Jimmy Savile and a sorry tale of abuse

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jan/15/jimmy-savile-sorry-tale-abuse

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The Jimmy Savile report certainly helps to understand the extent of his abuse (Missed opportunities to prosecute, 12 January). The case has broken the spiral of silence that is usually associated with sexual crimes. As a result of the early publicity this case received, many more victims have come forward, some in a very public way on television, to accuse a number of organisations of mishandling their cases and to file charges against Savile.

As people gained the confidence to speak about their abuse at the hands of Savile, it became apparent how Savile abused his position of power with children and groomed, as Commander Spindler said, the entire nation. The higher the social standing of the abuser, the less likely the victim would tell others for fear of not being believed. There is no doubt that the silence of the abused is one of many reasons why child victims do not report the crime, and sex offenders are well aware of this. Dr Elena Martellozzo Senior lecturer in criminology, Middlesex University

• Peter Watt of the NSPCC says at the end of your article that, to avoid more people falling victim, the lasting change necessary was for children to be listened to, given a voice and that voice to be acted on.

Is it possible that Mr Watt has read nothing of the research on the subject of listening to children, in particular the excellent article, Listening to Children, produced by John Fitzgerald of the Bridge Consultancy following the work that organisation undertook with the children who were victims of Fred and Rosemary West.

The guidance for professionals working in the field of child abuse is succinctly encapsulated in the article. The task is not for the NSPCC to launch more guidance following expensive research but rather to ensure we develop a culture where there is not protection for people who use their positions of power to abuse children and vulnerable adults. The police and CPS need to let go of their inappropriate respect for celebrities and politicians and carry out their duty on behalf of the victims. Joyce Brand Ludlow, Shropshire

• Far from being "groomed" by Jimmy Savile, I refuse to accept any blame in respect of his appalling activities over the decades (Savile: the man who 'groomed the nation', 12 January).

The blame lies fairly and squarely with the criminal justice system, from the lowest-level policeman receiving a complaint about him, to whatever heights of the Crown Prosecution Service the complaints reached. By failing to pursue the allegations beyond an initial step, they let every one of his victims down and allowed him to continue his appalling behaviour, year after year.

Even some of those in charge of the institutions where he attacked people must also accept responsibility. The BBC, hospitals, hospices etc all should have known what was going on. Indeed, several say they did, so they should have shouted louder. But where were the newspapers in all these years? Did no reporters get an inkling of what was going on? Surely, they must have heard something? Or weren't they hacking phones then? David Reed London

• Martin Ronson's cartoon (12 January) refers tangentially to one of the lessons that ought to be learned from this sorry tale – that hospitals, prisons, schools etc should be properly funded by tax, not dependent on the activity of a "celebrity" who may ultimately be discredited. Several times during this investigation, victims have testified they were told to withdraw their complaints or people would stop giving money to Savile's charities. (There is a separate issue of how this man managed to become so rich while ostensibly spending most of his time working for "charity", but I won't pursue that.) Sue Harris Stockport

• I would be interested to know what kind of childhood Jimmy Savile had, which must surely have contributed to making him the abusive man he became (The way he fixed it, 12 January). His deeds were awful but is there not a deep sadness to his life? And could he have been helped? Diana Hendry Edinburgh