A TERRIFIED teenage girl was molested on camera
by Jimmy Savile during Top Of The Pops — then
told to “get lost” by a BBC boss when she
complained.
A video clip has preserved the shocking moment
when the laughing pervert put his hand up horrified
Sylvia Edwards’ skirt — as 20 million viewers
watched the live show.
Blonde Sylvia, 19, can be seen shrieking and
struggling to escape while creepy Savile smirks: “I
tell you something, a fella could get used to this, as
it ’appens, he really could get used to it.”
Speaking for the first time about the ordeal, Sylvia
told The Sun: “I felt his fingers go towards my
bottom. It was disgusting.”
Afterwards she ran straight to a BBC floor manager
and told him what Savile had done. To her horror,
he said: “Get lost — it’s just Jimmy messing about.”
The assault at BBC TV Centre in West London on
November 25, 1976, left Sylvia with mental scars —
and is the first video evidence of Savile’s sex abuse.
She had been excited to be among a group of girls
hand-picked to sit next to the DJ as he introduced
artists.
Elton John performed his ballad Sorry Seems To Be
The Hardest Word. Then Savile, 50 at the time,
began introducing the chart-topping If You Leave
Me Now, by Chicago.
As he did so, Sylvia felt Savile’s bejewelled fingers
wandering.
The 55-year-old mum of two recalled: “Jimmy Savile
appeared in the middle of us and the camera
panned around.
“Then I felt his hand go up my skirt. I leapt off my
chair in shock. I was so surprised I cried out and
didn’t know how to deal with it.
“But he just laughed and carried on mauling me
while talking to the camera. I panicked and tried to
move away from him but it was so crowded I
couldn’t escape. When I tried to sit down his hand
was still there and went for my bottom again.
“I felt so embarrassed and ashamed because it was
live on TV and all my friends and family were
watching.
“The worst thing was that he was so casual when he
did it. He was committing a sexual assault live on
the BBC and no one gave a damn.”
Sylvia went to seek help but was given short shrift.
She said: “There was a man standing next to a
camera with headphones on who seemed to be
running the show, so I went up to him and told him
Jimmy Savile had just put his hand up my skirt.
“But he was very cross and told me to get lost. He
said it was just Jimmy messing about and I was
being stupid.
“Then he said he was busy and moved me out of
the way because I was blocking a camera shot.
“I was a naive girl then — I’d never slept with
anyone — and was shocked. I didn’t know where to
go or who to speak to after getting rejected like that.
“I tried to shut it out of my mind as best as I could.
But looking back, I wish I’d had the courage to take
my complaint further.
“The evidence on the video is clear, and if I could
have got him convicted, I might have saved other
young people from much worse.
“But I have to stop blaming myself because, at the
end of the day, he did that to me on live TV and they
let him. How could the BBC’s bosses ever say they
didn’t know what was going on?”
Sylvia, then a trainee hairdresser, went with a
workmate called Lynn to see the broadcast. But she
never went again, fearing she could fall into Savile’s
clutches once more.
The experience made her fear men and could never
bring herself to sleep with a boy she was dating.
She also partly blames her upsetting memories for
the break-up of her marriage nine years ago.
But now she plans to join more than 300 victims of
the Jim’ll Fix It star who have so far complained to
police.
It emerged yesterday that cops blew seven chances
to nail Savile before he died last October aged 84.
They dropped abuse investigations in London,
Surrey and Jersey.
Sylvia, of Twickenham, South West London, added:
“What he did to me was minor compared to some.
But it affects me to this day.
“I have never felt comfortable about being touched.
All these years I’ve never said anything because I
thought no one would listen after what the BBC
man said.
“You can hear Savile on the video saying, ‘A fella
could get used to this’. The tragedy for his victims is,
that’s just what he did.”
No comments:
Post a Comment