A former BBC governor and Children in Need chairman says he had suspicions about Jimmy Savile more than a decade ago and felt so strongly about rumours of the late Jim’ll Fix It presenter’s child abuse that he would not allow him any involvement with the charity.
Sir Roger Jones said he always felt that Savile was “a pretty creepy sort of character” and had heard of rumours from BBC staff in London, but did not tell management because he did not have any evidence to back the gossip up.
“If you’re going to go on the attack and make claims against him, then you’d need evidence, hard evidence that simply wasn’t there,” he said in an interview with BBC Wales.
“When I was with Children in Need, we took the decision that we didn’t want him anywhere near the charity and we just stepped up our child protection policies which again would have put him at risk if he tried anything. I think we all recognised he was a pretty creepy sort of character.”
Jones said he was extremely conscious of the potential for paedophiles to be associated with the charity event, which involves celebrities and others raising money for vulnerable and ill children around the country and internationally.
“We knew that the biggest thing to guard against was the paedophiles,” he added.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/29/children-in-need-chairman-jimmy-savile
