BBC culture allowed star to commit sex crimes, but top staff unaware: report

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Britain's globally respected broadcaster, the BBC, was told on Thursday it was guilty of serious failings in its handling of Jimmy Savile, a celebrated TV and radio showman revealed after death to have been one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders.

Warnings about Savile's conduct went unheeded for decades, a damning report by a former judge said on Thursday. It found no evidence of a cover-up by the BBC as an institution, however.

The report said there had been - and still was - a prevailing, macho culture at the publicly-funded broadcaster in which staff were fearful of making complaints, especially about its top stars known internally as "The Talent".

That meant senior managers were kept in the dark, concluded the report's author, former Appeal Court judge Janet Smith. But a lawyer for Savile's victims called the findings a "whitewash" and implausible.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-bbc-savile-idUSKCN0VY15F

---

Life | Thu Feb 25, 2016 10:26am EST
LONDON | BY MICHAEL HOLDEN

[Octafish]

1. Friend of Prince Chuckie and Lady Margaret Thatcher

Wonder who else was friends with Jimmy Savile, with all the sick crooks in the churches, institutions and governments around the world?

Like Mark Foley. Thanks to then-Speaker Sweaty Denny Hastert, no charges were filed against the Republican congressman from Florida who sent sexually suggestive Instant Messages to an underage male page.



In his official capacity, Foley established for himself a leadership role in protecting "Missing and Exploited Children" on Capitol Hill.

Like John David Roy Atchison, US Attorney. This GOPper perv got near-zero press nationally:

Roy Atchison: On the Paper Trail of a Paedophile

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Margie Burns

This blog entry is the first of a series of articles on John David Roy Atchison. Atchison, anAssistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Florida, Pensacola office, was arrested in September 2007 on charges relating to pedophilia. He committed suicide in federal prison in October 2007. Arrest and suicide were not foregrounded by the Department of Justice in the Bush administration. The first articles, based largely on FBI material obtained under FOIA, will focus on the criminal acts and their context in 2007 in the Pensacola office.

This is not the story of a man who engaged in pedophilia for years or decades before being caught. It is the story of a man whipsawed by the strain of living up to a high-achieving family rooted in Birmingham, Ala., whose high-functioning connections assisted him for years in developing a career for which he turned out not to be suited. On Sept. 16, 2007, Assistant U.S. Attorney John David Roy Atchison, serving as a federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Florida, was arrested on credible charges of basically pedophilia. Atchison committed suicide in federal prison Oct. 5.

A dead pedophile might not sound like a tragedy. But Atchison was thought to be participating in a pedophile ring, and his death removed a useful informant from law enforcement resources. The question of how he was enabled to kill himself rather than being preserved for justice is one of the loose ends left hanging in his case. This article series will look at the case itself, at how Atchison attained his federal career, and at the easy prison suicide in 2007.

The legal case begins in August 2007, when an officer identified only as part of the Detroit Deputized Cyber Task Force, posing online as a divorced mother of two small children, was Instant Messengered by Yahoo! Member “fldaddy04.” As the Federal Bureau of Investigation notes, when the TFO added the user to her buddy list, the name “John Davidson” replaced “fldaddy04.” By Sept. 12, the FBI had determined that ‘Davidson” was actually Atchison, married since 1983, who lived with his wife, a high school teacher and cheerleading coach, in Gulf Breeze, Florida, and was president of the Gulf Breeze Sports Association as well as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.

CONTINUED...

http://www.margieburns.com/2010/09/roy-atchison-on-the-paper-trail-of-a-pedophile-part-1/

Positions of authority.

[Stryst]

2. There have always been whispers and rumors

about pedophile rings in the British upper crust, including BBC management. Of course, someone will bring up reptiles from the lower fourth dimension and we'll all get sidetracked again.

[killbotfactory]

3. But... aren't management responsible for the culture of a workplace?

If you report wrongdoing of "The Talent" and the management make your life hell or fire you, making all your fellow employees scared to do anything, then they are pretty much guilty of covering up crimes.

[Octafish]

4. The BBC ''Culture'' knew, but not the ''Top Staff.''

Unbelievable.

Reports were made by staff, but these were never escalated due to a culture of "not complaining about anything". Employees were reluctant to say anything to management which might "rock the boat", for fear it might damage career prospects or even lead to dismissal.

When one employee said Savile had put his hand up her skirt, she was told "keep your mouth shut, he's a VIP", the report said.

-- http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-bbc-savile-idUSKCN0VY15F

I can understand England's royals and their grateful toadies wanting to "move on," but these are crimes against children -- living and dead in Jimmy Savile's case.