POLICE officers who allegedly let paedophile Jimmy Savile off the hook are to face
misconduct action.
Investigators are focusing on alleged mistakes in the build up to a fawning interview
with lying Savile – who told cops that girls preyed on him.
Surrey Police officers allegedly fell for his lies after cringingly beginning their
interview by asking if it was OK to call him “Jimmy”.
Yesterday the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced it has
“nearly completed” its probe into a former West Yorkshire inspector
accused of “acting on behalf” of Savile ahead of the interview.
The unnamed cop has now been quizzed under criminal caution.
Five other detectives are facing misconduct probes over separate allegations.
The West Yorkshire cop is linked to Savile’s Friday Morning Club, a regular
gathering of powerful pals at his bachelor pad overlooking Roundhay Park in
Leeds.
The police watchdog said: “The IPCC has spoken to several former police and non-police
attendees of the ‘Friday Morning Club’, or those with knowledge
of it, as witnesses over whether they have any awareness of accusatory
letters being received by Savile and passed on to officers or discussed.”
A former detective inspector at Surrey is also being investigated over his
handling of allegations in 2007 and 2008 at Duncroft School.
The spokesman added: “The investigation is examining the handling of the
police investigation at the time and whether information was passed to other
police forces in a timely way.
“We are in correspondence with Surrey Police over the scope of the investigation.”
Four detectives with Sussex Police have also been served with misconduct
notices over their contact with a victim who contacted them in 2008 over an
allegation Savile abused her in 1970.
A detective sergeant, a detective constable, a detective chief inspector and a
detective inspector have been served with misconduct notices.
Sarah Green, Deputy Chairwoman of the watchdog, said: “The investigation
is examining interactions between Sussex Police officers and the victim and
whether all lines of enquiry were properly pursued.”
Independent Police Complaints Commission investigators said they have spoken
with the victims and “expect to interview the four officers soon”.
The IPCC’s investigation includes allegations of failures by North Yorkshire,
West Yorkshire, Surrey and Sussex forces.
Savile was interviewed under caution over sexual abuse allegations by Surrey
Police in October 2009.
No action was launched against the depraved BBC star after he insisted two
years before his death that HE was the one being abused from besotted fans.
The interview related to three abuse allegations at Stoke Mandeville Hospital
in Bucks and Duncroft Approved School for Girls in Staines.
But police allowed the ex-Top Of The Pops DJ to blatantly manipulate the
questioning.
It meant a chance to nail the predator, exposed as Britain’s most prolific
child-sex beast after his 2011 death aged 84, went begging.
Savile joked during the soft “grilling” — held for the convenience of the
charity king at one of the hospitals he haunted — that one victim’s
account of what he did to her was like a “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party”.
