The Power of the Paedos - another high profile case hits the 'never happened' wall?

[Jan Klimkowski]

So, earlier in this thread we learnt that Savile was appointed to run Broadmoor, Britain's most notorious criminal lunatic asylum, housing the likes of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.

In 1997, a few years after the government put Savile and his mate in charge of Broadmoor, there were allegations that a paedophile ring was operating in this hospital for the criminally insane.

The Telegraph reveals the following.

Kincora, Bryn Estyn, Haut de la Garenne. Deja vu all over again....

A Sunday Telegraph investigation today reveals:

* Edwina Currie appointed Savile to run a taskforce in charge of Broadmoor in the 1980s, where he is accused of sexually assaulting patients;

* the taskforce he presided over was given temporary powers to oversee the running of the hospital following a series of industrial disputes - despite the fact Savile, a disc jockey and television presenter, had no professional qualifications;

* a friend of Savile's from his hometown in Leeds was then given the most senior job at Broadmoor;

* the BBC investigated a lurid sex scandal at Top of the Pops and Radio 1 in the early 1970s, but never made the report public;

* Savile was interviewed by the BBC as part of that inquiry but refused to cooperate, according to a senior source.

Scotland Yard last week announced it was launching a full-scale criminal inquiry into other members of Savile's alleged sex ring who remain alive. The Met police is now looking at 400 separate lines of inquiry and more than 200 potential victims.

Savile, despite having no expertise in mental health, was given the job of chairman of the taskforce overseeing Broadmoor in 1988 after the hospital had been placed under direct control of the Thatcher government following a series of strikes.

Mrs Currie at the time was health minister with responsibility for the country's high security hospitals under the auspices of Kenneth Clarke, the then-Health Secretary. Savile counted himself as a friend of Margaret Thatcher and reportedly stayed at Chequers on a number of occasions.

Savile had had a long association with Broadmoor, having been a volunteer worker there in the 1970s and 1980s with the unofficial title "honourary entertainments officer". He had his own set of keys and living quarters on site.

Pete Saunders, the chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said of Savile's role at the mental hospital: "It really is akin to giving Dracula the keys to the blood bank. It really is outrageous that a disc jockey was given unfettered access to Broadmoor."

Savile's appointment to the taskforce is now subject to a Department of Health official inquiry but last night Mrs Currie said: "The Department of Health are digging out the papers from the archives and I just don't know - I'm ransacking my own notes to try to work out what happened, so I am not denying it, it is just very hard to tell."

The former minister told The Sunday Telegraph that having checked her personal diaries, she had found a note of a meeting with Savile in Leeds in September 1988 - the month the taskforce was appointed. In the entry she described his thoughts on Broadmoor as "intriguing".

Mrs Currie recorded that during the meeting Savile had told her that he suspected staff were inflating their salaries - and that he had threatened to pass the information to the tabloid papers if the staff caused him any trouble.

Savile also told her he had uncovered millions of pounds missing from budgets and poor use of the hospital's housing stock.

"In my diary, I wrote 'Attaboy', she said. "This was what he claimed to be doing; now it is hard to know whether any of it is true. And obviously when you look back, it does suggest he was prepared to use blackmail to ensure people did what he wanted."

Mrs Currie, who had previously met Savile on his television programme Jim'll Fix it and on visits to Leeds General Infirmary, where he also worked, said she now thought the presenter was "totally evil" and that she was glad criminal investigations were underway.

Savile once described himself in a newspaper interview as "the boss of Broadmoor" and in 1989 said he was responsible for the freeing of 60 patients and intended to introduce "mixed sex wings" so patients could fall in love with each other.

Following Savile's appointment at Broadmoor, Alan Franey, an administrator who spent 10 years working at Leeds General Infirmary, also began work on the same taskforce, with progress to be reported to Mrs Currie.

In a book about psychiatric care, Mr Franey described having "an unusual meeting" with health officials in the Athenaeum Club in London, where his new role on the temporary taskforce was proposed.

He neglected to mention in the book that Savile, who was a member of the Athenaeum, was also present. When asked by The Sunday Telegraph if Savile was also there, Mr Franey agreed.

In 1989, Mr Franey was put in overall charge of Broadmoor, where he remained for nine years before retiring as chief executive.

Mr Franey worked as an assistant general manager at Leeds General Infirmary from 1975 to 1985, when the television presenter was volunteering as a night porter. Savile is also accused of sexually abusing girls at the Leeds hospital.

Mr Franey said he got to know Savile because they were among half a dozen men who ran charity marathons together. He said: "I am absolutely astonished. There was absolutely no indication that he was doing what was alleged."

Mr Franey insisted his friendship with Savile did not help him to get the job on the taskforce, and that he later got the job as general manager of Broadmoor through open competition.

Mr Franey took early retirement from Broadmoor following an inquiry into the hospital in March 1997. The inquiry followed claims made in newspapers that a child pornography ring was operating at Broadmoor.

Although the full report was never published, a summary found no evidence to support the allegations but made some criticisms of lax security while pointing out the hospital had actually improved under Mr Franey's management.

Mr Franey is insistent that he only resigned because he wished to write a book and was ready to retire. He is now a Conservative councillor in Welwyn Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

Last night, Ray Rowden, a former senior NHS executive supervising England's three high-security hospitals - a job he took up in 1996, a year before Mr Franey's retirement - said: "He [Mr Franey] used to boast that he would drive him [Savile] around nightclubs in Leeds in the 1980s."

Mr Rowden said that on his first visits to Broadmoor, he was shocked that Savile appeared to be able to turn up at whenever he wanted - as did Princess Diana - and tackled Mr Franey about it.

"I said to him how can you let Princess Diana and Jimmy Savile into Broadmoor to wander about whenever they want? This is a high-security hospital - would you let any other Tom, Dick or Harry in?"

Mr Franey said claims he had driven Savile to nightclubs was "rubbish". He added: "I have never been to a nightclub in my life." He said the conversation with Mr Rowden about visits from Savile and Princess Diana never occurred.

Savile was caught up in a sex scandal that engulfed Top of the Pops and Radio 1 in the early 1970s when police investigated claims that music companies hired prostitutes for disc jockeys and producers in return for playing their records on air.

The same officers also investigated the suicide of a 15-year-old dancer on Top of the Pops, who Savile is alleged to have abused. The Sunday Telegraph has been told that an independent inquiry launched by the BBC and run by a senior QC questioned Savile over the sex scandal but its findings were never made public.

Savile's activities on Top of the Pops and other programmes where he is accused of raping and sexually assaulting girls on the corporation's premises will form part of a new BBC inquiry into the time.