Panorama.S2014E21.Savile.The.Power.To.Abuse

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Panorama.S2014E21.Savile.The.Power.To.Abuse
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00:00Ahead of two major inquiries into Jimmy Savile's abuse,
00:05Panorama reveals the extent of the BBC star's links to the British establishment.
00:10He'd sworn in a bit like a prince himself and do the sort of the royal way.
00:14Prince to Prime Minister, he exploited friendships in high places to give himself cover.
00:20Thank you for everything you do for every good cause.
00:23If he duped a whole lot of people, OK, you can add Margaret to the list of people who got duped.
00:28Rare footage shows Savile was even calling the shots at Broadmoor.
00:33So there's many people say, how come a showbiz punter is doing a job like this at the world's number one mental hospital?
00:42And confidential documents reveal just how he abused his power there.
00:46That sounds like blackmail.
00:48That sounds like blackmail to me as well.
00:50With new allegations of abuse at Broadmoor,
00:53how were so many clues missed at some of Britain's best known institutions?
00:57Even the bosses would laugh. We all knew. We knew.
01:01Now fresh evidence suggests the BBC failed to act on advice that might have stopped some of Savile's abuse.
01:08They went there for the experience of their lives and they came away scarred for life.
01:14Tonight, how Jimmy Savile had the power to abuse for so long.
01:28Yes, indeedy. Yes, indeedy. Yes, indeedy.
01:31It's been 18 months since Jimmy Savile was first unmasked as a predatory paedophile.
01:37He's not what you think you know.
01:39And still the question remains, how was he able to use some of Britain's biggest institutions as cover for his child abuse?
01:47Whether they were in a children's home, whether they were in a hospital or whether they were going to the BBC,
01:53they all deserved protection from the organisation that they were at and they didn't get it.
02:01The institution that earned Savile the trust of the nation was the BBC.
02:06And the celebrity status nurtured there helped him open doors and escape justice his whole life.
02:18How important were the celebrities?
02:21Oh, they were the business. I mean, that's why you were there.
02:24Everything was about the star of the show.
02:27Marian Horton-Smith was a receptionist at the BBC's Lime Grove studios in the early 70s.
02:33They were different times and she says some stars behaved as they pleased.
02:38When you're young and a bit naive and somebody famous says something possibly near the edge,
02:46you laughed it off because that was, in a way, you found it flattering, whether that's wrong or right.
02:56One night at reception, Marian plucked up the courage to ask Jimmy Savile for a request on his radio show.
03:02He invited her outside to his caravan to record it.
03:07I got up to go and he said, does it deserve a kiss then?
03:13And I went to give him a kiss on the cheek and suddenly I was pushed back on the bed
03:20and he was on top of me and from somewhere he put a light out.
03:25It was very strong. I mean, he pinned me down but he was slobbering up and down my neck.
03:33The attack was interrupted by a knock at the door.
03:36It was another BBC employee bringing a teenage girl to see Savile.
03:41My goodness, if we hadn't been disturbed, I mean, there's no way, if he had taken things further, I would have brought him. No way.
03:48Marian blamed herself and has never talked publicly about what happened until now.
03:53If you'd told somebody, they'd have probably told you to just keep quiet, dear. You know, that's what happens in television.
04:01It happened as Jimmy Savile was becoming one of the BBC's biggest stars.
04:06By 1975, when Jim'll Fix It starts and starts getting ratings that on occasions are even outstripping Coronation Street,
04:14suddenly there's this sort of golden goose aura that develops around him.
04:21We now know this was the peak of Savile's offending.
04:25There have been dozens of reports of abuse by him on BBC premises.
04:30This woman was 14 when she met Savile, following a BBC talent audition.
04:35She doesn't want to be identified.
04:37She's never spoken publicly about how he groomed her in his top-of-the-pops dressing room.
04:43He would, you know, speak to you and put his arm around you and give you a cuddle.
04:49And then he would say, come and sit on my lap.
04:53And you would sit on his lap and he had an erection.
05:00It was vile.
05:02You feel disgusted with yourself.
05:05How would he get you to keep coming back?
05:08Every time he did a bad thing, he would do a good thing.
05:12You know, I promise I'm going to get you an agent and they're going to get you paying gigs.
05:19She's very nervous, she is, when I go...
05:21Around the same time Savile began grooming the girl,
05:23the BBC had to investigate allegations of a sex scandal on its premises.
05:28The author of an internal inquiry in 1972
05:31raised concerns about the supervision of young people at Television Centre.
05:36Sir Brian Neill found that there was uncertainty about who was ultimately responsible
05:40for all the teenage girls coming to see Top of the Pops
05:43and his recommendation was that there should be clear guidance
05:47as to who's to be ultimately responsible for the behaviour and control of these audiences.
05:53But how seriously was that advice taken?
05:56We've seen a memo written in August 1972
05:59by the BBC's Controller of Television Administration who said
06:03we believe the situation is as tightly controlled as can reasonably be achieved.
06:09But for three years after that, this woman went unchaperoned to Savile's dressing room
06:14where she says she was molested many times.
06:18I don't remember there being any supervision at all.
06:21So when you went to Jimmy Savile's dressing room,
06:23was there another adult accompanying you?
06:26No, only Jimmy himself.
06:28He would always just say, when the show's over,
06:31just wait over there by that door there on the set and I'll come and get you.
06:37We've been told Savile abused at least five young people in BBC dressing rooms
06:42after the advice to improve supervision of audiences.
06:47Here we have youngsters who were visiting the BBC
06:51for maybe one day, going to a recording of Top of the Pops
06:55or appearing on Jim'll Fix It.
06:57They were absolutely starstruck.
06:59They wouldn't have known anyone at the BBC to report it to.
07:03They went there for the experience of their lives
07:06and they came away scarred for life.
07:10The BBC says it's appalled at Savile's crimes.
07:13It's unable to give a commentary on 40-year-old documents
07:17but is fully cooperating with the ongoing inquiry into the BBC.
07:26Savile's offending went far beyond the BBC.
07:29New research for Panorama by children's charity the NSPCC
07:33shows it also happened in hospitals and children's homes.
07:37There have now been 500 reports of his abuse across six decades.
07:42The most common age group for victims was 13-15.
07:45The youngest alleged victim was two.
07:49There's no doubt that Savile is one of the most, if not the most,
07:53prolific sex offender that we at the NSPCC have ever come across.
07:57But what you have is somebody who, at his most prolific,
08:00lost no opportunity to identify vulnerable victims and abuse them.
08:07Jimmy Savile's fame gave him extraordinary access
08:11to many well-known institutions.
08:13Nowhere more surprising than here,
08:16at Britain's top security psychiatric hospital, Broadmoor.
08:23This film was shot at the hospital by the BBC 25 years ago.
08:27It's never been shown since.
08:29To get access to film, the BBC had to negotiate with its own star,
08:33who had incredibly just been given a top job at Broadmoor by the government.
08:38So there's many people saying,
08:40how come a Shelby's punter is doing a job like this
08:44at the world's number one mental hospital?
08:47What they don't know is that I've been here 20 years already.
08:51The footage reveals that Savile certainly considered himself
08:54in charge at Broadmoor.
08:56If you want to win any popularity awards,
08:58you don't take the job as the boss here.
09:03So how had the BBC entertainer become so embedded
09:06with the British establishment that, for a few months,
09:09he was entrusted with a senior role at a high-security hospital?
09:14The story starts in the late 60s,
09:16when Savile was invited into Broadmoor by a hospital charity
09:20to organise entertainment for staff and patients.
09:23Savile got his own set of keys and even had a house on the grounds.
09:31In 1971, he was able to bring the girl from the BBC audition
09:35into the hospital to sing for patients.
09:38It's where he first molested her.
09:40What do you think of the fact that Jimmy Savile was allowed
09:43to bring a 14-year-old into Broadmoor?
09:46Oh, I think, really, it was awful.
09:49The authorities should have said, no, she's only 14.
09:53She's too young to come in here and see this place.
09:59It was the scariest experience, I think, of my life.
10:05Broadmoor had a violent reputation.
10:08Chandra Ghosh worked there in the late 80s.
10:10Back then, it was notorious for treating its mentally ill patients
10:14like prisoners.
10:16It felt like a government asylum.
10:18It literally did.
10:20You had women with long, blonde hair, you know,
10:23covering their faces, sitting there rocking.
10:26The wards were Victorian, very old.
10:30It was a very dark place.
10:33By the late 80s, Broadmoor was a hospital in crisis,
10:37so the government set up a task force and, at its head,
10:40they put the TV celebrity with a reputation for sorting things out.
10:45The staff felt as though they had a DJ that was telling them what to do.
10:50Keith Palmer and Neville Sandiford were nurses at Broadmoor at the time.
10:54They could barely believe the role the government had given him.
10:58Savile was actually in charge of the hospital.
11:00In charge of Broadmoor. Not stuck in Barrow.
11:03Morning. How are you?
11:05And the charges and the doctors were dead against it,
11:08but Jimmy Savile was Jimmy Savile.
11:11He could do anything.
11:13Whoever gave him that permission with the keys and then task force
11:18had to be a lunatic.
11:20They had plenty of people to choose from.
11:22The man was only a celebrity.
11:25Now, this is where money is thrown away in buildings.
11:28It was a £17 million bill to start with.
11:31We spent £32 million on top of that.
11:35Peter Jeffries was a regular inspector of Broadmoor in that period.
11:39He was concerned about the way patients were treated.
11:42At the time, I thought, how on earth can Jimmy Savile sort out
11:47the serious accountability and management problems at Broadmoor?
11:51My understanding was he was allowed a free pass to go in and go out
11:56whenever he wanted to see individual patients of his choosing
11:59when he wished to.
12:01That is quite extraordinary.
12:03Edwina Curry was Health Minister and briefly responsible for Broadmoor
12:07when Savile was appointed to the task force.
12:10She says there was no reason then to think his access to the hospital
12:13was odd.
12:15My feeling is that it's not shocking that he had keys
12:18or that he had access and was in and out on a regular basis.
12:22Really?
12:24Because he proved himself to be very useful at Broadmoor
12:28in the sense that when we asked his help in trying to improve matters,
12:34he went above and beyond what anyone had suggested he might do.
12:38Have you got everything that you need here?
12:41We've obtained confidential government documents from the time
12:45that suggest Savile's appointment to the task force
12:48was pushed by a senior civil servant.
12:51They also reveal that officials seemed starstruck by the BBC celebrity.
12:57This is a confidential memo for the personal attention of Mrs Curry
13:01from a senior civil servant.
13:03And throughout the document, it refers to Dr Savile.
13:07The document says that Dr Savile is going through
13:10each of the main departments of the hospital like a dose of salts
13:14and it even lists ten points that Dr Savile would like to see
13:18for further action at Broadmoor.
13:21Jimmy Savile was no medical doctor.
13:24He had an honorary doctorate in law.
13:27We showed the documents to the former nurses.
13:30It says here Dr Savile promised he could improve Broadmoor
13:34beyond recognition within eight weeks if he got the go-ahead.
13:37What do you think of that?
13:39Did you say Dr Savile?
13:41That's what it says. That's what they're calling him.
13:44Does that surprise you that the Department of Health
13:47would be calling him Dr Savile? Yes.
13:49That's awful.
13:51It makes him out to be a doctor in psychiatry.
13:56Nurses in Broadmoor were at the time represented
13:59by the Prison Officers Association.
14:02You look to me like a prison officer rather than a nurse.
14:05Yes, but it was basically a prison with jailers.
14:11The government wanted Broadmoor run more like a hospital.
14:15By the time Savile took over,
14:17the union had just voted for an overtime ban.
14:20And here the story gets even stranger.
14:25The confidential memos reveal that Savile told another civil servant
14:29he could deal with the unions and quickly transform Broadmoor.
14:33The civil servant offers her own view of Jimmy Savile.
14:36She says, I doubt he'll let anyone stand in his way
14:39and he clearly doesn't mind how many people
14:41get trampled underfoot in the process.
14:44Savile told the health minister his unorthodox plans
14:47to break the overtime ban.
14:49He said he'd discovered some nurses were subletting staff houses
14:53and fiddling their overtime claims.
14:55He made it quite clear, he told me,
14:58that he would use that against the staff if they misbehaved
15:03and didn't call off the overtime ban.
15:05That sounds like blackmail. That sounds like blackmail to me as well.
15:08And if it sounded like blackmail to you at the time,
15:11what did you think to say, hang on a minute,
15:14you can't run a top security psychiatric hospital like that?
15:18I made a note of it at the time because I was so surprised.
15:23It was the 1980s.
15:25Some unions were at war with the Conservative government.
15:28Back then, it seems, the DJ's plan wasn't so strange.
15:34If this meant that we broke the strike and could help the patients,
15:39we had an issue of end justifying means.
15:44Within a month of Savile at the helm, the overtime ban was called off.
15:49The documents reveal just how influential he was at Broadmoor.
15:53He drew up a list of dismissable offences for staff
15:57and was even given a say in hiring and firing.
16:01The memo talks about the need to appoint a new general manager to Broadmoor
16:05and it says Dr Savile may wish to press for Mr Franey in this position.
16:11Alan Franey was an administrator at Leeds General Infirmary
16:14where Savile volunteered as a porter.
16:17They became lifelong friends.
16:19Soon after the memo was written,
16:21Alan Franey was appointed general manager of Broadmoor.
16:25We are a special hospital, very special,
16:28providing a very special service
16:31to some of society's most disordered offenders.
16:35Alan Franey didn't want to be interviewed,
16:38but told us he was first seconded to Broadmoor by his employer
16:42and then applied in an open competition for the role of general manager.
16:48Whether through blackmail or charitable works,
16:51the manipulative celebrity had a habit of getting his own way.
16:55He let slip to Trevor Smith that he had his sights set on one thing.
17:00I asked him,
17:02why do you want to be in a place like this with all your money?
17:08And his words to me, and I quote,
17:10when I obtain a knighthood, I will then stop.
17:13Because he said, I want a pit boy, which I was,
17:19to end up with a knighthood.
17:21He said, look how that will look.
17:24And I've been friends with the last four or five prime ministers
17:27and I think they like a change from 365 days total politics.
17:33In his quest for a knighthood,
17:35Savile made lots of friends in high places.
17:38The former pit boy lunched with Margaret Thatcher at Number 10
17:42and took tea at Chequers.
17:44You can knock on the door.
17:46This is their first TV encounter, Jim'll fix it, in 1977.
17:50Hello, welcome.
17:52I thought you were going to fix my getting into Number 10.
17:55I've already done so, but I was going to see you privately about that.
17:58Their relationship began because of advice from political advisers.
18:01You've got to reach out to ordinary people,
18:04to people who watch Jim'll fix it and Coronation Street.
18:08For Savile, the friendship was yet another cloak to hide behind.
18:12Can I just point something out to you?
18:14Do you see what this says?
18:18He used to boast, didn't he, that he had connections in Number 10.
18:22He said that to staff here?
18:24Yes, I'm well known at Number 10 and this sort of thing.
18:28He would go over for tea with Margaret.
18:31Savile bragged he'd spent 11 Christmases with Margaret Thatcher.
18:35That's disputed by her close friend.
18:38Well, if he did, then he must have been hiding in the cupboard,
18:41cos I spent every Christmas Day at Chequers when Margaret was Prime Minister
18:45and I never saw him there once.
18:49From early on, power mattered to Savile.
18:54Dan Davis interviewed him in his later years.
18:57Savile told him about befriending powerful people back in Leeds.
19:01I think it was assurance, really, for himself.
19:04He had a reputation in the dance hall days for being somebody
19:07who was heavy-handed and dealt with troublemakers,
19:11you know, in a fairly physical fashion.
19:16In 1983, Savile told The Sun about his violent past and sexual exploits.
19:22The owners' committee papers from the time show the expose
19:25nearly scuppered his chances of a knighthood.
19:29Mr Savile is a strange and complex man
19:32who's made no attempt to deny the accounts in the press
19:35about his private life.
19:38But the Prime Minister, impressed by the millions he'd raised
19:41for Stoke Mandeville Hospital, kept putting his name forward.
19:45That's lovely, Jim. Thank you very much.
19:47Can I thank you for everything you do, for every good cause?
19:50In 1983, Savile finally got his wish and became Sir Jimmy.
19:54It is mine. I'm telling you, it's mine. Tell him it's mine.
19:57If he duped a whole lot of people, OK,
19:59you can add Margaret to the list of people who got duped.
20:03Savile's connections went to the very top of the British establishment.
20:07For a time in the 80s, through charity work,
20:09he became friendly with Prince Charles.
20:12He'd sworn in a bit like a prince himself and do the sort of royal wave
20:16and then sort of make his way up to the office
20:19and be accompanied by a member of the household
20:22and then disappear again.
20:24When Charles and Diana's marriage was in crisis,
20:27the BBC star even offered to help.
20:31I think the general belief was that because he was a celebrity,
20:34because everybody sort of thought that he was the bee's knees,
20:38that he could do something to sort out the marriage
20:41between the Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales,
20:44the sort of Jim will fix it type of thing.
20:46But there's no way it could have happened
20:48if there was anything to do with him.
20:52A spokesman for Prince Charles said it is ridiculous to suggest
20:55that His Royal Highness sought marital advice from Jimmy Savile.
20:59On the few occasions Jimmy Savile visited St James's Palace,
21:03it was as a guest of a member of the household
21:05and he would have been accompanied.
21:09We've been told the prince called a meeting at his home in Highgrove
21:13in the late 80s about the closure of emergency services
21:16at the local hospital at Tetbury.
21:18Senior health officials were apparently gobsmacked
21:21to find Jimmy Savile there.
21:24In private, the DJ resorted to bully boy tactics.
21:29A manager with the health authority at the time told us
21:32he understood that after Charles left, Savile said the prince wasn't happy
21:37and even suggested the chairman wouldn't get a knighthood
21:41if the downgrading of services at the hospital went ahead.
21:45The prince's spokesman said,
21:47it's possible that such a meeting took place,
21:49however, we cannot comment on any alleged threats
21:52after the prince left the room.
21:54It's certainly not the case that he knew, sanctioned
21:57or encouraged this form of behaviour by anyone.
22:00And there's nothing like the kiss of life from a real lady
22:03ought to make you feel better again.
22:05And one from a young lady.
22:08At St James's Palace, Savile's trademark greeting to women
22:12raised eyebrows, but even here, nothing was done about it.
22:16He'd walk in and sort of go up to each one of the female employees
22:20and take their hand and his bottom lip would curl out
22:23and he'd run his bottom lip up their arm.
22:26They sort of giggled at it, not wanting to complain about it.
22:29When I do that, ladies and gentlemen,
22:31I can clock the diamonds at the same time, you see.
22:33Did anyone object?
22:34They didn't show any signs of objecting.
22:36I suppose the feeling was that if anybody complained
22:39that it would get back to the Prince of Wales.
22:41I remember saying to him I thought he was a dirty old man
22:44and he looked at me and said, not so much of the old.
22:47Oh! As it happens.
22:49The Prince's spokesman said,
22:51no complaint was ever reported.
22:53We do not believe that members of staff
22:55felt unable to report inappropriate behaviour.
23:00At the Department of Health, one official put in writing
23:03her own personal experience of Jimmy Savile in a memo.
23:08The female civil servant signs off at the end,
23:11you might have warned me of his penchant
23:13for kissing ladies full on the mouth.
23:16And at Broadmoor, staff saw for themselves
23:19the way Savile behaved with young girls.
23:21But again, nothing was done.
23:23At a hospital charity day, he was exchanging autographs for kisses.
23:28He kissed these girls.
23:30He was about 13.
23:33Smack bang on the lips, held his hand behind their neck
23:36to pull them forward.
23:38And he virtually was giving them French kisses.
23:41Now, the girl who I saw the most passionate kiss was my niece.
23:46Did you say anything to him about it?
23:48No, I walked off because the girls were queuing up for him.
23:53Even the bosses would laugh.
23:55We all knew. We knew.
23:59We've discovered serious allegations about Savile's behaviour
24:03with patients at Broadmoor.
24:06It suggests that Savile used his access at Broadmoor
24:09to sexually abuse damaged and vulnerable women.
24:12And some of them did try to complain at the time.
24:17When Naomi Stanley was a nurse at a psychiatric hospital in Cambridge,
24:21a woman was transferred there from Broadmoor.
24:24The patient said that she and others had been sexually assaulted by Savile.
24:29I believed her, absolutely.
24:32The way she looked, everything about the way she came across,
24:36she was traumatised, she was angry, she was incredibly upset.
24:42Naomi says she told a manager and two local police officers
24:46during a routine meeting at the hospital.
24:49The nursing officer became quite angry with me.
24:53And took me out of the room, gave me a verbal warning
24:57and said I would probably be sacked
25:00if I ever, ever said anything like that again.
25:04Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust said it couldn't comment
25:08because a different organisation ran the hospital at the time.
25:12Cambridgeshire Police said they'd found nothing on record about it.
25:18We've been told by a former patient that other complaints
25:21were made about Savile from inside Broadmoor 20 years ago.
25:26A member of the patients' council at the time has told Panorama
25:30that three women wrote to him in the mid-90s
25:33detailing serious complaints of sexual abuse by Savile.
25:37He says he forwarded the complaints to Alan Franey,
25:40then chief executive of the hospital, but in the end, still nothing was done.
25:46Alan Franey, who was recommended to Broadmoor by Savile,
25:49told Panorama he didn't recall receiving complaints about him,
25:53but anything that was sent would be handled by the complaints department.
25:57He said no issues about Savile
25:59were raised at regular staff and patient meetings.
26:04West London Mental Health NHS Trust, which now runs Broadmoor,
26:08expressed sympathy for his victims,
26:10but says it can't comment while its joint investigation
26:13with the Department of Health is ongoing.
26:16Any complaints involving Savile are part of that investigation.
26:22We've learned that the police have now received
26:24at least 16 reports of abuse at Broadmoor.
26:27Chandra Ghosh understands why few patients complained
26:31during Savile's lifetime.
26:33These were people that nobody believed.
26:36So if they had, in fact, turned round and said
26:39that he had abused them or raped them,
26:42nobody would have believed them.
26:44You know, this was Mr Savile, you know, do you mean fix it?
26:50Edwina Currie was responsible for Broadmoor for just four months.
26:54She approved the decision to make Savile head of the task force.
26:58Do you have any regrets about playing a role
27:02in increasing his influence at Broadmoor?
27:05It's a sort of huge regret to me,
27:08to everybody that was ever involved with Broadmoor.
27:12Everybody that was ever involved with Savile.
27:15During the time that I was responsible,
27:17we did not have a single, a single complaint.
27:20Had we known, we'd have stopped him
27:23and it would have been very easy to stop him.
27:25I'd have just said to him, Jimmy, the keys.
27:28That decision for him to lead the task force
27:31was not just a wrong decision,
27:33it was a bad decision and a dangerous decision
27:36because it gave authority to a man who not only wasn't competent
27:40but also was dangerous and manipulative and abusive.
27:46The Department of Health and the BBC
27:49will soon publish the results of their inquiries.
27:52The hope is they'll shed more light
27:54on how Savile fooled so many at the highest level.
27:58A lot of people who I have the highest regard for
28:01spoke highly of him at the time
28:03and do I question their judgement?
28:05No, human beings make mistakes.
28:07There were so many mistakes, so many missed opportunities.
28:12I think it is a very revealing story about the nation at large
28:16because he cultivated this sense of oddness.
28:19He was proud of standing apart
28:21but there was no desire or appetite for finding anything beneath that.
28:27Jimmy Savile hid in plain sight his whole life
28:31and hundreds of victims have been denied the chance
28:34to see Britain's most notorious sex offender brought to justice.
28:41And on Wednesday at 10.35, in the shadow of the World Cup stadiums,
28:45Panorama explores Brazil's dark side,
28:48a world of poverty, drugs and children forced into prostitution.
28:55You'll find details of organisations
28:57which offer advice and support on our website
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