It was a chance to capture Savile early on. It was a chance missed. In the early 1960s, according to Savile’s autobiography, Savile referred to another brush with the law after being approached by police asking him to help trace a missing girl. “If she comes in I’ll bring her back tomorrow but I’ll keep her all night first as my reward,” he wrote of his encounter with a female officer, who had gone to question him. He went on: “The lady of the law … was dissuaded from bringing charges against me by her colleagues, for it was well known that were I to go I would probably take half the station with me.”
Scary to think that the police culture at the time allowed people like Jimmy Savile to flourish.
Interesting comments in there, SC. As one who was a plod from 1969, my own experience of responding to a 999 call to a suspected nonce trying to entice young boys into the "Gents" cubicles at Victoria Station was of an extremely high speed ride, a lot of it bumping up and down kerbs and on pavements, to get there asap.
ReplyDeleteThat type was pretty much near the top of the list of the sort of person that wasn't welcome in society and they certainly wouldn't be offered biscuits with their tea in the police cell block. Ian Brady and Myra Hyndley were very much fresh in our minds at the time. I saw no `culture` that cut these bastards a break from my level in the organisation.