Jimmy Savile cultivated the friendship of a group of senior police officers through weekly meetings at his penthouse apartment, while being investigated over a string of abuse cases, a friend of the star has told The Times.
The broadcaster’s “Friday Morning Club” included up to nine serving and retired police officers. The meetings were held regularly for almost 20 years until shortly before his death.
There is no suggestion that the men had any idea that Savile was involved in abuses, or that during this period police in other parts of the country were investigating at least six allegations that he had sexually abused children. Scotland Yard has been contacted by more than 300 possible victims with accounts of abuse over 40 years.
Most of the officers who attended the “club” at Savile’s home in Leeds were from West Yorkshire Police, the force now investigating claims that Savile abused vulnerable children while working as a volunteer at Leeds General Infirmary.
Joseph Barker, a friend of Savile’s since primary school and a founder member of the club, recalled yesterday: “They used to meet every Friday, about a dozen of them. Three quarters of them were police.”
He described how Savile would “hold court”, leaning back in a black leather armchair with a cigar. “We just drank tea and made light conversation. He was more of a listener when we were there — he liked to get people’s opinions,” Mr Barker, 85, said.
“Princess Di used to phone him while we were there in the Friday Morning Club. Just like that.”
He said the BBC Radio 1 DJ and host of Top of the Pops and Jim’ll Fix It had befriended some of the officers while giving talks at corporate functions or community events.
Mr Barker was one of Savile’s oldest friends alongside the DJ’s long-serving BBC radio producer, “Uncle” Ted Beston. He met Savile when they were pupils at St Anne’s Primary School in Leeds. They became close friends, cycled together in the Yorkshire Dales and threw a joint 21st birthday party. Mr Barker filmed two documentaries with Savile about mining, one for the BBC and one for ITV. He and his wife, Iris, would go on holiday to Scarborough three times a year and tried to co-ordinate their visits with Savile.
He is devastated by the revelations about Savile, saying: “He never mentioned women. It was always racing, cycling and music. I just can’t believe it. It’s like Jekyll and Hyde.”
His wife, who knew Savile for 50 years, thought it was odd that he had never mentioned women.
“I’d never known him have an attraction to a woman his own age,” Mrs Barker said. “We always thought he saw himself as one of the mafia. Any problem that arose, he used to say, ‘My people will take care of it’. Now we are wondering who ‘my people’ were.”
Savile wrote in his autobiography about an incident in the 1960s when he spent the night with an attractive girl, who had run away from a remand home, before handing her over to police in Leeds. He said a high-ranking woman police officer was persuaded by her colleagues not to charge him as “it was well known that were I to go, I would probably take half the station with me”.
Other members of the club included Howard Silverman, a hairdresser and friend for 40 years, Jeffrey Marlowe, a running companion, and David Dalmour, a singer, who along with Mr Barker were each left £1,000 in Savile’s will. Mick Starkey, who retired from West Yorkshire Police as an inspector shortly before Savile’s death, was also a member of the Friday Morning Club. The DJ joked that the officer was his “bodyguard”.
Mr Starkey, 61, could not be contacted yesterday, but after Savile’s death he told his local newspaper how he often drove Savile in his £150,000 Rolls-Royce, including taking him for a spin in the Yorkshire Dales four days before his death.
“He was a part of my life as I grew up. He was a distant figure associated with Top of the Pops, Pan’s People and everything that was trendy,” Mr Starkey said. I never thought for a minute that in later life, as a serving police officer, I would meet him professionally or that subsequently we would become close friends.”
Another officer named as a club member, Sergeant Matthew Appleyard, who was on duty at Wetherby Police Station in West Yorkshire yesterday, refused to comment. Other officers in the club could not be traced.
Savile received recognition for his community work from police forces across the country. An auction of his possessions in July included a table lighter inscribed “To Jimmy Savile from his friends at the Fraud Squad”, along with a series of plaques and awards including the Metropolitan Police 150th Anniversary medal.
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said that the force had not conducted any past investigations into Savile but had received calls from victims as a result of the recent media coverage. “None of these alleged any failure by police to investigate previously,” he added.
The spokesman said Savile had publicly supported some West Yorkshire Police campaigns, although none in recent years. He said that the force had no information about officers attending Savile’s Friday Morning Club but that they were free to do what they wished when off duty.
