Jimmy Saville (opinion based on new Netflix documentary)

[Jobhelpplease]

Has anyone watched this...

I didn’t think I could be shocked any further by what a predator he was but what I didn’t know was how openly he joked in tv interviews, game shows etc about molesting children, including an episode of Have I got news for you where he jokes about becoming a Janitor in an all girls school if everything else fell apart, and that was 2012!!!

I also didn’t know how famously he was linked to the royal family, Margaret Thatcher and many other high brow politicians and judges.

He only described himself as “Tricky” and I think that sums him up as he tricked a lot of vulnerable people for many decades, it’s really just unimaginable in this day and age how he got away with it!!

I'm just on episode 2 as I type!

That's the bit that shocked me the most on ep1 - the caretaker joke! It was just laughed off.

He was certainly hiding in plain site. Ugh!

Grim.

Many people knew he was a disgusting pervert and I think some tabloid newspapers were ready to expose him but were gagged by injunctions. The rich and powerful being protected by the rich and powerful

He always gave me the creeps , cuddling young girls on top of the pops , but never quite imagined how bad he was .

Seriously how old is everyone on this thread? If you are over 35 then you have rose tinted spectacles on. The difference is society. Not only are these kind of jokes unacceptable - unless you are taking about teenage girls from the estates who are still viewed as tarts esp by police - but children are listened too and believed when it comes to abuse. Plus Saville got away with it and so did many others - yes some may have said stay away from him- because no one would have said why - it was just not spoken about.

I think people simply don’t handle abuse or abusers, look at the level of prosecutions, families turning a blind eye. People just don’t face up to abuse or stand up to abusers. That is the reality of human nature.

But why were they all protecting him?! That's what I don't get. What did they all get from letting him get away with it all.

You forgot to mention in your OP how much he was lauded by the BBC...

TV "stars" were treated like gods and revered in those days.

@mrspear I remember being at school (all girls school) and there was a male teacher who would always flirt with the girls and everyone felt uncomfortable and other teachers knew. He molested my friend, she told the headteacher and all they did was move her out of his class, my friend was traumatised. He stayed at the school until he retired.

We also had an art teacher who would lie in the grass with the girls in the playground.

My gran had a neighbour who would always grab me when I was less than 10 and touch me and tell I was pretty.

We had a teacher who married a student :/

I have so many examples from the 1980s and 1990s, I really really hope that this wouldn't happen now.

Because they didn't want to believe it and they didn't want to make a fuss in case they were wrong.

Lots of people knew.
Just like lots of people know the abuse that's happened to child actors in Hollywood, and women in both acting and singing.
People didn't speak up because they were more concerned with maintaining their own fame than stopping predators. And I am sure the same is true today. I doubt anything has changed.

@bonfireheart

But why were they all protecting him?! That's what I don't get. What did they all get from letting him get away with it all.

Friends in high places.

All those friends in high places need to be looked into too.

It's like the Ghislaine stuff - he's dead, she's in prison, Andy has paid his way out of it, but what about all the others involved?

i met him once at the Manchester taxi day out for kids at the pleasure beach (was chef in the restaurant where lunch was) and i wasnt impressed he was scruffy and very much look at me im the big i am

The things that made me almost do a little vom in my mouth were :

• When he showed the a picture drawing of himself from a patient who was bad ridden. He asked, what did he deserve to be portrayed as a monster, and the child said 'everything'. She was lying in bed (I think paralysed) and he was just there mocking on the telly.

• Towards the last bit of ep2, he is sitting with a bunch girls (I think it was top of the pops) and one next to him kept jumping away from him. It was a live show, and I remember a doc where that girl said he had his hand up her beneath her as they sat with everyone around and the world watching, but she could not say anything.

• The poor woman remembering how she had to force herself to put in tampons even though she did not have periods and had to have 3 knickers on at a time, when she went to church .

In terms of the royals. Charles wrote supporting letters to him even after he was accused by some victims.
Hactivists Anonymous found information that around the time of her death, Diana was going around to the hospitals etc. where JS was abusing kids and taking statements from them. It looks like she was collecting evidence of some sorts. Those statements disappeared when her butler was asked to return the palace things (remember that court case). She apparently also had a tape of someone working at the palace who was sexually abused by an employee of the palace among those things.

Anyway, here is JS recounting a time he snuck in a young girl to the palace and Prince Philip acting as a wingman.

Can't get over how brazen he was.

I think what those who are younger may not realise is yes, people knew, but the (horrendous) prevailing attitude at the time was that it was the fault of the child. The fault of the victim.

The phrase “victim blaming” has lots its power as it is so often used. But in the 70s and 80s it absolutely would have been seen as the fault of the child, particularly teenage and pubescent girls, for “putting themselves in that situation”, “flaunting it”, “being a tease” or similar and that “they got what was coming to them”.

The perpetrator would be excused as a “lovable rogue”, “one of the guys” and with a lifestyle for other men to covet.

@RandomNumb3rs

I think what those who are younger may not realise is yes, people knew, but the (horrendous) prevailing attitude at the time was that it was the fault of the child. The fault of the victim.

The phrase “victim blaming” has lots its power as it is so often used. But in the 70s and 80s it absolutely would have been seen as the fault of the child, particularly teenage and pubescent girls, for “putting themselves in that situation”, “flaunting it”, “being a tease” or similar and that “they got what was coming to them”.

The perpetrator would be excused as a “lovable rogue”, “one of the guys” and with a lifestyle for other men to covet.

I absolutely agree. Even in the 90s when I was a teen, and sexual values were changing, the idea of a rape victim “asking for it” was pretty standard. It was quite recent (last 15 years?) that women weren’t asked what they were wearing when they were raped anymore. A girl going along to TOTP in a short skirt and then getting felt up by Savile would 100% be blamed for where she was and what she was wearing. Awful.