Our home town of Scarborough was home to two notorious paedophiles (Jimmy Savile and Peter Jaconelli), who were never held accountable for their crimes during their lifetimes. The case of Savile is well-known, not only locally but also nationally and even internationally. He was a TV personality with a huge national media presence, and the posthumous revelations about his true nature have been very graphic and very public. Jaconelli, by contrast, was not a name recognised by many outside his own town. But here he was a big fish – a former town mayor, and owner of prestigious seafront businesses which bore his name.
Savile and Jaconelli had quite a lot in common. Each was officially honoured by the town as either a “Freeman” or an “Alderman” of the Borough, and those honours came about because each of them had “friends in high places”. They made quite a show of work they did for charity, and cultivated an image of public-spirited benevolence – albeit wrapped up, in the case of both men, with a significant amount of eccentric flamboyance.
After his death, when the stories and accusations started at first to trickle and then to pour out, it became very clear that many of Savile’s victims had brought their accusations to the attention of the police and other authorities whilst he was still alive. I find it difficult to believe that accusations about Jaconelli didn’t reach the ears of those in the police and local government here. Certainly when I was growing up the rumours about him were rife, and children don’t tend to talk about adults in that way unless there is some basis for it. But these concerns about both men seem to have been brushed away because of who they were.
Claims made about inappropriate behaviour were shrugged off as misunderstandings, complicated by the eccentric nature of the men themselves. People with the power to act must have suspected that there was truth in the rumours, but failed to do anything about it. The climate of the time was such that these issues were not taken seriously enough. Memos now made public by both the BBC and the NHS make it clear that senior staff felt that Savile wasn’t to be trusted and that young women and children shouldn’t be left alone in his care. Yet still he was allowed to continue in his very public roles – seemingly enjoying the trust of the establishment.
The case of these two scumbags is a stain on our town. No amount of cynical charity work or influential friends should put people above the law, and that these men carried out such revolting crimes without ever being brought to justice is sickening. When Savile died, he was buried in Scarborough with an ornate granite and steel headstone – engraved with lavish words of praise. Only nineteen days later, the headstone had been removed by the family and destroyed after the truth about him came out in a TV documentary. The fact that his vile and manipulative nature is now public knowledge must be little comfort to those who were ignored and let down by the authorities whilst he was still alive.