what evidence we have to support the allegations she was investigating.  Contrast this with the approach of the Metropolitan Police, which ensured that two detectives meticulously interviewed journalists at Scotland Yard and Whitby to obtain evidence from them.
• The report states: The “Real Whitby” blog site article effectively alleges that North Yorkshire Police interviewed witnesses regarding Savile because, according to the article Savile featured in the investigation conducted in 2003 with regard to a paedophile ring in which the author of the Real Whitby blog site names two offenders as [Name Redacted].  The available information indicates that the material investigation was conducted using the HOLMES (Home Office Large Major Enquiry System) facility and that Savile is not recorded in the HOLMES system in any form.” This confirms  that North Yorkshire Police conducted a major investigation into historical abuse in Scarborough going back to the 1980’s in 2003 as the Daily Express alleged. This investigation was so big that it had to be handled through HOLMES.  Yet North Yorkshire Police claim that, this investigation failed to discover any evidence of Jaconelli and Savile’s offending, claims it did not know of their association and there was nothing in police intelligence about them. The reasons for this are not addressed in the report, which gives no explanation for this failure to detect the two longest running and most successful paedophiles in British criminal history. Further, North Yorkshire Police had in fact received three pieces of intelligence on Savile that he was the subject of a major paedophile investigation from Surrey and Sussex Police in 2007 and 2008.

On the basis of this blatantly superficial and inadequate investigation by ACC Cross Mr Moir Stewart, the IPCC Director of Investigations has now exonerated North Yorkshire Police of any blame for its failure to detect Savile (Operation Yewtree Tier 1), Jaconelli or Corrigan (Operation Yewtree Tier 2):  “I am now able to let you know we have completed that review of all the evidence and material relating to the late Jimmy Savile and have decided to take no further action with regard to your force.” 

I subsequently wrote to Mr Stewart (who is a retired police officer) pointing out that all of the evidence and material had not been considered and that therefore the basis of his decision not to take any further action in respect of North Yorkshire Police was consequently unsound.  On this basis I asked him to re-open the investigation into North Yorkshire Police on the basis of (1) fresh evidence provided by Real Whitby and (2) failure of process in the North Yorkshire Police investigation by ACC Cross.  An IPCC spokesman has recently confirmed:

‘We have now advised other police forces, from which we received Savile-related information, that we do not intend to take further steps in regard to any of their officers at this time. These forces are: Thames Valley, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, North Yorkshire and Lancashire. After careful assessment of all the information so far available we have determined there is insufficient evidence of any recordable conduct matters specific to individual police officers which would merit a referral to the IPCC. The forces have provided rationale to the IPCC, as requested, for their decision-making in not recording or referring any conduct matters. We have received your further correspondence and are presently considering it.’

I also wrote to Chief Constable Jones asking that he order the investigation be reopened for the same reasons and I have received no response.

The unanswered questions

In summary therefore, the position of North Yorkshire Police appears to be that it knew and knows nothing about Jaconelli, although every schoolboy and parent in Scarborough knew about Savile’s associate Peter Jaconelli and many witnesses have come forward to confirm that the allegations about him were accurate and widely known.   Further, it appears that North Yorkshire Police provided a police vehicle and driver to transport Savile (who was at that time known to be under investigation for multiple paedophile offences by two forces) to a social event for young children and its Force Intelligence Bureau apparently lost police intelligence on Savile on at least three occasions at a critical time in the investigation.

North Yorkshire Police has nevertheless exonerated itself, asserts it is blameless for its failure to detect Jaconelli, Corrigan and Savile.  According to North Yorkshire Police it is entirely above any criticism and there are no grounds to refer any officer of North Yorkshire Police to the IPCC for disciplinary action.

The two critical failures of the British Police Service to arrest Savile both occurred in North Yorkshire.  They are:

1.  The failure of North Yorkshire Police to arrest Jaconelli, (Britain’s most successful paedophile who operated untroubled by the police for all of his adult life) which would surely have led them to Savile, (Britain’s most prolific paedophile and rapist).

2.  When asked for intelligence on Savile by Surrey Police in 2007 North Yorkshire Police Force Intelligence Bureau replied that it had none, although according to newspaper reports, Savile, Jaconelli and Corrigan had in fact featured in a 2003 paedophile investigation conducted by North Yorkshire Police. As a result, Surrey and Sussex Police did not have the intelligence from North Yorkshire it needed to assist in its investigation and the best opportunity of bringing him to justice was lost.

However, as a result of the Cross Report, both the above key questions – arguably the two most important questions in the entire Savile investigation – remain completely unanswered and conveniently (for North Yorkshire Police) ignored and the ability of Savile and Jaconelli to offend in Scarborough and Whitby for fifty years untroubled by the local police remains completely unexplained and ignored, by North Yorkshire Police, the IPCC, HMIC and Operation Yewtree. Until they are answered, North Yorkshire Police, the IPCC, HMIC and Operation Yewtree investigations have no credibility.

The need for one impartial investigation

Savile lived in Leeds and regularly entertained police officers while they were in uniform and on duty, using police vehicles at his flat as part of his “Friday Morning Club”.  The West Yorkshire Police investigation named Operation Newgreen largely exonerated itself from any criticism and has been severely criticised as a whitewash.  Subsequently a retired Leeds policeman has claimed that “there wasn’t a copper in the city who didn’t know Savile was a pervert”.  Full story here.

Returning to the need for one investigation led impartially by a High Court Judge this article started with.  Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done and this means in practice that serving and retired police officers should not investigate the police. The spectre of police officers from successive police forces individually exonerating their force from any responsibility for the catastrophic national failure of the British Police Service to detect Jimmy Savile and Peter Jaconelli undermines this principal, the credibility of Operation Yewtree and of the British Police Service.

There must be full and open disclosure of what went wrong – no matter how painful it is – if we are to learn the lessons of the Savile affair and prevent it from happening again. That will not happen with the current arrangements.

The lessons will only be learned and the police response to major paedophile investigation will only improve, if there is one inquiry led by a High Court Judge that can examine all of the evidence from all the investigations, come to an overall view and make recommendations. It is only by coordinating and examining the reports of four police forces and HMIC, that I have been able to identify serious failings in the North Yorkshire Police handling of the Savile investigation.

To quote one 64-year-old victim speaking to the BBC: “Surely it would be best… if there was just one inquiry led by someone competent and, when all the evidence was gathered from up and down the country, they collated it and then we might know exactly why Jimmy Savile got away with serious sexual abuse for nearly 50 years.”

Real Whitby will cooperate with any subsequent re-investigation into Savile and will report the response of the IPCC to the fresh evidence we have uncovered in due course.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Other North Yorkshire Police articles:

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/north-yorkshire-police-senior-figures-payments-scandal

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/appeal-police-crime-commission-mrs-julia-mulligan

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/official-peter-jaconelli-innocent

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/police-crime-commissioners-rabbits-headlights

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/jaconelli-open-letter-n-yorks-chief-constable-dave-jones

Operation Yewtree – the biggest Police cover-up since Hillsborough

• Crime and Parliamentary Affairs correspondent TIM HICKS follows up on the incredible revelations of misconduct in North Yorkshire Police revealed by the BBC Inside Out programme.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“That particularly dubious Constabulary that merits careful consideration”

[Lord Maginnis of Drumglass, commenting on North Yorkshire Police, following his involvement in the case of Mrs Barbara Hofschröer].

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jimmy Savile’s principal residence was in Leeds and he travelled regularly to Scarborough from 1960 onwards to visit his mother and to stay with her. He continued his close association with Scarborough after her death, staying there regularly in his flat at the Esplanade. It follows from this that the full and meticulous investigation of his activities in Leeds and Scarborough are of critical interest to Operation Yewtree, the Home Office, HM Inspector of Constabulary and the IPCC in determining why it was that he was able to offend for so long, without being arrested by the Police.

Yet the West Yorkshire Police investigation into Savile, called Operation Newgreen, has been widely condemned as a farce.  Alan Collins, a solicitor representing 40 of Savile’s victims, is quoted in the press as having told ITV’s Daybreak programme:

“The report begs a lot more questions. It provides some answers but the report reveals memories that are not as sharp as perhaps they ought to be, ‘can’t remember’, documents that can’t seem to be located. It doesn’t add up.  But my take is that there seems to be a collective myopia and the collective myopia is evidenced by Savile. He was able to run rings around the police for decades. He used police officers.  He was ingrained with them, dovetailed with them.”

Unusually, Chief Constable Nick Gargan of Avon and Somerset has broken ranks and also criticised West Yorkshire Police over its handling of its Savile enquiry. He is quoted in the Yorkshire Post as saying:

“It seems clear to me that Operation Newgreen does not have the look and feel of an independent report. As I turned from one page to the next, I saw example after example of the author putting the case for West Yorkshire Police. At times this case was put with some force and emotion and more than a hint of exasperation with other bodies. In that respect, Operation Newgreen was unsuccessful if it was its intention to give an impression of independent assurance: it may even have had the effect of strengthening suspicion that West Yorkshire Police was at the very least being defensive.”

Mr Gargan suggested the force carry out a “very open and public examination of its actions” and a public engagement strategy to deal with issues raised by the review. He said:

“I think you will benefit from a situation in which your staff respond to criticism with the questions ‘maybe this person has a point’ more readily than ‘how do I prove them wrong?’.

North Yorkshire Police deny all knowledge

The initial response of North Yorkshire Police was to deny all knowledge, despite the fact that Savile had been mentioned in the press and on the BBC regularly as living in Scarborough and was well known there as a Freeman of the Borough. A force spokesman commented in 2012:

“When the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile were publicised, we carried out extensive searches of force records which did not reveal a local connection”.

Given that North Yorkshire Police nevertheless provided Savile with a police car and driver to take him to a community event for young people it had organised in Selby in 2008, where Savile shared the platform with the Chief Constable, this was clearly a lie.

On the 27^th of April 2013 following confirmation from the Detective at Operation Yewtree who liaised with Real Whitby, that all the information gathered by the Metropolitan Police as part of Operation Yewtree would be passed on to North Yorkshire Police, who would conduct the investigation from then on, I wrote to Operation Yewtree stating (prophetically) that:

“A central issue of the Scarborough aspect of Operation Yewtree is that there are consistent allegations of corruption within North Yorkshire Police in respect of their response to Jaconelli and Savile.  I am satisfied that North Yorkshire Police will not investigate the allegations concerning Savile, Jaconeli and the response of Scarborough Police impartially and that referring the investigation to North Yorkshire Police means that the integrity of this aspect of Operation Yewtree has been completely compromised.”

Our analysis of the North Yorkshire Police investigation by Deputy Chief Constable Cross showed that it is also another whitewash.

Enter the BBC

The following revelations were made in the BBC Inside Out documentary aired on Monday the 10^th of February 2014 at 7.30 pm:

• Archive BBC film was shown proving that Jaconelli was an associate of Savile, practised judo with Savile, filmed in Scarborough for the BBC.

• Multiple witnesses alleged that complaints had been made to North Yorkshire Police about Peter Jaconelli in his lifetime, alleging that he was a paedophile.

• It was alleged that North Yorkshire Police had admitted at the time it was completely aware of the allegations about Jaconelli, that there had been other complainants, but Peter Jaconelli was not arrested because of his status as a Councillor and Mayor.

• It was further alleged that a statement had been taken as part of a formal criminal complaint.

• It was also alleged that it was common knowledge throughout Scarborough that Peter Jaconelli was a paedophile.

• It emerged that North Yorkshire Police Operation Yewtree investigation had not bothered to interview any of the witnesses developed by Real Whitby.

BBC programme and trailer are below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXkkr1X4FVM&feature=youtu.be

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25979802

This has some profound implications for Operation Yewtree.

Peter Jaconelli was a close associate of Savile and therefore falls within Strand 2 of Operation Yewtree.  Although he is unquestionably Britain’s longest offending and most successful paedophile ever, probably having committed thousands of offences in Scarborough over fifty two years, he is not mentioned anywhere in Operation Yewtree. Yet the BBC programme showed there was ample evidence of his offending being known to the Police.

A follow up article in Real Whitby alleged that Officers had deleted and withheld intelligence on Savile and his associates and that there had been other examples of misuse of police intelligence in connection with other cases in North and West Yorkshire Police. These concerns now stand vindicated:

• The BBC quoted a victim confirming that he had made a complaint and given a statement to Police about Jaconelli. Yet this information has miraculously disappeared from Police intelligence.

• It was alleged, on Inside Out, that other complaints had been made to the Police. Yet this information has also miraculously disappeared from Police intelligence.

• Every schoolboy and most parents in Scarborough knew of Jaconelli’s offending and yet we are asked to believe that he was completely unknown to Police and does not appear anywhere in any Police note-book or intelligence system.

• In 2003 North Yorkshire Police conducted a major paedophile investigation in Scarborough which generated so much intelligence it had to be managed through HOLMES (Home Office Large Major Intelligence System).  According to local and national newspaper reports , Savile, Jaconelli and Corrigan featured in this investigation as suspects. The intelligence generated in this major operation has also miraculously disappeared.

• As part of its Operation Yewtree investigation, North Yorkshire Police should have interviewed the witnesses identified by Real Whitby, entered their evidence into HOLMES and then tasked a specialist sexual offences intelligence detective to compare it to the original intelligence that had been gathered during the 2003 investigation to see what additional evidence this produced. It appears that no criminal record check was conducted. A cold case review may also have resolved any outstanding offences. However, Deputy Chief Constable Cross did none of these things, effectively ensuring that intelligence on Savile, Corrigan and Jaconelli which could have been developed was withheld through inaction.

Deputy Chief Constable Cross is a most capable and formidable detective, with extensive CID training recently retired after a distinguished career. She is widely admired in the British Police Service for her textbook investigation of the murder of Jenny Nicholl and her contribution to the development of forensic linguistics.  So what possible explanation can there be for her inexplicable omission of Peter Jaconelli from her report, the effect of which is to airbrush Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Savile out of North Yorkshire Police history?

Why has Peter Jaconelli disappeared into the Operation Yewtree black hole?

The two critical failures of the British Police Service to arrest Savile both occurred in North Yorkshire. They are:

1.  The failure of North Yorkshire Police to arrest Jaconelli and Corrigan, which would surely have led them to Savile, (Britain’s most prolific paedophile and rapist).

2.  When asked for intelligence on Savile by Surrey Police in 2007, North Yorkshire Police Force Intelligence Bureau replied that it had none, although Jaconelli and Corrigan are alleged to have featured in a 2003 paedophile investigation conducted by North Yorkshire Police and entered into HOLMES. As a result, Surrey and Sussex Police did not have the intelligence from North Yorkshire necessary to assist in its investigation – and the best opportunity of bringing him to justice was lost.

It is widely alleged that North Yorkshire Police knew all about Jaconelli and that Police Officers covered up for him and allowed him to carry on offending, because he was a prominent local Councillo,r businessman and Mayor.  So if Deputy Chief Constable Cross were to admit that Jaconelli had been a paedophile, this would raise all sorts of questions as to why the Police had not arrested him. Clearly this would be a huge embarrassment to North Yorkshire Police.

Deputy Chief Constable Cross of the North Yorkshire Police started her career in Leeds with West Yorkshire Police, the two forces that Savile was most closely associated with – and which have suffered severe criticism over their collective failure to arrest him. Neither force has confirmed if Cross knew Savile there.

Chartered Accountants and indeed all investigators are taught that when conducting investigations they should develop as much evidence as possible, then consider all the evidence before coming to a conclusion.  However, this did not trouble Deputy Chief Constable Cross. She simply ignored the witness evidence provided by Real Whitby, wrongly stated that Jaconelli and Savile did not feature in any North Yorkshire Police intelligence, and used this as an excuse to exonerate North Yorkshire Police from any criticism.  In short, she appears to have conducted a cover up to save the face of North Yorkshire Police –  which if true, is a corrupt act.

As a result of the Cross Report, both the above key questions – arguably the two most important questions in the entire Savile investigation – remain completely and conveniently ignored, and the ability of Savile and Jaconelli to offend in Scarborough and Whitby for fifty years untroubled by the local Police remains completely unexplained. Until North Yorkshire Police answer these questions, Operation Yewtree has no credibility.

North Yorkshire Police ordered to re-open its investigation

So concerned was I at the blatantly inadequate nature of Deputy Chief Constable Cross’s detective work that I raised my concerns with HM Inspector of Constabulary Dru Sharpling CBE.  On the 14^th of February 2014, she responded to me confirming that she had caused North Yorkshire Police to make further enquiries.

The effect of this announcement by HM Inspector Sharpling is that North Yorkshire Police has been forced to re-open its Operation Yewtree investigation into Savile and his associates in Scarborough. The same day, North Yorkshire Police issued the following statement:

Historic allegations made on Inside Out – statement”

Further to the historic allegations made against the late Peter Jaconelli, a former Mayor of Scarborough, on BBC1′s Inside Out (North East and Cumbria), 7.30pm, 10 February 2014: North Yorkshire Police is considering the content of the programme, its effect on previous matters and the potential need for any future investigative work that would best serve the interests of those directly affected.  In so doing, North Yorkshire Police would encourage those individuals who took part in the programme, who were the subject of direct contact with the late Mr Jaconelli, to get in touch as soon as possible in order that their allegations and wishes are fully and properly considered.  Please call North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 1, ask for the Force Control Room and state it is for the attention of Detective Superintendent Steve Smith.  Alternatively, contact can be made or information reported via email:

Steve.Smith753@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk

North Yorkshire Police have been ridiculed on the BBC and forced, by Real Whitby, to re-open a major investigation . The former Deputy Chief Constable has been accused publicly of incompetence on the BBC and despite the availability of trained detectives, forensic scientists, powers of arrest, access to the media, extensive Police intelligence systems and the assistance of Scotland Yard, three amateurs have been shown to have conducted a far more credible and meticulous investigation than North Yorkshire Police.

This will have come as a major embarrassment for Chief Constable Dave Jones, who has consistently refused to respond to Real Whitby’s concerns, on the ridiculous and asinine basis that this is not in the interests of “the efficient and effective use of publicly funded resources”. Well neither is ignoring the evidence unearthed by journalists, being caught out in a cover-up and then being compelled to re-open a major investigation at huge cost to the taxpayers of North Yorkshire.

The BBC and the intervention of HM Inspector Sharpling has vindicated the concerns raised by Real Whitby about North Yorkshire Police. It has also vindicated the concerns expressed about North Yorkshire Police in parliament by Lord Maginnis of Drumglass concerning the case of Mrs Barbara Hofschröer, in which Deputy Chief Constable Cross also featured.

The policy of ignoring evidence from Real Whitby continues

Detective Superintendent Steve Smith has only appealed for information relating to the five witnesses interviewed by the BBC and has made no attempt to interview Real Whitby, or any of the many other witnesses we have developed. We did not make all of the information we have available to the BBC, because the primary focus of the programme was Jaconelli, so this is another major and continuing failure in the North Yorkshire Police Operation Yewtree investigation which will again allow witness evidence to be ignored.

Our investigation has revealed that there was a paedophile-ring operating in Scarborough from about 1960 onwards. Using Operation Yewtree terminology, it consisted of:

Strand 1.  Savile:  Known to have committed eight offences in North Yorkshire, but we believe committed many more.

Strand 2.  Associates of Savile:  Jaconelli and Jimmy Corrigan (both deceased) and three other persons, two of whom may have acted as procurers.

Strand 3.  Persons unconnected with Savile: One other person who is now dead.

Real Whitby is still developing further witness evidence.

This is the second major paedophile investigation I have participated in. The first led to the arrest and indefinite detention of a paedophile and the break-up of the ring associated with him. On that occasion, a very fine Police Officer whom I greatly admire – Chief Constable SE Bailey QPM – wrote to me and thanked me for the assistance I had given to his force. In this case, by acting in cooperation with local people, my colleagues and I have produced a stream of witnesses that can assist the Operation Yewtree investigation. The response of North Yorkshire Police was that Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick wrote to me threatening to arrest me if I continued to comment on North Yorkshire Police operations.

Following the acquittal of William Roache and Dave Lee Travis, the wider concern around the conduct of Operation Yewtree must be that whilst the Police will go after high-profile celebrities to excuse their failure to arrest Savile and Jaconelli, they will not prosecute fellow Police Officers that were responsible for letting them escape justice. Nor will the Police take action against Officers like Deputy Chief Constable Cross who conceal Police misconduct.

It remains a concern that the policy of protecting high profile politicians like Jaconelli still continues – witness the attempt to arrest me for harassment by Detective Superintendent Heather Pearson, because Real Whitby had shown that the then Chair of the North Yorkshire Police Authority, Councillor Jane Kenyon, was the Chief Financial Officer of a bankrupt company, which she had not declared in her Register of Interests – a criminal offence under the Localism Act.

The threats to arrest me for expressing opinions and comments on North Yorkshire Police (such as the ones I have expressed here and on the BBC) and the demands that I remove all of my articles on North Yorkshire Police from Real Whitby internet site are classic examples of a force that is culturally unable to accept criticism – even when accurate and in the public interest – and will abuse Police powers to prevent it.

Under these circumstances, in my opinion only a full independent judicial enquiry will get anywhere near to establishing how Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Savile were able to offend for so long without being arrested by North Yorkshire Police.

Coming Next:  The onslaught

In my next article, I will be revealing the full story of the campaign of harassment that has been unleashed upon Real Whitby, which was only partially covered by the BBC.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Savile/Jaconelli/Corrigan paedo-ring investigation: Update

• Crime and Parliamentary Affairs correspondent TIM HICKS reports with an update on Real Whitby’s Jimmy Savile/Peter Jaconelli/Jimmy Corrigan investigation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There have been a number of recent developments in Real Whitby’s ongoing Jimmy Savile/Peter Jaconelli/Jimmy Corrigan investigation

The Whitby connection.

Real Whitby was the first to reveal a link between Jimmy Savile, Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Corrigan and Rampton Secure Psychiatric Hospital. Reports  here and here

As a result of our investigation, Rampton was directed by the NHS to conduct a full investigation.

In October 2013, the National Health Service confirmed that its Savile investigation would be extended to another thirty hospitals including the Whitby Memorial Hospital

Lucy Brown, Head of Communications for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust commented:

“The Whitby Memorial Hospital investigation focussed on a single allegation 50 years ago. It was reported to the police, and we were asked to investigate by the Department of Health, who wanted to ensure that all allegations relating to hospitals were investigated. We have no evidence or information about any other visits” [by Savile, Jaconelli or Corrigan] “at any of our hospitals. In terms of reporting, our report is now with the Department of Health, and I understand they will publish them all at the same time.”

If you have any memories of Jimmy Savile, Peter Jaconelli or Jimmy Corrigan in Whitby, we would be very interested in hearing from you, either by posting a comment below or by e mail to realwhitby@gmail.com

The May Lodge Children’s Home Scarborough

Real Whitby reported that prior to moving to The Esplanade, Savile’s mother lived in Foley Street, Scarborough, from about 1960 onwards. On the 24^th of January 2013, Real Whitby was the first to raise concerns that it was very close to the May Lodge National Children’s Home. Savile visited his mother in Scarborough frequently and although we have no evidence to suggest there were any offences committed against children from the home, given Savile’s uncontrollable urges to abuse children, we raised it as a concern.

Following information received from the Metropolitan Police, on the 27^th of March 2014 Education Secretary Michael Gove has ordered that concerns that Jimmy Savile abused children at 21 children’s homes and schools in England must be investigated by local authorities

The allegations concern institutions in Yorkshire, London, Manchester, Kent, Surrey and Devon, among others, and relate to the 1960s, 70s and 80s, but the May Lodge Children’s home is not one of them.  Real Whitby will be nevertheless writing to Mr Grove asking for May Lodge to be included in the Education Authority investigation.

Operation Seabrook.  The Medomsley Detention Centre investigation by Durham Police

Real Whitby and the Sunday Express have consistently alleged that Jimmy Savile abused children in Scarbrough as part of a paedophile-ring consisting of Savile, Peter Jaconelli, Jimmy Corrigan and others, which abused hundreds of children in Scarborough over fifty years.

In a shocking development, Police in the next County have confirmed they are investigating a similar paedophile-ring which abused about 500 young persons over a period of about twenty years.

It is centred around Nevile Husband a prison officer in a juvenile detention centre, who used his position of authority at Meadomsley Detention Centre to sexually abuse the youngsters in the 1970s to 1980s before becoming a minister in the United Reformed Church.  He was jailed for eight years (subsequently increased to ten when more victims came forward) in 2003 for abusing five young male Medomsley inmates between 1977 and 1984. An investigation by The Guardian revealed he had raped boys on a daily basis for more than 15 years, while other staff allegedly turned a blind eye. His former colleague Leslie Johnson, was also jailed for six years in 2005 for sexual offences. Both have since died.

Full Guardian Report here.

There are some disturbing similarities between Husband, Jaconelli and Savile.

• Savile, Husband and Jaconelli were authority figures and pillars of society.

• Husband offended from at least 1969 until he retired in 1990 (twenty-one years) and abused hundreds of victims, Jaconelli offended from at least 1951 until his death in 1999 (at least forty eight years) and may have abused over a thousand victims, Savile offended from 1955 to 2009 (fifty four years) and abused hundreds of victims.

• Both men were reported to the police (See Real Whitby witness evidence at 15.41) and Kevin Young’s evidence here, but the complaints were ignored or supressed, because of the status of their abuser and their position in society.

• The authorities must have known about their offending.

• Husband operated in a ring, Jaconelli is alleged to have operated in a ring with Savile, Corrigan and others.

• Police at the time knew about their offending but did not realise the gravity of it or the complex ring that surrounded them.

• All three were showered with Honours for their lifetime of abuse.  Savile was knighted and made a Freeman of the Borough of Scarbrough.  Jaconelli was made an Alderman and Husband – incredibly – received the Imperial Service Medal although his offending was well known in the Prison Service.

• Both scandals have been exposed by the BBC Inside Out Team. Their Jaconelli investigation in which Real Whitby assisted is here: BBC Inside Out Real Whitby, broadcast on the 10^th of February 2014.  The Medomsley Detention Centre programme is here: BBC Inside Out Medomsley Detention Centre Investigation broadcast on the 3^rd of February 2014.

I have covered the Medomsley Detention Centre case because it shows it is entirely possible for public and authority figures to commit offences and evade detection for many years, as it is alleged that Savile and Jaconelli did.

The Durham and North Yorkshire Police investigations compared.

Durham Police has responded promptly to the evidence that has come to light and launched a major investigation. In particular, it has faced up to the allegations that it failed to investigate Husband properly, admitted it happened and started an investigation to identify the officers concerned.

Durham Police agreed to be interviewed for the BBC Inside Out documentary and mentioned it positively on its website, because it had encouraged more witnesses to come forward.

I was also impressed with the appeal for information which was sensitive and contained contact information for access to support:

https://www.durham.police.uk/news-and-events/Pages/News%20Articles/Operation-Seabrook—Medomsely-Detention-Centre.aspx

as well as  comment on the devastating effects of sexual abuse by an independent psychotherapist.

This compares favourably to the approach of North Yorkshire Police.

In contrast to the Durham website articles, the North Yorkshire appeal for information is here:

http://www.northyorkshire.police.uk/13009.

North Yorkshire Police refused to appear on camera for Inside Out. Although, in fact, Real Whitby has made a lot of new witnesses available to North Yorkshire Police, Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick has threatened to arrest me if I continued to comment on North Yorkshire Police operations. How this can be a useful part of Deputy Chief Constable Madgwick’s media strategy to assist the Police to investigate crime defeats me, but no doubt someone at North Yorkshire Police Force Headquarters has an explanation for this.

Real Whitby has consistently alleged that Savile operated in Scarborough and Whitby in a paedophile-ring with Peter Jaconelli, who was well known locally to be a paedophile, but was left alone by the Police because of his influence as a senior Conservative politician, Mayor and prominent local businessman. Consequently, North Yorkshire Police failed to arrest Jaconelli, (Britain’s most successful paedophile who operated untroubled by the police for all of his adult life) which would surely have led them to Savile, (Britain’s most prolific paedophile and rapist).

When Operation Yewtree first started investigating Jimmy Savile, North Yorkshire Police issued a statement, “When the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile were publicised, we carried out extensive searches of force records which did not reveal a local connection”, denying that Savile had anything to do with North Yorkshire.  In fact, he had lived in Scarborough since 1960 and had attended a youth event organised by North Yorkshire Police at Selby Abbey in 2008, where he shared a platform with the Chief Constable, while he was simultaneously being investigated for multiple sexual offences by Surrey and Sussex Police. They even drove him around in his own North Yorkshire Police Squad Car.

Following evidence from Real Whitby to the IPCC, North Yorkshire Police was directed to conduct a second Savile investigation, which was conducted by Assistant Chief Constable Sue Cross, who simply ignored witness evidence and exonerated North Yorkshire Police from any responsibility for its failure to arrest Savile or Jaconelli.  More information here:

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/operation-yewtree-cross-report  

and here:

http://www.real-whitby.co.uk/savile-deleted-intelligence-reports

As a result of the BBC Inside Out documentary covering the reports published by Real Whitby concerning Savile Associate Councillor, Mayor and Alderman Peter Jaconelli (deceased) and the failure of North Yorkshire Police to arrest him, and evidence from Real Whitby to HM Inspector of Constabulary Drusilla Sharpling, North Yorkshire Police was forced to open up its investigation FOR THE THIRD TIME - effectively quashing the Cross report as a whitewash.

In his statement to Scarborough Borough Council on the 28^th of February 2014, Leader of Scarborough Borough Council Councillor Fox indicated that he had “this week received confirmation from the police that they expect their investigations to be concluded shortly.”:

That  was over a month ago. When the report is released, Real Whitby will make it available to our readers, along with incisive analysis. meanwhile, a Formal Complaint against Councillor Tom Fox for providing utter disinformation to the Council has been acknowledged, though no further information has been forthcoming regarding the investigation of the Complaint. The “confirmation  from the police” that Councillor Tom Fox claims to have received has been requested under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, with a response due this coming Wednesday 2nd April 2014.

A ‘Corruption Busters’  follow-up article – by Tim Hicks and Nigel Ward

IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

“Police & Councils: How much did they know?

It has been Goth Weekend in Whitby – hard on the heels of the Bram Stoker International Horror Film Festival – and the autumn mists and Victorian attire of those parading the streets have conspired to enhance the celebrated eeriness of the town.

Since the Tim Hick’s article “Did North Yorkshire Police ‘fix it’ for Jim” last week, some astonishing revelations have emerged, from almost half a century ago and from more recent times, here in the Borough of Scarborough.

In the late-sixties, when the hippy ethos was first taking flight, ‘live’ music was still the preferred form of youth entertainment, with much emphasis on ‘Love and Peace’. The music scene in Scarborough was vibrant and largely benign.

But there was a darker side.

The ‘hip’ place to hang out for the musicians of the Yorkshire coast music scene was the coffee-bar in the Scarborough Bowling Alley, where girl fans of the local bands where much in evidence.

Conspicuous, in that setting, was the presence of a small group of older guys – the self-professed ‘Oldest Swinger in Town’, ‘Ron G’ and a very camp booking-agent called ‘Peter P’. ‘Jimmy C’ used to swing by. Another regular was Jimmy Savile. The word was that they were talent-scouting.

Some contemporary witnesses are quick to assert that they never saw or heard anything to cause them alarm. But one prominent local recalls being propositioned, by a member of Adam Faith’s management entourage, to attend ‘The Club’ – a strictly private group of older men of questionable tastes. Faith was good friends with local ‘big-shot’ and reputedly predatory homosexual Peter Jaconelli. Hearing that Jaconelli would be present, our informant declined the proposition.

This reference to ‘The Club’ is of special interest, because it ties in with stories amounting to common knowledge amongst the older generation in Whitby, that a local resident (who also owned a club in Scarborough) regularly entertained members of ‘The Club’, including Savile and the aforementioned Jaconelli, in a purpose-built room (fitted out by a local craftsman known to Real Whitby) in his Whitby home.

This room (or ‘chamber’, as it reportedly was known) was equipped with a whipping-post, replete with restraining-shackles and other S&M paraphernalia. Two independent witnesses have come forward who claim to have visited this ‘chamber’ in its heyday, when sex and drugs sessions are alleged to have taken place with some regularity – apparently without being inconvenienced by the attentions of the local Police.

New allegations have now emerged (through postings on the Scarborough News web-site) that one of the alleged members of ‘The Club’ (by then the Mayor of Scarborough, Councillor Peter Jaconelli) was convicted (in York, Bournemouth and Northern Ireland) of offences against minors – but word of these convictions conveniently escaped mention in the Scarborough and Whitby press.

Dennis Lemon, Saville’s former bodyguard when he worked in a club in Leeds, has alleged that Savile had also been in Court in connection with molesting a minor. If this is so, surely the information was available to the North Yorkshire Police (NYP) through the Criminal Records Office.

Thus, a large volume of circumstantial intelligence must surely have been available to North Yorkshire Police.

Unsurprisingly, we have had no response at all from NYP to the earlier Real Whitby article; although they were offered the opportunity to comment. They have not done so and are apparently still relying on an earlier statement:

• “When the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile were publicised, we carried out extensive searches of force records which did not reveal a local connection.”

Despite the obvious connection of prominent local figures, NYP are effectively denying any responsibility for having failed to detect and arrest Savile or any of the other members of ‘The Club’.

One wonders where NYP stand on claims in Savile’s 1974 autobiography ‘As It Happens’ that a Yorkshire Council provided him with six girls as ‘payment’ for his guest appearance at a Mayoral Ball.

In the now famous Louis Theroux documentary, Savile boasted about tying people up in his club and keeping them “down in the boiler room” until 02.00am when he was ready for them. He goes on to state that they would plead to get out but he (Savile) was judge, jury and executioner. Clearly a very sinister statement – particularly as Savile did not know that he was being filmed at the time, as Theroux himself was not present; thus, Savile was not maintaining a public façade.

A boiler-room would be a suitable location for secret confinement and there may therefore have been no need to tie up young people held there as prisoners.  So would a ‘chamber’. And Savile apparently did use ropes and/or other methods of restraint on his victims, though he did not divulge precisely what he did to his young prisoners.

Given his background (he was physically fit, a former miner, professional wrestler and marathon-runner), it may have been acts of violence, or sexual abuse, or some sort of sado-masochistic bondage practice. It certainly may well have been criminal; we simply do not know. But it is clear that tying people up and abusing them was an activity in which he himself claimed to have frequently indulged.

So what was it that he and the other members of ‘The Club’ were doing in that ‘chamber’ in Whitby – with its whipping-post and shackles?

And why did the Whitby Police disregard the rumours rife in the town?

Savile’s associates – ice-cream king Peter Jaconelli and arcade-operator Jimmy Corrigan – loomed large on the Scarborough club scene and even larger along the seafront, where young people traditionally congregate. Talking to traders and shop-owners in the harbour area, it is clear that it was widely-acknowledged that the Savile set – ‘The Club’ – exercised a preference for very young people of both genders.

Did NYP really have no dialogue with local traders? Did they not evaluate local rumour and intelligence? Did they not liaise with Scotland Yard in respect of sex crimes and child-abuse up and down the country?

It is noteworthy, too, that there have been other investigations into sex offences involving young people in Scarborough. So why have we heard nothing of any NYP investigation into the Savile set?

And why has an FOIA request to North Yorkshire County Council Social Services, asking for the number and dates of past allegations against Savile, been refused on the grounds that “the large amount of work involved would bring the cost of answering the request over the amount to which we are legally required to respond”. Our information is that a further FOIA request has since been submitted, constraining the request to reports from just three ‘sample’ institutions – Raincliffe School, Throxenby Hall and the day-and-boarding-school Scarborough College.

Councillor Tom FOX (Con.) was reportedly with NYP for thirty years, mostly in Scarborough, finishing as acting head of the Scarborough Police. Following retirement, he was elected to Scarborough Borough Council in 2003.

Councillor Tom FOX has now twice been asked to confirm (or deny) prior knowledge or awareness – either as a Police Officer or as a Councillor – of allegations against Savile. No response.

And yet Councillor FOX has assured the public, in the Scarborough News report of his belated proposal that Savile should be stripped of his honorary Freedom of the Borough of Scarborough title (conferred in November 2005), that:

• “if the council had been aware of such revelations at the time of Sir Jimmy Savile’s nomination for ‘Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Scarborough’ the council would have refused it”.

Are we to conclude, from that pointedly conditional form of words – “if the Council had been aware” – (as distinct, say, from “Councillors were unaware”), that the Council did not know – but Councillor Tom FOX did? It would appear that he is not intent upon clarifying his intention.

Last week, Councillor Tom FOX was offered the opportunity, ahead of the publication of this article, to submit a comment for inclusion in this article. No response.

A great deal has been made of the Savile cover-up by the BBC and other national institutions. In the aftermath of the Hillsborough cover-up and the astonishing number of Chief Constables presently under investigation for corruption of one sort or another (eleven), including allegations of ‘undue influence’ in a sex-crime investigation, the Police in this country are in a state of “plummeting morale” – according, that is, to the Lord Stevens Report.

Now The Daily Mail has published allegations of Savile having held regular meetings with Police Officers and ‘gangsters’, and The Daily Mirror has reported that Scarborough Police have failed to search Savile’s Scarborough apartment.

Questions are being asked at the highest levels of Government. Anti-corruption champion Lord Maginnis of Drumglass has referred to the North Yorkshire Police as “that particularly dubious Constabulary that merits careful investigation”.

Small wonder that there is little confidence in the region that the forthcoming highly-politicised election (on 15^th November) of a Police & Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire will deliver answers to these urgent questions.

But our more immediate question is this:

• Has there been a Police/Council COVER-UP over Jimmy Savile – right here in the Borough of Scarborough?

Is it not time for transparency? Time for someone to make a definitive statement? A statement for which he (or she) will stand ready and willing to accept full accountability?
Is that not the rôle of the Leader of the Council – Councillor Tom FOX?

“For too long those in power made decisions behind closed doors, released information behind a veil of jargon and denied people the power to hold them to account. This coalition is driving a wrecking ball through that culture – and it’s called transparency.” – [David Cameron – Sept. 2010]