the sir jimmy savile obe thread

[Pickman's model]

A lot changes in two years, doesn't it? He was treated like a hero on death in Leeds, lying in state.

Wonder how the people who won stuff in the auction of his possessions now feel?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-19043994

gutted, or pleased to have a souvenir of a valued friend i suppose.

 

[redsquirrel]

That's catholic church sexual abuse. I mean celebrities. Does Australia have any former celebrities who are recently uncovered as paedos? What about France? USA? Portugal? and so on. Are they on the same scale as here? If not why not? I'm trying to determine what it is about the culture of Britain at the time that allowed this? There's been talk of it being 'a different time' back then but I'm not sure it was that different with regards to kiddie fiddling? Or maybe it was? I'm trying to determine whether the cover up of it, the missed opportunities to expose it and to bring these people to justice then etc was/is an English disease so to speak or was it something wider in western culture? Because I wonder how far all this is gonna go. Big rock bands around that time weren't exactly saints and they had a lot of underage groupies, will they be classed as being sexually abused? Will any of them come forward now? I guess not but it's not beyond the realms. It's not as if any of them were as bad as Ian Watkins lately but part of the revulsion of the Watkins case included his sexual contact with 16 year old school girls whereas this was just the norm for bands back in the 60s and 70s.

I'm not directing these questions at you specifically, Edward I'm just thinking aloud as it were!

There was a bloke from some 80s TV show (can't remember the name, it wasn't something that I think people outside Oz would know)* convicted earlier this year. I'd say there are probably fewer celebrity cases in the spotlight than there has been in Britain but I don't think that's due to a different culture. More likely because (1) lots of Oz celebrities that made it big in the 60s/70s probably moved to either the UK or the US anyway and (2) while the Saville case got lots of press it didn't really start anything like Yewtree, I can easily believe that there's plenty of abuse yet to be uncovered here.

*EDIT: Robert Hughes, from Hey Dad...!

 

[Barking_Mad]

A lot changes in two years, doesn't it? He was treated like a hero on death in Leeds, lying in state.

Wonder how the people who won stuff in the auction of his possessions now feel?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-19043994

Black comedy eh?

Nick Beckwith said he was determined to get one of Sir Jimmy's bikes and managed to secure lot 27 - a Falcon 21-gear mountain bike.

"I just wanted to buy it so one of the bikes would stay in Leeds," said Mr Beckwith, who is from Garforth, in the east of the city.

"You don't know, with everybody on the internet and on the phone, where they're going to go. I will ride it round Roundhay Park, which is where Jimmy rode it and had many hours of fun."

 

[yardbird]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28163593

 

[spanglechick]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28163593

That's quite a lot. I mean not that he didn't deserve it, but... Even if he only does half, (and doesn't top himself) there's a very good chance he'll die in prison.

I do feel for his family. Not as much as those he assaulted, clearly, but... I know his daughter lied, but how could you accept that truth about your own dad? Assuming she'd had a normally happy relationship with him. Projecting here, but if my dad had been accused of similar by a childhood friend, I'm absolutely certain I'd believe she was lying. And yeah, I'd lie for him if I thought he was wrongly accused, cos he's my *dad*, ffs.

And now she has to come to terms with what her dad really is and was.

 

[quiquaquo]

His estate is worth over £10 million, could explain certain behaviour.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

His estate is worth over £10 million, could explain certain behaviour.

That's a very shitty thing to say. Very shitty.

 

[yardbird]

That's a very shitty thing to say. Very shitty.

NB It's the lying Bindi who get's an "allowance" from the £10 mil, so if others can sue to receive money from the pot then so be it.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Fuck me this is a judgemental place sometimes. She's his daughter. Fuck knows what has been going through her head over this. I certainly don't know and neither do you.

Fuck's sake.

 

[gabi]

Well she was in the room while her dad was messing about with her friend. On various occasions. No respect for her.

 

[elbows]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...loaded-sexual-images-of-children-9583952.html

Claims that Rolf Harris browsed websites featuring girls as young as 13 and took notes on how to delete his internet history were never heard by the jury who this week convicted him of 12 counts of indecent assault against children, it can now be reported.

Prosecutors were due to claim that the 84-year-old entertainer, who will be sentenced later this afternoon, accessed websites with names such as "My little nieces", "Tiny teen girlfriends" and "Russian girlfriends".

Harris was charged with four counts of accessing indecent images by police, but never entered pleas as his defence team successfully persuaded the judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, to separate them off from the main trial.

Today, prosecutor Sasha Wass QC told Southwark Crown Court that the Crown Prosecution Service had since decided that it was "no longer in the public interest" to pursue a second trial on the outstanding charges "in the light of the 12 unanimous convictions on the counts that Mr Harris faced".

 

[elbows]

Well she was in the room while her dad was messing about with her friend. On various occasions. No respect for her.

I believe its been said she was asleep at the time, so that part can't be held against her. And she did go nuts when she discovered many years later that he'd 'had an affair' with her best friend.

 

[elbows]

Assuming she'd had a normally happy relationship with him.

By all accounts family life was far more complex than that in the Harris household. But since I am reliant on tabloid shit for info on this, aside from the couple of relevant details that came out in court, I won't be rushing to judge her.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

The judge told Harris that he only had himself to blame for what has befallen him.

Quite right. if he wanted to get away with paedophile crimes it was his responsibility to get a seat in parliament.

 

[elbows]

Regarding Bindi, most of the relevant details are contained in articles like this one:

http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/...al-laid-bare/story-21309495-detail/story.html

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

As a side note, Harris hired scumbags Bell Pottinger as PR. The family court walk-in may have been their idea. Thank fuck it didn't work, although Karimovs victims received less justice than those of Harris.

 

[Citizen66]

There's nuances to stuff like this. Bindi may harbour a massive grudge against her father for shagging her mate but still love him and not want him to go to prison at 83. She's probably got massive cognitive dissonance over it. Saying she's driven solely by financial factors is a tad harsh.

My speculation, for what it's worth.

 

[Yossarian]

Fuck me this is a judgemental place sometimes. She's his daughter. Fuck knows what has been going through her head over this. I certainly don't know and neither do you.

Fuck's sake.

None of us know what's in her head, but if anyone had £11 million at stake that they could lose by telling the truth, I'd find it hard to take anything they said at face value.

 

[elbows]

Well whether or not she is guilty of such an attitude, the possibility of such already lead to the prosecution having extra ammo with which to ridicule her evidence in court. Her evidence didn't help him, and if as seems likely her head was fucked up in several other ways to do with her relationship with her father throughout her life, this latest turn of events is the rancid icing on a very ugly cake. She is a kind of victim too, even if her interests, words and deeds have sometimes been well out of alignment with, or in opposition to, the rights and hopes of other kinds of victims of Rolf Harris.

 

[bubblesmcgrath]

Fuck me this is a judgemental place sometimes. She's his daughter. Fuck knows what has been going through her head over this. I certainly don't know and neither do you.

Fuck's sake.

None of us know what's in her head, but if anyone had £11 million at stake that they could lose by telling the truth, I'd find it hard to take anything they said at face value.

Having read her email to her dad asking him if she was his sole heir and if he could see to it to sort out his affairs (write a will with her as sole or majority beneficiary) so that there would be no trouble with other relatives after he died...It does look like she was more interested in the £11million than the man himself.

 

[bubblesmcgrath]

 

[DotCommunist]

oh fuck off

 

[Citizen66]

And you were forwarded this private email why?

Or did you find it on the internet lol?

 

[Citizen66]

Rolf received a weird email from his daughter attempting to tie up monetary matters and leaked it to the Internet lol.

 

[existentialist]

Having read her email to her dad asking him if she was his sole heir and if he could see to it to sort out his affairs (write a will with her as sole or majority beneficiary) so that there would be no trouble with other relatives after he died...It does look like she was more interested in the £11million than the man himself.

I don't think we can make that judgement.

 

[maomao]

Rolf received a weird email from his daughter attempting to tie up monetary matters and leaked it to the Internet lol.

That's an email that was presented as evidence in court.

 

[ViolentPanda]

That's a very shitty thing to say. Very shitty.

As we saw from the Hall case, it's sometimes a consideration that needs to be made.

 

[Wilf]

There's nuances to stuff like this. Bindi may harbour a massive grudge against her father for shagging her mate but still love him and not want him to go to prison at 83. She's probably got massive cognitive dissonance over it. Saying she's driven solely by financial factors is a tad harsh.

My speculation, for what it's worth.

I think that puts it well, but amid the conflicting emotions/stories in her head there must have been a voice getting louder and louder that he really was an abuser. Don't know when that dawned on her or whether it truly has even now. However whilst I'm sure you are right to point out it's complicated and there are honourable reasons why she didn't abandon him, I'd respect her a lot more if she had.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

As we saw from the Hall case, it's sometimes a consideration that needs to be made.

Why do we, here on this bulletin board, need to make that consideration, though? Why are people on here, on this bulletin board, feeling compelled to judge her? She's being put on trial here, but I'm really not sure what the charge is.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Why do we, here on this bulletin board, need to make that consideration, though? Why are people on here, on this bulletin board, feeling compelled to judge her? She's being put on trial here, but I'm really not sure what the charge is.

Don't be so melodramatic. Few people are accusing her. Most are attempting to understand the dynamics of the situation.