'Urgent Invite': Securing a data set on allegations of sexual abuse made against the former disc jockey, Jimmy Savile

2012年，也就是他去世一年后，这位前音乐节目主持人吉米·萨维尔的历史性侵指控开始在英国独立电视台的一档《曝光》节目中浮出水面。此案引起了公众的极大关注；最初的指控导致了数百起其他指控。这引起了公众的愤怒；萨维尔的坟墓被亵渎，他的度假屋遭到破坏。此案的余波席卷了主要机构的争议，导致BBC总干事辞职，以及两份关于该组织处理这一事件的报告(Pollard，2012和Smith，正在进行中)。它还导致了20世纪60年代和70年代乃至更晚的其他名人对性犯罪的调查。北威尔士儿童之家之前的虐待指控再次浮出水面，(错误地)将保守党同僚麦阿尔平勋爵牵连到虐待儿童事件中。针对萨维尔的指控规模之大，导致大都会警方在2013年的Yewtree报告中(与皇家检察院和全国防止虐待儿童协会一起)将那些指控萨维尔的人定为受害者，并暗示萨维尔是虐待行为的实施者，一个掠夺性恋童癖。检察官首席顾问Alison Levitt QC在其关于Savile的报告中指出，“申诉人”一词是不恰当的，并在整个报告中以“受害者”一词取代。这是一个新的、可以说是令人不安的事态发展，因为萨维尔从未通过适当的法律程序受审或定罪。一个更广泛的担忧是，一个特定时期的性习俗正在被检查和评判，可能是以不同年龄的标准为标准。虽然针对萨维尔的普遍情绪是一种反感，但开始有声音质疑针对他的一些指控的真实性。最初的指控来自邓克罗夫特学校(Duncroft School)的前居民，这是一所寄宿学校，面向任性但聪明的女孩，从20世纪60年代到70年代一直在英格兰南部运营，一直持续到80年代。邓克罗夫特的一位前居民后来成为了一名律师，现在住在法国，以安娜·浣熊的名字写博客。她质疑其他前居民描绘的邓克罗夫特，以及吉米·萨维尔在那里被指控的虐待行为的范围和性质。其他数十名前居民也联系了她，质疑这篇已经进入公共领域的故事的各个方面。吉米·萨维尔的家人也对一位亲戚对他的指控提出了类似的异议。安娜·浣熊注意到马克·史密斯对道德恐慌的兴趣，联系了他，透露她患有晚期癌症，并希望确保她掌握的关于萨维尔案件的信息不会丢失，而是受到适当的学术审查。这项研究计划是为了整理她持有的紧急电子数据，同时也是为了采访萨维尔案件的关键线人，这些人是安娜认识的。我们提议的研究主题将我们带到了一个有争议的领域：对萨维尔事件采取的调查方法的支持者认为，受害者终于得到了正义，并有可能得到“了结”，提出对这一过程的质疑可能会让其他人不愿站出来；批评人士认为这是一场政治迫害，或者正如Furedi(2013)所说，这是一场更广泛的反对虐待儿童的“道德运动”中的最新事件。除其他外，我们的建议提出了人权和公民自由、法治、记忆、身份和对社会关系的信任感等问题。因此，它将引起一系列学术学科和公众的兴趣。它应该与英国刑事司法系统的运作特别相关。这也具有国际意义，因为世界各地的司法管辖区都在努力解决历史上虐待儿童的棘手问题。

In 2012, a year after his death, allegations of historical sex abuse by the former disc jockey, Jimmy Savile, began to emerge following an ITV 'Exposure' programme. The case generated massive public interest; initial allegations led to hundreds of others. It caused public outrage; Savile's grave was desecrated, his holiday cottage vandalised. The reverberations of the case have engulfed major institutions in controversy leading, for example, to the resignation of the BBC's Director General and to two reports (Pollard, 2012 and Smith, ongoing) into the organisation's handling of the affair. It has also led to investigations of sex crimes by other celebrity figures from the 1960s and 70s and more currently. Previous allegations of abuse in North Wales children's homes re-surfaced, implicating (wrongly) the Tory peer Lord McAlpine in child abuse.The scale of the allegations against Savile led the Metropolitan Police in the Yewtree Report (2013) (in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to children) to identify those making allegations against Savile as victims and, by implication, Savile as a perpetrator of abuse, a 'predatory paedophile'. Alison Levitt QC, Principal Advisor to the Director of Public Prosecution, in her report regarding Savile, notes that the term 'complainant' is inappropriate and substitutes the term 'victim' throughout the report. This is a new and arguably troubling development inasmuch as Savile was never tried or convicted through due process of law. There is a wider concern that the sexual mores of a particular time period are being examined and judged, perhaps, against standards of a different age. While the general mood against Savile is one of revulsion, voices are beginning to be raised questioning the veracity of some of the allegations against him. Initial allegations emanate from former residents of Duncroft School, a residential school for 'wayward but intelligent girls', which operated in the South of England over the course of the 1960s and 70s and into the 80s. One former resident of Duncroft went on to become a lawyer, now lives in France and blogs under the name of Anna Raccoon. She disputes the picture of Duncroft painted by other former residents and the extent and nature of Jimmy Savile's alleged abuse there. Dozens of other former residents have contacted her to question aspects of the story that has found its way into the public domain. Members of Jimmy Savile's family have similarly disputed claims made against him by a relative.Picking up on Mark Smith's interest in moral panics, Anna Raccoon contacted him to reveal that she was suffering from terminal cancer and would like to ensure that the information she holds on the Savile case is not lost but is subjected to proper academic scrutiny. This research proposal is to collate the 'urgent' electronic data she holds but also to interview key informants on the Savile case who are known to 'Anna'. The subject of our proposed research takes us onto contested ground: proponents of the approach that has been taken to investigate the 'Savile affair' argue that victims are at long last being afforded justice and the possibility of 'closure' and that to raise questions of the process might put off others from coming forward; critics see it as a witch-hunt or as Furedi (2013) claims, the latest episode in a wider 'moral crusade' against child abuse. Our proposal raises, among others, questions of human rights and civil liberties, the rule of law, memory, identity and perceptions of trust in social relationships. As such it will be of interest to a range of academic disciplines and publics. It should be of particular relevance to the workings of the criminal justice system in the UK. It is also of international significance as jurisdictions across the world struggle with how best to address vexed questions of historical child abuse.