BURN THE WITCH!

Has anyone mentioned that genius little "truism" that there's no smoke without fire yet?  That's my favourite.

That's inherent in the 'burn the witch' statement Phil.  Or were you thinking that we would be using a smoke-free combustion method for said witch, to ensure that everyone's able to enjoy the burning in a healthy environment?

This is a particularly difficult issue, and will be more of a problem than ever before. Virtually any of the Bands in the 60s 70s and 80s will be vulnerable, not to mention film and TV people. Where does it end? 

The Witches will be the few who will be allowed to fall, Jimmy Savile is a perfect example of how the establishment can protect.   

A very difficult issue I agree EKGO but the age of consent has been 16 since 1885 so rock stars shagging 15 year olds (or younger) have always known full well they were breaking the law. 

So if someone says they saw X person having sex with a girl they knew was 15 in 1980, even if the girl herself consented, it presumably has to be investigated as it was and is a crime. The same if a girl believes she may have been taken advantage of. And so it should be - no matter how many cases there are, because that's the law. 

However, given the costs involved and the burden of proof required I'd say the likliehood is they'll only be bringing cases against people that A) appear to have been prolific and/or B) targeted children and younger teenagers. 

Yes I agree they should quite rightly be looking over the shoulder, however the point I'm making is that the likes of Gary Glitter etc have been thrown out of the lifeboat whilst the likes of Jimmy Savile (his indiscretions stayed secret) stayed intact, So it's safe to say there will likely be more like him, whilst others less fortunate suffer.

The more astute, or those with more expensive lawyers, or can bring bigger threats are usually the ones who stay intact. It's always been the same.

This is what happened with Jimmy Savile - he had far more power and reputation than Gary Glitter ever did. He was the "face" of Stoke Mandeville who ran feck knows how many marathons, raised shitloads of money and made kids' dreams come true - Gary Glitter just sold a few singles in the 70s. 

I will be interesting to see what transpires from here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20358716

Interesting....

Didn't Gary Glitter get convicted after he took his PC to be repaired and they found a whole lot of indecent images of young children on it?  Once that happens no amount of power or reputation is going to save you.

Screamapillar wrote (see)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20358716

Interesting....

Yes, on the radio this morning they said police had confirmed that the allegations against DLT were regarding adults and unconnected with any of the Saville allegations.

Cheerful Dave wrote (see)

Didn't Gary Glitter get convicted after he took his PC to be repaired and they found a whole lot of indecent images of young children on it?  Once that happens no amount of power or reputation is going to save you.

Quite - and Jimmy Savile was also astute enough to know that kind of thing could have been his undoing (which Gary Glitter clearly wasn't). Savile's major faux pas was in defending the bloke.

At work today we were reviewing the allergations made against DLT.  Obviously with a tabloid newspaper as our only source of information we were very limited on facts but an interesting trend emerged...

All of the girls and ladies seated around the table had experienced something very similar to what this 'victim' had gone through.  Back in the 70's and 80's it was considered acceptable to treat women this way, and all of our experiences were from the workplace and went back to when we were as young as 16.  Not one of us thought to report the offender to management as it was so common place and normal.

Not saying that its right that women are treated like that, but it does put some of the allegations into the context of the time.  It seems likely that there will be someone who is able to dish the dirt on almost every single man around at the time.

Caz you are right, attitudes to everything has changed considerably in the last 30 or 40 years, many for the better but some for the worse.  Men didn't swear as openly in front of women in those days and I don't think anybody would have called a woman their bitch.