Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

Savile lifted his right leg and stretched it across my bed, over my legs but did not touch me. It was in a gesturing way as if to straddle me. He almost instantly put his leg back down again and stood to the left of me. Everyone was still laughing but I wasn’t. I did not feel afraid of Savile. I just wondered why he did that. Savile then leant forward and with his fists clenched he put one fist either side of the bed, across my body and in line with my hips. He leant over me, his shoulders leaning in a domineering way. He was face to face with me. He leant further forward and did not say anything. I was expecting him to give me a kiss on the cheek or possibly a peck on the lips. However Savile then French-kissed me. By this I mean he pushed his tongue in my mouth and continually pushed it in and out of my mouth without his mouth ever leaving me, for about ten seconds. This made me feel very uncomfortable and I went red with embarrassment. I remember people were laughing at him; they seemed to find it funny. Savile then stood up straight and he looked at me with his eyebrows up and a grin on his face. He did not say anything to me. I remember placing my hand on his shoulder as he kissed me to brace myself, but he was like a brick wall.

Comment

Comment

Ms X gives a range of 21 April to 5 May, and Tuesday April 29 is my best guess, given the typical working week of a broadcaster of the status of Savile.

Some background re the Dewsbury incident from the report:

This investigation initially focused on the historic Dewsbury incident that Operation Yewtree alerted MYHT to. This allegation related to a disclosure by Ms X that whilst she was an inpatient on a ward in a hospital in Dewsbury, Savile sexually assaulted her by attempting to lay on top of her and “French kissing” her. Ms X was 15 years old at the time. Initially the allegation was made in relation to DDH but it later transpired it was about an incident that occurred at Staincliffe Hospital. Staincliffe Hospital was taken over by DDH in 1990, and most of its buildings were subsequently demolished. Due to the historic nature of the incident and the lack of documentary evidence the investigation team were unable to find any evidence to corroborate Ms X’s account of the alleged incident. However Ms X’s GP records showed she was an inpatient at the time that the alleged incident took place and therefore the investigators conclude that the alleged incident took place. The lead investigator has no reason to doubt the account of Ms X as her statements to the police and the investigators were consistent and therefore the investigators conclude that the alleged incident took place as she described.

[…]

When Ms X was interviewed by the investigation team the account was consistent with that given to the police. She expanded the context of this account at interview and recalls that Savile sat on the bed next to her for a period of time whilst entertaining the other patients and visitors who were on the ward. Ms X remembers that when she knew Savile was visiting the ward she was very excited at the prospect of meeting him as he was a celebrity on the Top of the Pops television programme. She recounts that she never told anyone about what happened until recently as she was very embarrassed, felt it was wrong and a number of other people witnessed the incident.

[…]

This incident took place in an age of different social attitudes in relation to knowledge and awareness of safeguarding but nevertheless Savile’s behaviour even at that time was not acceptable and should not have been allowed to happen. The resulting effect on a vulnerable teenager has left her with a legacy that has affected her into adult life.
(Firth 2014)

This thread on Secret Leeds typifies a denial-anger-bargaining-depression-acceptance sequence that was common following the post-mortem revelations of Savile’s crimes, but elsewhere things may not have progressed as far. Take Otley. When Savile died in 2011, The Wharfedale Observer interviewed a local businessman, John Swale, about his “lifelong friendship” with Savile:

But it was in 1951 that they made their mark on history. John, 77, said:

We’d get a band on at the Civic Centre and James would be the MC and do the patter while I’d be on the door. Then, after we’d done a few, a lady wanted us to put a party on for her daughter’s 21st but we couldn’t afford a band. So I went to Neil’s Secondhand Bicycle and Radio Store and bought two old wirelesses and the innards of a gramophone, screwed lampholders onto a board and wired it all together so the lights flashed to the music. We took what was then the Wharfedale Cafe’s upper room for five shillings and put the records on with Jimmy spinning them and chatting – and that was the world’s first disco. If I’d patented it I could have made a fortune!

John helped Sir Jimmy take his first steps into showbusiness by suggesting he take up a job with the Mecca dance hall in Leeds. Jimmy, using a more sophisticated version of the prototype disco equipment, started putting records on and chatting during tea dances, and was soon in demand nationwide…

[But] at the height of his fame with [Radio Luxembourg] – in 1967, just before joining the BBC – he returned to Otley to present the town’s first Pop Civic Ball. The event, the brainchild of the chairman of Otley Council [and the town’s largest employer], Ronnie Duncan, proved a huge success and saw Jimmy performing at Otley Rugby Club in his trademark Union Jack jacket. This paper described it as: “The Swinging Scene Takes Over Otley”.
(Jack 2011/11/03)

Janet Smith’s review mentions the affair, citing Savile’s 1974 autobiography, As It Happens:

He wrote about an invitation by Otley Council to attend their annual mayoral ball which had not been raising much money in recent years. The Council obviously hoped that Savile’s presence would attract a large crowd. He attended on condition that the Council would provide him with six girls and two tents in which they would spend the night after the ball was over. The Council apparently agreed to this and six girls were selected from the many who applied (Smith 2016)

Dan Davies dug deeper and interviewed one of those involved:

The woman recalled it was bitterly cold when the girls got into their sleeping bags in the separate tent that had been set up for them in the clearing. It was at this point, in the early hours of the morning, that Jimmy Savile, who had been plying them with vodka all night but not drinking himself, came in and ‘tried it on’ with each of the girls.

Although the woman refused to elaborate on what had happened on the grounds she didn’t think it fair on the others in the tent that night, she did describe Jimmy Savile as ‘a disgusting old man’ and ‘a pervert’.

Her version of events was that they ‘were saved’ when youths from the rugby club shot out the paraffin lamps with air rifles. ‘They had followed us up there,’ she said. She described the girls huddling in the tent while a fight broke out between Savile and the youths. ‘[Savile] was violent, really nasty once he turned,’ she added.

[…]

I put it to Ronnie Duncan that six girls was a highly unusual payment for a personal appearance. ‘I just thought it was one of his gimmicks, you know, that would make good publicity for him,’ he replied. ‘I saw absolutely nothing sinister in it. Maybe I should have done but I didn’t.’ He also maintained there were no complaints from any of those who camped on the Chevin.
(Davies 2014)

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Original

Savile lifted his right leg and stretched it across my bed, over my legs but did not touch me. It was in a gesturing way as if to straddle me. He almost instantly put his leg back down again and stood to the left of me. Everyone was still laughing but I wasn’t. I did not feel afraid of Savile. I just wondered why he did that. Savile then leant forward and with his fists clenched he put one fist either side of the bed, across my body and in line with my hips. He leant over me, his shoulders leaning in a domineering way. He was face to face with me. He leant further forward and did not say anything. I was expecting him to give me a kiss on the cheek or possibly a peck on the lips. However Savile then French-kissed me. By this I mean he pushed his tongue in my mouth and continually pushed it in and out of my mouth without his mouth ever leaving me, for about 10 seconds. This made me feel very uncomfortable and I went red with embarrassment. I remember people were laughing at him; they seemed to find it funny. Savile then stood up straight and he looked at me with his eyebrows up and a grin on his face. He did not say anything to me. I remember placing my hand on his shoulder as he kissed me to brace myself, but he was like a brick wall.

252 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• BBC (3) ·
• Child sexual abuse (7) ·
• Dame Janet Smith Review (1) ·
• Dewsbury and District Hospital (1) ·
• 📌Dewsbury (21) ·
• Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal (1) ·
• Kate Russell (1) ·
• Leeds Tapestry (1) ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• Operation Midland (1) ·
• Operation Yewtree (1) ·
• 📌Otley (11) ·
• Rigg, Diana (1938-2020) (1), Doncaster-born, inter alia Pudsey-educated stage and screen actress ·
• Savile, Jimmy (1926-2011) (1), cunning philanthropist-rapist ·
• Sexual assault (5) ·
• Sexual revolution (1) ·
• Sexual violence (1) ·
• 📌Staincliffe (1) ·
• Swinging Sixties (1) ·
• The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust (1) ·
• West Riding of Yorkshire (147) ·
• Wharfedale Observer (2) ·

All tags.

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