Jimmy Savile

Yes JessM

It is a relief to be able to be free of a feeling of being "held" by a phantom from the past!

I feel free on here to release my fears of the past.
Thank you!

We can but hope that now that society is so much more open about sex, both men and women, boys and girls, will feel able to tell someone if they are molested. Possibly not a parent, but a teacher or family friend.
I don't think most young people had the vocabulary to explain what had happened to them in the past.

I hope it helped just a little to lay that ghost gramps - a very honest posting.

I have a wonderful companion /wife, married now for fifty seven years.
Thank you Greatnan for your response!

I think men and boys who are abused, whether by other men or women, suffer greatly, partly because they are embarrassed to tell anyone, and partly because they feel they should have been able to protect themselves. How good it was that you were able to confide in someone at last, Gramps.

As a man, I think we men all have it within us to be "abusers",

It is our upbringing, moral values, sense of right and wrong, natural inhibitions and outside influences that stop us from becoming these monsters who are around us.

I had a personal encounter with one of these characters at the age of fourteen, just started my first job and very naieve about life in the wide world!
That experience haunted me for many years afterward.

I was unable to speak of it to anyone for many years until one day while watching a programme on the subject of abuse, i was able to tell my wife.

Incidently my abuser was an Australian working over here, he was also a Catholic. and gave me a "holy candle" afterwards, saying I should not tell anybody about him. As I say, it greatly affected my life for a long time!

It is only my anonymity on here that I'm able to write this!

There are also women abusers, to whom, presumably, my comments would also apply.

Some men appear to view lesbians as a challenge!
One lesbian friend of mine was often told that all she needed was 'the man for the job'. (Meaning the speaker, of course).

They can hardly claim that Sandi Toksvig was a compliant partner.

Apparently Freddie Starr tried to get one, but it was refused....

I will be sorry if it turns out that John Peel was part of it.
Footballers are notorious for attracting young girls, but I think the girls are complicit - the WAG life seems to be the highest aim of some girls.

Is this the start of a flood BBC women? I think there may be a few ageing DJs etc who are wondering if they need to be preparing one of those catch-all injunctions

Sandi Toksvig has said that she was groped while on air at BBC Radio.

ps merlotgran yes I do believe the allegations because I always wondered about him...bit weird...

Just wish this had been revealed before he died then he could suffer the consequences...

There have been some very good points made here, and I would agree with those that say that we should perhaps consider a new thread.

This one started with the title "Jimmy Savile" . We have wandered, digressed and moved away from that, but in the main the wanderings etc have been points well made.

To be utterly honest, a day or so ago I was tempted to start TWO new threads, one entitled " I was abused in the past and don't want to talk about it." and the other "I was abused in the past and would like to talk about it"

I think that, as we are all of "an age" so to speak, although I do fully appreciate that our ages probably span at least 4 decades, then it is highly likely that we have all been on the receiving end of some sort of wrong doing, discrimination, patronised or "abused" in various ways, mentally physically etc. And this could include things that were, in their time, considered "acceptable", the pinched bottom from the boss, the husband constantly undermining one and assuming that the mere fact that they are male somehow makes them superior.

Sorry for the soapbox, and I hope I have not upset or offended anyone.

I just feel incredibly angry that none of this came into the public domain until after he died, so he effectively got away with it.
I fully understand why it didn't: It was made clear to all the girls who were brave enough to try to report the abuse that taking it any further would be very high profile. How many youngsters would chose the media circus in those circumstances? And would they ever have been believed back then??
Like many others on GN, I experienced my fair share of "dirty old men". Some incidents were relatively minor, but others were very traumatising. Some were narrow escapes that could have ended very badly if I'd not had my wits about me. As others have said, on the whole we brushed it off because we knew no better, and got on with life.
But why the hell did we have to, and why the hell do girls (and boys) go on having to experience such gross, vile disgusting experiences?
I know most men are decent and loving human beings - I'm not condemning them all, but it is scary how many sexually deviant predators seem to be out there. What is wrong with mankind??
I guess my anger is for myself and everyone else who has been their victim.

And, glitabo, much admired, liked and respected by all sorts of people. So what?

I was merely suggesting that he might have found comfort and support (albeit perverse if he was genuinely a chid molester) in the words of a Catholic newspaper, given that he was a Catholic. No more, no less.

He was also very highly praised by the Prince of Wales who will one day be the head of the Church of England.

I'm not sure that his Catholicism was irrelevant if he was a chid abuser. A while ago, The Catholic Herald published an article about what a fine man, seeking nothing in the way of praise and keeping his religion secret, Jimmy Savile was. Obviously, the article was talking about his fund-raising which was, indeed, charitable and praiseworthy, but an accolade from a Catholic newspaper may have given him an opportunity to bask in approval and mentally sideline other, more questionable activities.

I did write a long comment trying to explain my views on catholicism but I deleted it as I do not think this is the right thread. However I have expressed very strong anti catholic views on another thread.
To get back to the OP, I think that JS was a sick, repugnant, abusive b******d and the fact that he was catholic is irrelevant.

I'll start a new thread! I'm not RC but my early life was at a Convent.

Why would you need to be brave? Everyone is entitled to believe what they like. I think there are many practising catholics who do not agree with everything the church teaches and would like it to be more liberal in its thinking.
I don't think I would be posting on such a thread as I have made my views clear many times.

I've known many lapsed Catholics over the years and it does seem to trouble them; almost a fear of disobeying. I must admit to loving the pomp and ceremony of such religions, and the beauty of their churches but fail to understand the ideology behind their beliefs [correct me if I'm wrong about these things and their attitiude has changed towards them] such as being against birth control and expecting women to just churn out babies throughout the whole of their child bearing years; being against the use of condoms in places like Africa where Aids is so prevalent; not acknowledging that it is quite normal for a man [or woman] to be gay, and, yes making their priests take vows of celibacy.

Indeed it is Phoenix. I don't agree with you, but perhaps you could start a new thread and anyone on this forum who is brave enough to admit to being a practising Catholic could debate the issue with you.

I think I may be about to post something controversial, but I believe that in the main, the Catholic religion is one founded on fear.

I have many friends who are RC, and this is something that they have said.

However, yet again, there is a drift away from the subject of the O.P.