In October 2012 the McAlpine's tragedy was given the Yewtree treatment. Out of nowhere, Jimmy Savile became the prime suspect for the role of a DJ in Claire's diary.
This is how Brian Neil described the sad affair in his 1972 Report.
We are not told WHO the DJ is or 'from' where he's alleged to have taken 'any girl home from' !
So, now we KNOW a complaint was made by Mrs McAlpine and Bill Cotton spoke to the man in question. We don't KNOW who he is, BUT the newspapers report him as having an 'agent'. Thanks to Moor's excellent find and subsequent evidence produced in the comments, we can safely deduce that whoever this man was, he was NOT Jimmy Savile.
Indeed, one could suppose that this person was NOT even employed by the BBC at the time. That's IF this 'BBC spokesman' actually said this that is !
http://jimcannotfixthis.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-mcalpine-verdict-innocent.html
Just another minor, insignificant, detail that is deliberately missing from any reportage now. Here's how Davies (the man who, according to himself, knew Savile better than anyone), spun it in his book
I could not locate the article indicated in the footnote (18) from the Telegraph 16/10/2012. Perhaps it has been removed for some legal reason, who knows ? Hard to know if this 'source' was there when Savile is alleged to have 'sent Crocker up'. My guess, is he wasn't, a perfect subject for another FOI request methinks.
Davies continues in his anti-BBC pitch in reference to Neil's report and how the issue was treated by bosses at the time.
I haven't been able to trace the Telegraph article dated 5th June 2013 either. The Mail provides a link that leads nowhere.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2336673/BBC-warned-40-years-ago-young-girls-Top-Pops-audience-risk.html
Davies and his ilk are all for attacking the BBC. They forget that the allegations made back then were investigated by the Police. Yes, the report is 'heavily redacted' but the author explains the need for sensitivity not that such a thought would occur to the Meirion Jones's of this world. The BBC were duty bound to protect not only young audience's on it's premises. It had to protect it's own employees from scurrilous accusations that could wreck not only the individual concerned but his employer's good name too.
It is interesting that Savile was NOT removed from his job as main presenter of Top of the Pops. Indeed, by 1975 he was presenting Jim'll Fix it a show that mostly involved children. Would that be even possible, had HE been named in that diary? I think not.
Here's an extract from the Mirror the day before Claire McAlpine's inquest. The Police obviously reached the same conclusion as Neil a year later !
'Police have decided NOT to call named in the diary ... '
Oh, and a trivial matter really but I just can't resist adding this gem of incompetence post October 2012. An image from the Mail article above dated 6th June 2013
Amazingly, all these people bar one, appear to be in the exact same place in the exact same clothes, six years after this !
I need a rest now, but I'll be back with more screws of the world circa 1970 - 1974. Try not to get all strung up now guys and gals
The first I heard about about an official BBC investigation involving Top of the Pops in 1971, was a few years ago. This is all I found about it's contents back then.
Just last night I realised that it's actually been available since June 2013 according to this newspaper report. How did I miss this ?
I found the above only after I had stumbled across the report myself, or rather, a FOI request dated September 2014
Strange that someone would request a copy of a report that was available 14 months before. It's been split into two parts 33 pages each and while it's heavily censored, it's a great read
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/230406/response/565513/attach/5/Disclosure%20Documents%20A1.pdf
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/230406/response/565513/attach/6/Disclosure%20Documents%20A2.pdf
It seems that the News of the world failed to supply the transcripts of the recordings made by the two hacks involved in the attempted sting. They formed part of a Police investigation that would end in a seven year jail sentence for a woman NOT an employee of the BBC.
The Beginning
'Massive investigation' young girls 'in grave moral danger' Read on
The three NOTW hacks are named as, Clive Cooke (called himself Arnold Carter) Trevor Kempson (Ken Travers) and Frank Freeman who bailed around July August 1970 because of ulcers apparently. It seemed they had help from a disgruntled ex-BBC employee
'It is clear that some at least of the producers and disc jockeys were plied with drink'
And, they had 'received information 'other sources' including a record plugger and friend of Dorothy Squires'
Along with
I was fairly taken aback when I saw the name Dorothy Squires. I had never heard of Mike Briton (I still don't know who he is) and as for Harry Goodwin ... keep going
Poor old Dorothy (Dot) her name keeps cropping up for some reason. She is later charged and acquited but we'll come back to this later.
Section 19
Note it's Tim Knight's parties he refers to at this point, not Janie Jones's shindigs. I have no idea who this knight chap is.
Next - Top of the Pops and that 'grave moral danger' I'm into the second part of the disclosure document now. The more interesting bit because it covers TOTP and Claire McAlpine
Neil questioned Goodwin and it's clear he was not impressed. The screws wanted him sacked, he wasn't although he only remained until 1973.
He ends where I started, with recommendations for tightened security (see above 20.11)
I'll cover the Claire McAlpine section of Mr Neil's report next time when I'll be comparing what was (or should have been) known in 1972, with more recent versions of the story. Claims that NO ONE appears to have heard of until October 2012. Imagine that ? the most venomous Sunday newspaper ever, investigates the BBC for months and fails to expose Jimmy Savile.
Because, obviously no one had shown them this PRESS photograph of Jimmy onstage with Claire McAlpine .
Oh, and I haven't forgotten about Dan Davies's account of the story. Next time !
Straight to the point, having read Moor Larkin's latest, I thought I'd do a bit of burrowing into events back in 1971. Claire McAlpine aka Clare Ufland was a 15 year old girl who committed suicide on Monday 29th March 1971. Now, before I go any further, I need to explain that just FOUR DAYS before Claire's death, this news was published
The POLICE investigation would last more than THREE YEARS following allegations first made in the NEWS OF THE WORLD in February 1971 (St Valentine's Day apparently). Could Claire's mother have been the source of the story ? Was Claire involved in Payola ? or was she merely a casualty of her own vivid imagination and over protective mother ?
Just 9 days after her death, the findings of an inquest were published
The DCS in charge of the Payola scandal, attended the hearing, presumably to investigate any link between the two
'He will study the diary in full' Later on in the article we learn that her mother had re-married, hence the surname change from Ufland to McAlpine (I'll come back to the relevence of this fact later).
OK, so now we KNOW that the Police took the matter seriously. So what happened next ? Bear in mind the Payola stuff had been going on for a few weeks.
Well, the BBC took action straight away
That says 'many of the girls were only 15' by the way. It goes on
Enlightening isn't it ? And there's more as Jimmy Savile has his say the day before (7th April 1971). You have to hand it to the man, he's either the most innocent of all, or he really is hiding in plain sight ! Only Jimmy would have come out with something like this, at a time like that !
Here we go
Jimmy obviously has NOTHING to do with the suicide of Claire McAlpine. The Police and the media must have believed this at the time but, come October 2012 and a very different story is being told. Claire's poor mother is not yet cold in her grave when this beauty comes along courtesy of ITV
Savile was 'questioned' by the Police ? Not as far as I've been able to ascertain he wasn't ? And it's not just ITV that's twisting the original story, they're all at it ! Here's the telegraph just days after the expose
So far so good, til the half-brother who I've yet to find in the contemperaneous accounts, says
Named in the diary ? How much were you paid for these interviews Mark ?
That's all for now folks ! Stay tuned for part two when I compare yesterday's truth with today's lies. YOU, couldn't make it up but they have
