By Lucy Caulkett-
The independent police commission (IPCC) has concluded that a senior officer would have had a “case to answer” over his handling of the Jimmy Savile case.
After an extensive investigation that highlights a series of shameful failings, the identity of the officer in question has still be protected.
The retired Surrey Police detective inspector would have faced misconduct proceedings if he were still active, according to the police watchdog found.
The unnamed officer failed to pass an allegation against the disgraced TV star to a neighbouring force, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said.
The force admitted there were “things which should have been done differently”.
A detective constable who worked on the case also performed “unsatisfactorily”, the IPCC found.
Its report concerned the actions of both officers, who investigated sex offenses at Duncroft School, in Staines, allegedly committed in the 1970s.
The fact an allegation of an assault at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in Buckinghamshire, was not passed to Thames Valley Police shocked investigators. It wasn’t until 2013 – five years after the claim-before it was disclosed to Surrey Police.
OPERATION YAWTREE
Surrey Police then launched a two-year investigation into the school in 2007 after a 2012 documentary in 2013 entitled ‘the other side of Jimmy Saville’. Operation yawtree began the next day as an investigation into the extremely perverted actions of the disgraced television personality began.
The report states that at the Home Secretary’s request Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary was asked to review allegations and intelligence received by the police concerning Savile between 1964 and 2012 which led to the publishing of its report ‘Mistakes were made’ in March 2013.
INTERNAL INVESTIGATION
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) then conducted an internal investigation into its role in dealing with all Savile related matters.
In October 2012 Sussex Police began its own internal investigation into
their 2008 ‘Savile investigation’, called Operation Baseball.
It emerged that officers not only discouraged a woman who was abused by Saville to pursue a complaint but actively dissuaded her from pursuing a complaint. The officer also failed to pursue relevant lines of inquiry. The IPCC report stated that the severity of these matters amounted to Grosse misconduct.