To still be stunned that The Royals were close with Jimmy Savile?

[ThatCleverExpert]

It still blows my mind that the Royal Family had such a long-standing relationship with Jimmy Savile. Prince Charles sought his advice multiple times and he was treated like some kind of national treasure, even given access to hospitals and prisons.

Meanwhile, this was a man who was later exposed as a prolific predator - someone who abused vulnerable people, including children and even corpses in hospital mortuaries.
How did nobody see it? How was he so protected? And how was someone like that allowed so close to people in power?

I know it was a different time but AIBU to think the whole thing is still just horrifying?

The royal family is a rather depraved bunch, or haven't you noticed?

It was Saville's thing. Align yourself with the powerful to avoid suspiscion.

Evil is manipulative. And some of the Royals (Looking at you Andrew) are vain and thick. Ripe for manipulation and corruption.

How was someone like that allowed so close to people in power?! Really? These ARE the people in power. This is who they are. It’s been that way for centuries.

You think that’s bad, wait until you hear about Andrew….

people were confused by him he hid behind this bizarre persona

Louis Theroux was taken in by him and this was after questioning him about some of the rumours

but many times he evaded further investigation and we have a better understanding of how people like himself operate plus the BBC did and still do protect their big names and they ignored to complaints many times

people like him are very manipulative it’s easy to say how could they not know we can all be taken in, though apparently Princess Diana was reported to feel very uncomfortable around him, there is a news report where this is quite obvious looking back at it but that is not necessarily suspecting anything more than he was a bit of a creep

“How did nobody see it”.

why do you assume they didn’t? It has always been well known jimmy saville was a paedophile but it was in the press.

like it was well know epstien was, before it was in the press, well known amount the elite, before it came to light and was common knowledge.

people know. Money talks.

It might be a crazy conspiracy theory but there was a rumour - reported on lots of news sites that Jill Dando was going to a VIP paedopile ring which could well have included Saville.

I was a child in the 70’s and felt uncomfortable watching him on the television. Of course they knew.

The people who protected him are every bit as guilty as if they watched and cheered him on doing his depraved acts and should be held to account as they were - and are - complicit in his crimes.

I think charisma probably plays a part. And then I wonder how much Saville had on certain people. Epstein collected evidence that he could use against people. And he presumably made use of that to get powerful people to bring in other powerful people. Maybe Saville did something similar.

I reckon he was a fixer of prostitutes/ young women for people in the palace.
Rather disturbing interview with Parkinson

We didn’t know.

Genuinely, we didn’t. My little brother applied for Jim’ll Fix It.

Do you think the Royal Family are big critical thinkers? Or that very rich people think carefully about what they do? They don’t have to do either of those things. It doesn’t matter.

Savile was depraved. In plain sight. What he says about British society and how deferential we are is absolutely grim.

I think hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I was a child in the 1970s and, from what I can recall, most people thought he was a bit eccentric but generally a good egg who did loads for charity. Obviously in recent years I have read that people in the media were more in the know. Only recently I read an interview with the actors who were the children in the BBC Chronicles of Narnia where one of them remembered being warned by a stage manager to stay away from JS because he was a kiddy fiddler.

Yes it is horrifying that if you were in the business it was, apparently,an open secret but nobody did anything. But I don't think most of the general public knew. Given the insulated lives they live, I assume the Royals had no idea either

So many people were taken in by him. He was a really close to Margaret Thatcher and a regular visitor to her official homes when she was PM. The government allowed him unprecedented access to vulnerable patients when the Thatcher government gave him unfettered access - for example appointing him to lead a task force at Broadmoor Hospital and giving him a set of keys to the hospital and his own bedroom.

I don't know what your question is OP, to answer the poll.

I am not sure that I would call the relationship you describe "close". It seems to me you are describing what is essentially a business relationship.

People like Saville make a point of sucking up to the powerful and hiding who they really are, it's how they survive. If they were bad at it they would get caught sooner.

That the staff in Broadmoor concluded Saville was a psychopath very fast and he spent his time chatting to Sutcliffe should have meant greater restrictions. Instead he was utterly protected. Imagine you are a psychiatrist who has just had a functional psychopath sent by the PM to run your hospital. You’d have no bloody authority to do anything.

You know, this makes me think of the accusations of a lot of the kids in Hollywood about what went on, people like Corey Feldman. From those reports, it was really all over the place, and somehow it was just allowed. Mel Gibson is of course a bit of a nutter these days, but when he said he was shocked when he realised how much kiddie fiddling went on in Hollywood he was shocked and horrified, I think he's telling the truth.

I think sometimes people are in a position where they have heard and believe something like this to be true - but what they do not have is any kind of proof that they could give to law enforcement. Just rumours and a "vibe".

Of course not everybody that worked with him or came into contact with him knew what he was and what he was up to unless they were part of his inner circle who were also abusing children

some at the BBC we aware of the complaints and nurses knew he was a man to stay away from and tried to keep children safe but at the time we used words for men like him they had wondering hands or were a bit of a creep and he was powerful and a bully. he also choose his victims carefully children who were seen as troubled and not believed (a to often familiar story)

though the rumours were about people were also taken in most of us just struggle to accept that people are that cruel especially when they do so much good too his was a prolific charity fundraiser which we now understand was a part of manipulation

I can remember him making me feel uncomfortable and my mum would say there was something off about him but that isn’t knowing he was weird

it was a different time we have a much better understanding but we still struggle to understand and accept as it’s just too awful to think that people are so cruel and perverse

I think you're probably right,bloody hell.

I think people were very naive about paedophiles in the 1970/80s. Grooming was not understood either and I don't think I heard the word in this context until the early 2000s.

I agree with you that in the 70s Jimmy Savile was regarded as a saint - a rather eccentric celebrity who gave up his own time to work for charity and donated his time to hospitals. He had extreme intelligence (he was a member of MENSA) which he used like any good psychopath to groom those in power - weaselling himself into close contact with the PM, Ministers, Royals and the Catholic Church - especially the government who gave him extraordinary access to patients especially those in long term hospital care who were more vulnerable and also less likely to be believed.

So his friendship with Charles and Diana was not really a huge surprise in the context of Savile being considered as some sort of PR guru. I think he was also regarded as giving the royals "common sense advice" from a self made man who had started as a coal miner and become a powerful celebrity. He exchanged many letters with both Charles and Diana and even gave them marriage advice 🙄

Parents happily waved their kids off to appear on Jim'll Fix It at this time.

Safeguarding was very limited in the 1970s. For example when I was at school at that time there was a well known "creepy teacher" but nobody really took any action or questioned it and he was easily able to move between numerous schools. It wasn't until around 2010 that the claims were properly investigated.

Not surprised in the slightest. Add in Jeffo and the plot does get rather gloopy.

“How did nobody see it? How was he so protected?”

The same comments could be applied to most abusers, this is not unique to people who associate with the royal family. Often abusers hide in plain sight. Savill was a master manipulator who spun himself a popular public image.

Peter Ball.
Laurens van der Post.
Mountbatten.