By Jeremy Sare.
Britain is currently reeling from daily revelations about acts of child molestation carried out by one of its biggest television stars of the 60s, 70s and 80s, Sir Jimmy Savile.
What at first appeared to be isolated, but no less disturbing, cases has rapidly broadened and deepened suggesting whole rings of paedophiles linked to the celebrity who sexually assaulted young, often vulnerable, teenage girls with apparent impunity. Only his death last year has allowed his despicable secret life to be finally exposed. There are currently at least 200 cases being investigated.
The scandal has convulsed the BBC and its media rivals have wasted no time in wielding early revenge – particularly when the suggestion still hangs that an investigation programme was pulled last December in favour of a nauseating tribute to Savile. But the scandal has also drawn in several charities, the National Health Service, Crown Prosecution Service, police and Ministers.
It was, therefore, quite disgraceful timing for the new Justice Minister, Chris Grayling, to step into the fray and boast through a tabloid how the Government was going to “crack down” against convicted sex offenders. His article in the Sun newspaper on Monday referenced Savile and then announced all sex offenders would be fitted with GPS on release from prison. It is not entirely clear how this expensive tracking will definitely prevent attacks on children, particularly if there are no extra resources promised to electronically monitor these offenders. Moreover, Savile was not charged let alone convicted of any sex crime so GPS is nothing more than an absurd irrelevance in his case.
Grayling is not the first Minister to try and squeeze political capital from atrocious criminal acts against children and young adults and I am sure he will not be the last. But he deserves to be considered, at least, for the prize for cynical political manoeuvring of the year.
Child protection is a complex and sensitive issue generally administered by dedicated professionals who have huge experience of dealing with sex offenders weighing up carefully what is practical in controlling their behaviour. I have seen close at hand how Megan’s Law works in the States allowing communities to access information about these offenders, including their addresses. This option was explored in 2006 in UK but rejected for fear of public retribution. In any event, these measures fail to protect children and families from the greatest threat which is unconvicted offenders. That would include Savile.
Articles from supposedly responsible Ministers quickly invoke fears of strangers in the dark which every study shows amounts to a small proportion of sexual offenders. Ten years ago the News of the World’s ‘name and shame’ campaign led to mobs marching the streets of Portsmouth and attacks on innocent people, including a paediatrician whose profession was confused with paedophilia.
Below yesterday’s newspaper report were long list of baying comments calling for castration or death. Grayling must have been pleased to have aroused such blind anger, much to the dismay of his better informed officials.
This guy has form on playing for the common denominator: at the Conservative Party Conference last month he banged the drum about allowing householders to use “unreasonable” force against burglars. It is a purely emotive issue; these cases of robbed householders being charged with assault have arisen in the courts only a handful of times in the last ten years.
On child protection he has promised, “protection services, councils and police will work together and share information.” But in reality Grayling was merely describing the multi-agency arrangements, called MAPPA, which have been operating across the county for over 15 years.
While brazenly ambitious Ministers such as Grayling seek to stoke anger from the nation’s evident distress, most of the population quietly struggles to come to terms with the horrendous stories being uncovered with sickening regularity. For many of us, the 1970s were our childhood and were innocent, happy days – that is part of what we reflect on with deep sadness through the victims’ harrowing stories.
Innocent fun was clearly an illusion in the world of 70s pop music – Saville’s heinous crimes follow on from convictions of pop stars and managers of the time such as Gary Glitter and Jonathan King who proved to be relentless sexual predators. Something of that era just died and is now to be associated with shame and fear.
That’s tough enough to swallow without a loudmouth politician seeking to attract the basest popularity and so to calve himself a macho image. The British public at large have not forgotten, the obscenity that all the authorities failed to stop Savile when he was alive.
