It is a disgusting state of affairs ,when rape or molestation victims are ridiculed and discouraged from registering a complaint ,whilst for some unknown reason,it would appear that the perpetrators are given the full protection of the law.

• Official report finds police and CPS treated Savile prosecutions ‘with a degree of caution which was neither justified nor required’
• Alison Levitt QC says victims were dissuaded from taking cases to court while the DJ was alive
  
• Victim told by Sussex police in 2008 she would be ‘publicly branded a liar and that her name would be all over the newspapers’ but media laws would have ensured she stayed anonymous
  
• Savile told police accusations were ‘invented’ and an ‘occupational hazard’ conjured up because he was famous
  
• New guidelines to be drawn up by CPS on prosecuting child sex cases
• 
• Missed: Jimmy Savile could have been prosecuted in 2009 but police and prosecutors were too cautious, a report has found

A chance to convict Jimmy Savile for sex offences when he was alive was missed because police and prosecutors did not take victims seriously enough, an official report said today.

Details of a review of the decision not to prosecute Savile in 2009 by Alison Levitt QC, legal adviser to the director of public prosecutions, were disclosed today.

Her report was released in tandem with an official police probe into the DJ’s 60 years of abuse that revealed that he raped 34 women and girls and sexually assaulted up to 450, including children as young as eight.

Since the paedophile DJ died in October 2011 aged 84, a staggering 214 official crimes have been recorded by 28 police forces.

In her review Ms Levitt found one alleged victim was told by Sussex police officers that Savile’s lawyers would make ‘mincemeat’ of her in a ‘big London court’ if she pursued her sex assault claim.

In 1970, the Savile fan club member had been groped and forced to touch the DJ’s genitals after he invited her into his camper van after she went to watch Top Of The Pops at BBC Television Centre.

After going to the police in 2008, the woman, known as Ms A, was told by investigating officers that ‘she would be publicly branded a liar and that her name would be all over the newspapers, particularly if she lost the case’, the report says.

Deputy Chief Constable Giles York from Sussex Police said today: ‘We recognise that we could have done better and are committed to honest reflection and learning lessons for the future.’

A statement from Sussex Police went on: ‘We understand the conclusion the DPP has drawn, that our officers may have inadvertently dissuaded the victim from supporting any prosecution. It can be difficult in such circumstances to achieve the balance between supporting and reassuring a victim, whilst providing honest advice about the prosecution process and standard of evidence needed.’

This ‘dissuaded her from pursuing her allegation’, she concluded.

Three offences were also being investigated in 2008 by Surrey Police but they were not continued either.

Ms Levitt said that there was nothing to suggest the victims had colluded in their stories, or that they were unreliable, yet police and prosecutors treated their claims ‘with a degree of caution which was neither justified nor required’, she said.

Attack: One victim was told by police that if she pursued her claim Savile’s lawyers                                                                       would make ‘mincemeat’ of her in court

Surrey Police received an allegation in May 2007 that Savile had sexually assaulted a teenage girl at Duncroft Children’s Home in the late 1970s.

In the investigation that followed, two more allegations emerged – the first that in about 1973 Jimmy Savile had sexually assaulted a girl aged about 14 outside Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

The second was that in the 1970s Jimmy Savile had suggested to a girl aged about 17, again at Duncroft, that she perform oral sex on him.

Pledge: Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said today the way sexual abuse is investigated will be changed

In March 2008, Sussex Police received a complaint that Savile had sexually assaulted a woman in her early twenties in a caravan in Sussex in about 1970.

Surrey Police consulted with the CPS about all four allegations, and in October 2009 it was decided that no prosecution could be brought because the alleged victims would not support police action.

Ms Levitt found that Surrey Police did not tell each alleged victim that other complaints had been made, Sussex told the complainant that corroboration was needed and the prosecutor did not question why victims would not support court action or seek to build a case.

The victims told Ms Levitt that if they had known that other people were making complaints, they probably would have been prepared to give evidence in court.

Meanwhile her review showed how Savile had simply said that the accusations were just ‘invented’ and an ‘occupational hazard’ for anyone famous like him.

He also said he had a ‘policy’ to sue anyone who printed these accusations, having taken legal action against five papers previously.

‘If this does not disappear then my policy will swing into action’, he told Surrey officers, the report says.

Surrey Police assistant chief constable Jerry Kirkby said: ‘It is important the actions taken by the investigation team are viewed in context. This should take into account what information was known about Jimmy Savile in 2007 and the necessary consideration given by police to the impact of their actions on securing successful court action against him.

‘At the time, there was nothing to suggest the level of offending now being reported on a national scale. In July 2007, Surrey Police used national systems to conduct intelligence checks with every other police force in England and Wales. These checks found no record of any police intelligence or prior allegations relating to Jimmy Savile.’

DPP Keir Starmer said he wanted the case to be ‘a watershed moment’.

‘In my view, these cases do not simply reflect errors of judgment by individual officers or prosecutors on the facts before them,’ he said.

‘If that were the case, they would, in many respects, be easier to deal with. These were errors of judgment by experienced and committed police officers and a prosecuting lawyer acting in good faith and attempting to apply the correct principles. That makes the findings of Ms Levitt’s report more profound and calls for a more robust response.’

‘Hazard’: Savile, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in                                                                                                 his camper van, had told police that the allegations aimed at him was                                                                                         just because he was famous and were malicious

He drew parallels with a damning report on the investigation of a grooming gang in Rochdale.

Mr Starmer said police and prosecutors have approached sex offence allegations ‘with a degree of caution which is not generally justified’.

He said guidance will be drawn up on prosecuting child sexual exploitation cases to underline that ‘the credibility of the complainant’s account has to be seen in its proper context’.

An agreement has been drawn up with the Association of Chief Police Officers that:

• The approach of police and prosecutors to credibility in sexual assault cases must change, with testing the suspect’s account and actively building cases being treated as importantly as testing the alleged victim’s story.
• More support should be given to those who make allegations, and the number of times vulnerable victims can be cross-examined in court will be reconsidered.
• Victims who have made allegations in the past that they feel have not been properly dealt with will have the chance to ask for their cases to be looked at again by joint police and CPS panels.
  

Mr Starmer also said that information on cases where a complaint has been made but a prosecution cannot be brought will be shared more fully with police and other relevant agencies.

source: Martin Robinson / Mail Online