I live in a small village - it's rife with gossip and rumour about all sorts of things. I would imagine the BBC was and still is rife with rumours - how would you 'follow up'? 

It's not like you go to the boss and say 'I think so and so has done this' - the first thing they'd say is 'what evidence do you have?'

What do you say then? 'Well I've heard people talking'.

It sounds easy to say - I'd follow it up - but in reality - how do you do that?

Being a bit of a gobshite on certain matters...I guess I would shout it out loud if I weren't listened to quietly.....at least it would make folk aware!

It is hard to know for sure unless in that predicament.....but I know I wouldn't sit back and do nothing!

I'd never have a decent nights sleep again if I did.

... but supposing it wasn't true and it was only just rumour?    Can I point you back to the teacher who killed himself over what was only rumour and false accusation.   I bet the girl has trouble sleeping now...

I appreciate the way you feel, and if it was a child I knew who told me something had happened there'd be no stopping me  - but based on rumour alone.. I'm not so sure I'd shout my mouth off.

See...I would go straight to the horses mouth...then go from there!

In the past if I ever heard a disturbing rumour/bit of gossip I would go back to origin...then go straight to those involved (together) & get it dealt with!

Gossip & innuendo can be extremely damaging...best to stifle it quick smart!

I don't do gossip! 

Do you honestly think no one ever confronted JS with it? I've seen a number of interviews where the interviewer has confronted him with the rumours. He simply babbled on and yodeled and that was that. So .......................what do you do?

Yeah, they showed that clip with Loius Theroux the other day. Savile was on full-on defence mode and then he did the yodelling shtick. 

I'd keep on babbling & yodeling louder!

Where were their parents...did none of them tell their parents!

Would you sit on news like that if your daughter came home & said some dirty old man had groped you!

I know my Father would certainly not keep quiet...nor would I if it were my daughter!

I'd create such a stink...the whole world would know!!

That's  the problem, people did go to him but had no proof, he denied it, he got a court injunction out on the Sun newspaper in 2007 (I think). I just think he was too well protected by others and the likes of lowly women making complaints against the wonderful JS   would have been ignored and more so ruined their careers and not his. 

That's  the problem, people did go to him but had no proof, he denied it, he got a court injunction out on the Sun newspaper in 2007 (I think). I just think he was too well protected by others and the likes of lowly women making complaints against the wonderful JS   would have been ignored and more so ruined their careers and not his. 

I'd keep on babbling & yodeling louder!

Where were their parents...did none of them tell their parents!

Would you sit on news like that if your daughter came home & said some dirty old man had groped you!

I know my Father would certainly not keep quiet...nor would I if it were my daughter!

I'd create such a stink...the whole world would know!!

That's  the problem, people did go to him but had no proof, he denied it, he got a court injunction out on the Sun newspaper in 2007 (I think). I just think he was too well protected by others and the likes of lowly women making complaints against the wonderful JS   would have been ignored and more so ruined their careers and not his. 

a good percentage of these children were from troubled homes, care homes... fostered, he certainly knew how to choose the vulnerable. 

Those that would not be believed, those that might have thought this was normal behaviour...I'm not saying that these girls were molested before, but certainly some could have been.

The girl who did complain at the care home and was locked in a room for three days, because of her behaviour and I'm willing to bet, there were others. 

Of course not, but that's a totally different situation to 'outing' someone based on rumours.     Having said that - the girls he picked on didn't normally have a loving family to go home to and confide in.

What you say you will do if you were sexually assaulted and what you actually do are two different things.With a supportive family and the truth on your side it is still a very difficult emotional journey for all,up during and long after the trial .

Totally! 

There's that word again!

Would you not go to the source of the rumour ?

Would you not follow it till it is exhausted ?

Anyways...I know we are both agreed on what we would both have done to anyone caught misbehaving with a minor or indeed an adult 

Am away for the night!

Good debating with you. 

What a wonderful world we live in.....

It takes a wise man to act the fool.

so very true Erin 

Freddie Starr was last night forced to admit  being ‘mistaken’ after footage from 1974 showed him alongside the teenage girl  who now claims he abused her.

Starr had strenuously denied ever meeting  Karin Ward - who claims he tried to molest her in Sir Jimmy Savile’s BBC  dressing room.

The comic had also insisted he only met  Savile twice in his life, and had never even been to the BBC.

Together: Karin Ward in yellow, sitting behind Freddie  Starr when he appeared on the BBC TV show hosted by Sir Jimmy Savile, 'Clunk  Click', in 1974

But last night he was proved wrong on all  three counts after watching 1974 footage unearthed by Channel 4 News.

It showed Starr appearing on one of Savile’s  BBC shows, Clunk Click - the very episode Ms Ward says was being filmed the day  she was abused.

Standing next to him was a 14-year-old Miss  Ward, in a yellow blouse and long brown hair.

Last night Starr’s lawyers issued a statement  admitting the mistake - but still strenuously denying the ‘awful allegation’ of  abuse.

Read more: Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

yep - it always comes back to the 'rumour' word - as I say, it would need to be more than rumour for me to confront someone.   I'd not want an innocent person topping themselves because I asked them if it was true what everyone was saying about them.   Imagine if someone came to you and asked you if it was true that you were abusing little boys?    How do you deal with that IF you're innocent?    I don't believe JS WAS innocent though.     I only hope I never find myself in the situation where I need to decide whether to do something or not.   Night, slim - good debating with you too.

Freddie Starr was last night forced to admit  being ‘mistaken’ after footage from 1974 showed him alongside the teenage girl  who now claims he abused her.

Starr had strenuously denied ever meeting  Karin Ward - who claims he tried to molest her in Sir Jimmy Savile’s BBC  dressing room.

The comic had also insisted he only met  Savile twice in his life, and had never even been to the BBC.

 

Together: Karin Ward in yellow, sitting behind Freddie  Starr when he appeared on the BBC TV show hosted by Sir Jimmy Savile, 'Clunk  Click', in 1974

But last night he was proved wrong on all  three counts after watching 1974 footage unearthed by Channel 4 News.

It showed Starr appearing on one of Savile’s  BBC shows, Clunk Click - the very episode Ms Ward says was being filmed the day  she was abused.

Standing next to him was a 14-year-old Miss  Ward, in a yellow blouse and long brown hair.

Last night Starr’s lawyers issued a statement  admitting the mistake - but still strenuously denying the ‘awful allegation’ of  abuse.

Read more: Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Stupid Prick!

*adds lying* 

allows edit 

"adds sh*tting in his pants"

Lying git! The net is closing in on him..I hope Freddie is quaking in his boots..Doubt he's the only one though..

Slim please don't take this the wrong way but were you around in the workplace in the 70's and 80's.?

It really was a very different world back then to what it is now... nowadays people just have to shout out loud with any old rumour and a person in deemed guilty straight away. . back then it was the polar opposite. .the old boy's network was everywhere. .including in the press where things would be suppressed and a suit for slander or libel would hit you as fast as a torpedo..

to be honest neither of those times are good. .we need to find a middle ground and go back to the innocent til proven guilty in a court of law stage with no intimidation of victims, no leaking of 'evidence'  and no trials by newspapers either..

As for JS, to use my fav Judge Judy word, the preponderance of evidence is stacking really high against him..

The committee which looks at rescinding honours may want to consider Sir Jimmy Savile's knighthood following sexual abuse allegations against him, the Prime Minister has told Sky News.

When asked about the growing number of accusations against the late TV and radio presenter, who was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 1990, David Cameron said: "I think every institution has to ask themselves all the right questions.

"The BBC clearly has important questions to ask. We have in Britain something called the forfeiture committee - I don't sit on it, or chair it, or direct it - but it's the committee that looks at whether honours should be rescinded and I'm sure that they will obviously want to do their jobs as others have to do theirs."

The Jim'll Fix It Star, who died aged 84 a year ago, also received an OBE in 1971 for services to charity and broadcasting.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the BBC Trust has said allegations of sexual abuse by Sir Jimmy over a number of years while he worked for the broadcaster cannot be excused as behaviour from a time when "attitudes were different".

Lord Patten has also given his full backing to inquiries by police and the corporation.

Speaking at a business dinner in Cardiff, the BBC chairman said it was "no excuse to say 'that was then' in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and attitudes were different then".

http://news.sky.com/story/9952...ints-over-knighthood

Freddie Starr was last night forced to admit  being ‘mistaken’ after footage from 1974 showed him alongside the teenage girl  who now claims he abused her.

Starr had strenuously denied ever meeting  Karin Ward - who claims he tried to molest her in Sir Jimmy Savile’s BBC  dressing room.

The comic had also insisted he only met  Savile twice in his life, and had never even been to the BBC.

 

Together: Karin Ward in yellow, sitting behind Freddie  Starr when he appeared on the BBC TV show hosted by Sir Jimmy Savile, 'Clunk  Click', in 1974

But last night he was proved wrong on all  three counts after watching 1974 footage unearthed by Channel 4 News.

It showed Starr appearing on one of Savile’s  BBC shows, Clunk Click - the very episode Ms Ward says was being filmed the day  she was abused.

Standing next to him was a 14-year-old Miss  Ward, in a yellow blouse and long brown hair.

Last night Starr’s lawyers issued a statement  admitting the mistake - but still strenuously denying the ‘awful allegation’ of  abuse.

Read more: Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

He's just hung himself there by lying about not being there.  Why say you weren't there if you had nothing to hide?  

Olly - I agree. This has been argued extensively on DS ...................what it was like at the time etc.

I agree that it does sound so patronising to say to people - ah yes but how old are you? It is one thing reading about the sixties and seventies but quite another thing to be living them. 

There was such a massive change of attitudes and legislation in the very late seventies/early eighties that a lot of people assume it was always easy to speak up for the underdog/wronged etc. It really wasn't like that.

I really hate to say it but there was a different mindset/culture back then ......................what was going on was WRONG 100% but - they were very different times. Women found it hard to be heard - children had virtually no chance.

Yup Soozy you had to be there to really know what it was like..  I wasn't trying to be patronising, and know you aren't saying I was, but can see it could come across like that ..

There were none of these people with attitude  around. . [not talking about this thread just in general]  tho I think that was a good thing.. not sure I like the 'tude' generation that much, they come off pretty rude a lot of the time and thoughtless too.. I had a gob on me back then but it was restrained by bosses, teachers and parents and rightly so I think, cos I was very much of a  black and white opinion and no grey area would creep in at all .. still have a bit of it with me now but it's  reigned it a lot, I hope, so most of the time I think first. .  but not always tho  

 am not advocating going back to that time either. . somewhere in the middle would be good. . 

Funnily enough Phil Scofield was talking about that on this morning and said that it is quite easily done to forget who you've appeared with if you are a busy 'personality'...  he cited his own example where upon hearing of the news of James Hunts death on the radio just before getting to a theatre and then asked for the news to be put on the telly..., someone with him asked him if he had met James, he said no..  as he said that the news showed a clip of him and James Hunt together. .He had truly forgotten he'd met him..

Not saying Freddie Starr is trying to wiggle out of it but it can happen ..and he's 69 yrs old so maybe more forgetful than Philip. .Plus he's had heart surgery and that can affect the brain a bit too as they have to put people on bypass..  I know the last bit cos it happened to my mother and she was different and even more forgetful afterwards..

We rush to judge

Seems not, in this case.

Those who gave him the benefit of the doubt are now being crucified.

Generally

What? He was at it with kids for fifty years ...........is that rushing? Shame no one listened to them back in the day.

I said it on here last week that I bet there's a few celebrities with very twitchy arseholes right now.  It seems I was correct.

Did anyone hear Mike Reid condemning Liz Kershaw yesterday?

Do you mean Mike Smith? http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/ho...th-grope-claims.html

Noooo i meant about Freddie Star and forgetting

Maybe it was Blizz, it was on the radio and I would have sworn they said it was Mike Reid, because even Mr C said 'That was Mike Reid? he sounded rough'