Blimey, it's hard work finding out ANYTHING about the Claire McAlpine case. Thanks to Bandini and Misa, I've found a very interesting FACT, and that is, that for some reason or another, the press were revisiting the case in NOVEMBER 2011.
What ? Could it be that the Mail had got wind of Meirion Jones's little scheme around the time that MWT got involved ?
Now, I could be wrong here, but have a look at these photos. More specifically, have a look at the date they were 'uploaded' onto the Daily Mail pictures site
Here's another
WHY the sudden interest with dancers who appeared on Top of the Pops ? Here's a link to the page courtesy of Bandini, see for yourself
http://mailpictures.newsprints.co.uk/search/bykw/p/u/0/1/top%20of%20the%20pops
Another photo agency, Rex features, features photos of other girl dancers who appeared with Samantha/Claire/McAlpine. I do not know WHEN this was uploaded but I'm assuming it's around the same time ?
You can see that these photos come from the rehearsal or 'warm up' stage of the show
Tony Blackburn presented Top of the Pops that week
Now, I had set out to tell you more about these girl dancers. After all, the press appear to have an interest in them, even supplying their names etc.
How on earth do they know this ? Better still, why is Jimmy Savile in a photo said to have been taken on 4th February 1971, when he wasn't even there that day ? The next photo caption will explain a few things. It's Claire and it's tagged 8th April 1971. Now at first I thought, stupid buggers, the poor lass died on 29th March 1971, then I concluded that the date refers to the DATE OF HER INQUEST in other words, the date it may have been used in a newspaper report at the time !
All very interesting isn't ? But, I'm going to leave the photos for now because guys and gals I have, just this morning found a corker of an article about the case. Goodness gracious, this is actually advertised online but I'm not telling you where, sorry ! It's obviously published in April/May 1971 and it's obviously from an American magazine or newspaper. God Bless America !
"She would have done the same thing if there had been no Top of the Pops" Goodness Gracious something that would now be called 'victim blaming' !
The next few paragraphs are .. well, make your own mind up. Certainly explains a few things !
Finally it pays off
The writer is Robert Greenfield a music journalist and writer. Google his name, he's no hack guys and gals, this guy knows the business.
So, howz about that then ?
Next Time, Payola the real 'scandal' that was NOTHING to do with Top of the Pops but is certainly an interesting tale that resonates with recent events very very well, as it happens !
Let's refresh ourselves on how the McAlpine story was depicted by the yewtree press on 13th October 2012
'Jimmy was named ... interviewed as a witness' Then he says "I don't know what was in the diaries" This was the standard of reporting we had to endure in the days following the expose. Oh, and the above is an extract from the Davies book footnote 17 (see below).
Davies relies much on screws reports from the time (again see footnotes) BUT cannot, for SOME reason, see what I'm seeing - the FACT that Claire/Samantha's mother SPOKE to the screws about the diary. Surely she MUST have told then the names of the TWO men involved ? They'd been on the payola case for months, surely someone would have mentioned him had he been involved ?
The following extract is interesting I'd really like to see these NOTW (screws) articles
Here's the footnote info
Is Donna Scruff still around ? Why haven't the yewtree press asked her who the DJ is/was ? After the Rosko show ? Could this be the claim covered in Mr Neil's report ?
http://rabbitaway.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/brian-neils-report-then-and-now.html
We're been asked to believe that Savile is one of the two men named in the CM diary. But it doesn't make sense does it ? WHY oh WHY, if this were the case would he be allowed to blow off as much as he did, giving interviews about girls on Top of the Pops ? As Judge Judy always says, "If it doesn't make sense, it isn't true"
Here's something else that doesn't make sense either ! It's another Davies extract
Now, I don't know about you, but I've yet to come across any reference to a 'management board meeting' Let me know if you do. Maybe someone at the Times could explain this ?
The Coroner believed CM's allegations to be 'fantasy' too, did they not ?
To end, in reference to that 1971 photo/s. Here's some more photo's from October that year, plus a few other tidbits.
If it doesn't make sense, it ain't true !
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 !
