- Dame Janet Smith is conducting a review into the BBC and Jimmy Savile
- Sources say she has already voiced her concern about the broadcaster
- Has asked why Savile was able to carry out widespread abuse at the BBC
- Says this is despite a Louis Theroux documentary hinting Savile was a paedophile in 2000
The woman leading an enquiry into how Jimmy Savile has asked why the BBC didn’t investigative claims even though one of its own TV shows asked if he was a paedophile.
Dame Janet Smith is conducting a review into how Savile was able to carry out sexual abuse of children and adults while at the corportation.
But investigative website Exaro says she has voiced her concern about why the broadcaster failed to realise what was happening, despite hints of paedophilia in one of its own programmes 15 years ago.
They found that Dame Janet, a former Court of Appeal judge, has asked several BBC executives what enquiries were made about Savile as a result of a documentary about him presented by Louis Theroux.
In the programme, Mr Theroux explicitly referred to the ‘paedophile’ accusation against Savile, who at one time presented ‘Jim’ll Fix It.’
Sources at the BBC say that it is vulnerable to the accusation it failed to look properly into the allegation of paedophilia against Savile, even though Mr Theroux’s line of questioning was cleared for broadcast in 2000.
However, they were unable to say what Dame Janet had concluded about the episode, but are anticipating strong criticism.
One source also told Exaro that the enquiry was maintaining a firewall between itself and the BBC to prevent managers from discovering the findings.
The Smith review has already questioned BBC executives over the exchange in the programme, ‘When Louis Met Jimmy’, in a section about Savile and children.
Smith has finished her review, and was planning to publish it in May.
But she has delayed publication after Scotland Yard warned her that it could prejudice active criminal investigations.
A BBC spokeswoman said: ‘At the time of filming ‘When Louis Met Jimmy’, neither Louis nor the BBC production team were aware of any specific allegations against Jimmy Savile.
‘However, Louis felt it appropriate to refer to the unsubstantiated rumours that had circulated about Jimmy Savile among journalists for years. The programme went through the normal BBC compliance procedures.’
Exaro also understands that Smith’s review will make an acutely embarrassing disclosure from BBC board minutes of more than 40 years ago.
The minutes are said to show that the board formally thanked Savile for acting as a spokesman for the broadcaster in rebutting a story about a BBC photographer who allegedly made sexual advances to young teenagers during a recording of ‘Top of the Pops’.
Savile presented this edition of the programme, which gave a run-down of the pop charts.
The News of the World was pursuing the story, but was headed off by Savile. The story never ran, for which the BBC board was very grateful.
Meanwhile, the BBC also faces accusations that it paid for legal advice for Savile to stop publication of accusations that he was a paedophile.
Alun Rees claimed in a Facebook post that when he was a reporter on the Daily Express it confronted Savile with the accusation, but that the BBC paid for legal advice for the celebrity, stopping the story from running.
Rees declined to comment to Exaro.
The BBC spokeswoman added: ‘Dame Janet Smith’s review has been commissioned to consider the culture and practices of the BBC during the years that Jimmy Savile worked here and has had our full co-operation.
‘We will await their full report, but we are not aware of any evidence that supports this claim.’
The BBC commissioned the inquiry in 2012. It engaged Reed Smith, the global law firm, whose London base is in Broadgate Tower. The law firm has devoted one floor of the building to the review.
The scandal of child sex abuse by Savile and by, Stuart Hall, another of the BBC’s stars, has rocked the broadcaster.
BBC’s Panorama, meanwhile, has been working on a programme to try to ‘debunk’ claims of a ‘Westminster paedophile network’.
However, as even official authorities increasingly acknowledge the scale of the scandal, Panorama has hit difficulties with the programme, and its planned transmission has been repeatedly delayed.
THE EXCHANGE BETWEEN LOUIS THEROUX AND JIMMY SAVILE
Louis Theroux: So, why do you say in interviews that you hate children when I’ve seen you with kids and you clearly enjoy their company and you have a good rapport with them?
Jimmy Savile: Right, obviously, I don’t hate ’em. That’s number one.
Theroux: Yeah. So why would you say that, then?
Savile: Because we live in a very funny world. And it’s easier for me, as a single man, to say, ‘I don’t like children,’ because that puts a lot of salacious tabloid people off the hunt.
Theroux: Are you basically saying that so tabloids don’t, you know, pursue this whole ‘Is he/isn’t he a paedophile?’ line, basically?
Savile: Yes, yes, yes. Oh, aye. How do they know whether I am or not? How does anybody know whether I am? Nobody knows whether I am or not. I know I’m not, so I can tell you from experience that the easy way of doing it when they’re saying ‘Oh, you have all them children on Jim’ll Fix It,’ say, ‘Yeah, I hate ’em.’
Theroux: Yeah. To me that sounds more, sort of, suspicious in a way, though, because it seems so implausible.
Savile: Well, that’s my policy, that’s the way it goes. That’s what I do. And it’s worked a dream.
Theroux: Has it worked?
Savile: A dream.