I Spent Time with Jimmy Savile Before His Crimes Were Exposed

The Unfortunate Encounters

I had the misfortune of spending time with Jimmy Savile in the late Noughties, before his vile crimes were exposed. At that point, he was a has-been desperate for attention, and I was a local newspaper reporter who he thought could help maintain his profile. Little did I know the extent of his evil.

A Bizarre Meeting in Leeds

The last time I saw Savile was in a hotel bar in his home city of Leeds. In a bizarre act that demonstrated how sad he had become, he had gatecrashed a colleague's leaving do and sat down next to me. I took the opportunity to ask him about his 2000 interview with Louis Theroux, wondering if he felt exposed. His response was a typical display of arrogance and deflection.

Reporting on a National Laughing Stock

Although Savile was becoming a national laughing stock, he was still seen as a local hero. As a young reporter, I had to cover his stories for the Leeds-based Yorkshire Evening Post. One memorable encounter was when he presented a cheque to a local charity. Instead of shaking the woman's hand, he forcibly kissed the back of it, an uncomfortable and revolting experience to witness.

A Culture of Willful Ignorance

Instead of intervening or reporting what I saw, I, like the rest of Britain's showbiz and media, turned a blind eye to his actions. It was chilling to later learn that a kiss on the back of a woman's hand was a prelude to even more heinous acts of sexual assault. My working relationship with Savile was not unique; all journalists at the paper had to deal with him and his self-glorifying narcissism.

A Silent Army of Witnesses

In Leeds, there was a silent army of people who knew Savile was a monster. However, no one acted on it because they knew no one would listen. The exposure of his crimes shed light on the countless rumors and stories that had floated around for decades. The new drama attempts to unravel how someone so notorious and brazen could deceive an entire nation, but for those of us who had to witness his lechery first-hand, the deception feels all too real.