The Irish government has been urged to investigate paedophile Jimmy Savile’s close associations with a children’s charity in Ireland by the man representing 176 of his victims in Britain.
Solicitor Richard Scorer has told Irish media outlets that an investigation needs to look at Savile’s activities in Ireland.
Scorer has called on the Irish authorities to ‘dig deeper’ into the late Savile’s close associations with the Central Remedial Clinic in Clontarf.
Savile was a regular visitor to the Dublin clinic and spearheaded many fund raising events for the facility.
Ireland’s Health and Children’s ministers have planned to look at the many visits he made here in the 1970s.
The Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) has previously said it was unaware of any allegations against him.
In a statement, the CRC said: “We are appalled by the contents of the reports into Jimmy Savile’s acts in Britain.
“To the best of our knowledge at no time, has the CRC ever been made aware of any allegations or any incidents involving inappropriate or criminal behaviour concerning Jimmy Savile, neither during, nor after, his involvement with the CRC.”
The CRC has urged anyone with any suspicions of allegations against Savile during his visits to Ireland to contact police or the CRC.
The call for action comes after the publication of a UK report which outlines Savile’s sex attacks at 28 British hospitals on victims ranging in age from five to 75.
British lawyer Scorer, who represents many of Savile’s victims, has said that he would be surprised if some of the victims did not have Irish connections.
Meanwhile, Irish journalist Nicola Anderson has recalled an interview with Savile at the CRC in Clontarf on his last visit to Ireland in 2001.
During the interview Savile boasted of the number of girlfriends he had.
Anderson wrote in the Irish Independent: “In September 2001, I wrote that clad in a gob-smacking suit emblazoned with Superman cartoons, Jimmy Savile had “glided in the door of the clinic in Clontarf like true royalty.
“Some 13 years on, the man’s false sense of entitlement around the Central Remedial Clinic is what remains strongest in my mind.
“Clearly, he considered it to be ‘his’ clinic and the staff to be ‘his’ staff.
“That is my chief memory of our encounter, along with Savile’s peculiar demeanour during our interview: his odd rambling speeches and the almost pathetic clinging to what he clearly saw as his glory days - but which has far, far more sinister connotations today.
“‘You wouldn’t guess how many girlfriends I’ve had’, he told me in an outburst in the middle of that interview in which we had been discussing another topic entirely.
“They were ‘countless’, he claimed. In my ignorance, I smiled politely, thinking that the man must be delusional. He was. They were not ‘girlfriends’ but victims.”
Anderson toured the facility with Savile. She added: “He would reach out to children along our tour of the CRC and try to engage with them but they appeared to be naturally wary of him.
“Shambling along in a tour of the facility, it was the unwitting board members who seemed to be bursting with pride over their association with Savile.
“The CRC users, and even staff, seemed to keep their distance from him. It may have been awe but quite possibly it was radar.
“The man exuded an undeniable and irrepressible creepiness and it now seems incredible that the authorities in institutions and hospitals everywhere did not pick up on that.
“Given all we now know, he was almost a cartoon depiction of a classic paedophile who might hang around a playground looking for kicks. The only thing missing from the cliché was the raincoat. But he more than made up for that in the ‘Superman’ suit.”
Anderson concluded: “When the sickening details emerged very shortly after his death about Savile’s activities, with over 100 victims coming forward, the CRC stated that Savile had never been left alone with children or patients at the clinic.
“If he had been, there could be little doubt that this highly dangerous sexual predator would have swooped.”
Comments