Nobody has Paedophile, Rapist or Serial Killer branded on their forehead

This month the truth has finally emerged about the late Jimmy Savile, the former Radio One DJ, who worked for the station for over 20 years until 1989, who hosted Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It, between 1974 and 1994, where childen wrote up and asked if he would fix it so they could fulfill an ambition of theirs, be it going up into the sky in an hot air balloon, or Roller Skating or meeting a famous person.

A friend of mine from the 1980's and 1990's wrote to Savile asking if he could have football lessons with Kenny Dalglish, the former player and manager. I can't remember what year it was, but it was around the time when Liverpool FC were winning the FA Cup, League title, League Cup, Eurovision Song Contest, Grand National and the Boat Race, year in year out. He never got a reply. As the allegations finally were disclosed earlier this month he said "After all those years of disappointment, I am pleased Jim didn't fix it for me!!!".

The revelations, that Savile was almost certainly a predatory paedophile, with 300 people saying that he sexually assaulted or abused them, across the UK, over a 40 year period, beginning around 1958, show three things. That nobody has paedophile branded on their forehead and that you never say you really know someone and that you can't go on appearances. The public were taken in by Savile's image of being a "Man of the people", as he was a working-class lad from Leeds made good, a former wrestler and coal miner who worked his way to fame and they were taken in by his charity work, at St James's Hospital in Leeds, Stoke Mandeville Spinal Injuries Hospital in Buckinghamshire, where he had a room, and Guys Hospital in London. There he had easy access to patients who he could abuse, the mentally ill were victims as well as children.

I personally never suspected him of being a paedophile but I always felt that, as well as being eccentric and odd, he was hiding something. That you never really knew the real him. That he was wearing a mask. Now we know what it was, and didn't it work? Prime Ministers, Royalty, and other celebrities were all taken him and his public image. Not many members of the public suspected he was a paedophile apart from the victims.

What does a paedophile or an abuser look like? Nobody has paedophile or child molester stamped or branded on their forehead. Neither does a rapist or a serial killer. A paedophile looks like anybody else. Society has to got to get rid of this stereotype that a paedophile is an homosexual or a weirdo, loner, a drifter, a misfit, or oddball, who is unemployable or doesn't work, has no friends, who is introverted or has problems interacting with others, who lives in a rundown grotty flat, is unable to form relationships with people, or that a paedophile is some dirty, leering old man with a comb over or a wig wearing a Mac. Yes Savile never married. Yes he never had children. Yes he was eccentric or an oddball but so what? He was popular, he was rich, he was famous, he was successful.

A paedophile can be a Priest, as has been seen with Catholic Church's priests sexual abuse of young boys for many years on end, until the silence was broken in the last few years and the truth came to light. A paedophile can be an homosexual, hetrosexual, black, white, Asian, a Doctor, or a Judge, or a Laywer, or an Accountant, or a Teacher, or an HGV driver, or a binman or someone on the dole.. or a former Top of the Pops presenter.

A paedophile can never marry. A paedophile might be the guy who looks like a member of the perfect model of how a family should be. Mr married, the man who has two or three children, the man with a good job and a company car, or a mortgage. He might not abuse his own children but does other peoples. This stereotype that misfits are criminals or abuse young children almost certainly led to the disgraceful and wrongful conviction of Stefan Kiszko in 1976, of Leslie Molseed. The actual killer was a married man with children who was a comic book dealer. This belief also created the suspicion that Colin Stagg murdered Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in 1992, which persisted for many years, until Robert Napper was finally convicted of her murder.

Though it is rarer, a paedophile can be a woman as well.

It is too late to prosecute Savile now, of course, dead people can't be tried or can't speak, so in the legal world you can never say he did this, and to be fair, some opportunists will have come out, hoping to make some money or for a quick payout, but for me, too many have said it and they have come from too far and wide across the UK for ALL of this to be lies. What convinced me of Savile's guilt what his defence of Gary Glitter after the conviction. Who on earth defends Gary Glitter nowadays?

To stop distress which might occur to other people who have family or friends who are buried in the same cemetery as Savile, I think it would be for the best if he was dug up, cremated and his ashes scattered down a toilet somewhere. I believe though that it is never too late for someone to face the consequences of their crimes. If anybody was involved in what he did, then they should be prosecuted, no matter how rich, no matter how famous, no matter how powerful or no matter how long ago it was. That also applies to anybody who covered up for him or turned a blind eye and knew what he was doing ..... be it 10 years ago or 40 years ago.