Jaconelli and Fox – the Credibility Gap

Jaconelli and Fox – the Credibility Gap

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Recently, the coverage by Real Whitby of allegations of corruption by North Yorkshire Police in their failure to investigate the paedophile Peter Jaconelli, whose abuse of children in his Ippon Judo Club, ice-cream parlours, at least one local school, as well as other locations were well-known locally, to properly investigate Jimmy Savile or to cooperate with the Surrey Police investigation, have caused controversy.

A number of other local people also commented on the Jaconelli/Savile/North Yorkshire Police controversy, either by posting on Real Whitby or the Scarborough News, or by contacting Nigel Ward confidentially by PM through the Corruption Busters FaceBook Page.

This has given rise to further evidence of abuse and official cover up.

• One FaceBook-user contacted us confidentially and brought the name Keith Fletcher to our attention and we immediately commenced an investigation. In brief, Fletcher was a PE teacher at Scalby School from the early 1970’s until his arrest in 2009.  Like Jaconelli, Fletcher – who is alleged to have whipped under-age girls before having sex with them in his flat – was convicted of 22 offences and was also was alleged to have been known to the authorities in the 1980’s. As with Jaconelli, nothing was done; although he came to the attention of the Police in 1978, but escaped prosecution because the complainant was persuaded to withdraw his complaint.

Fletcher was known by the girls as “Fletch the letch” and “Bananaman” from his habit of walking around openly in tracksuit bottoms with a banana in them to make him appear well-endowed. So if the school girls all knew, why didn’t the school or the Police?

Although it must be said that North Yorkshire Police did mount an effective prosecution in 2009 and Fletcher received two years and nine months in prison, it was only the courage of one of his victims who made a determined complaint as an adult to protect children from any further abuse, that brought his activities to a halt. For thirty years it appears the authorities were completely ineffectual, as in the Jaconelli and Savile cases.

• We were already aware that Savile visited Raincliffe School; however, “BARROWCLIFF SCHOOL LAD”, commenting on the Scarborough News website, has alleged that that Jaconelli was a Governor of Raincliffe School and that members of staff at the school were absolutely aware that Jaconelli was a paedophile and sexually abusing the pupils, but said nothing.

Councillor Geoff Evans has courageously come forward and alleged that Jaconelli was protected by the Police and the Council because of his status as Mayor. This gave Jaconelli and his associates a safe environment in which to operate.

Jaconelli is the key figure. He established at the Ippon Judo Club in 1955, long before Savile came to live in Scarborough. We know Savile rewarded Jaconelli by taking him to the BBC on two or three occasions (where abuse is known to have taken place) and also provided Jaconelli with access to victims at one of his icecream parlours (where abuse is also known to have taken place). We also know that Savile visited Raincliffe School and it must surely now be a grave concern that Jaconelli abused his position as Governor to reward Savile with access to local school children.

It appears obvious that knowledge of Jaconelli’s perverted sexual preferences were well known to people locally, school teachers, school children and the North Yorkshire Police. He is even alleged to have had convictions for sexual offences. Yet nothing was done and he was allowed to have access to children without restriction.

Given that Savile’s close friendship with Jaconelli had been reported on the BBC, in the press and was common knowledge locally, it is no wonder that North Yorkshire Police were apparently making enquiries about them in the 2003 paedophile investigation.

Yet when the Force Intelligence Bureau received an enquiry from Surrey Police as part of their investigation into Savile – arguably the best opportunity of arresting and convicting him – he was given a ‘clean bill of health’, thereby ensuring he escaped prosecution and that North Yorkshire Police escaped any embarrassing questions about how they had failed to detect Jaconelli.

Had North Yorkshire Police acted on the information that was available to them and questioned Jaconelli, it could well have led them to Savile – and to Savile’s arrest.  It would certainly have protected generations of young people from his abuse.

Umbrellas up!

After four months of silence and evading the question “What did he know?” about Jimmy Savile, Councillor Tom Fox, the Conservative Leader of Scarborough Borough Council and former acting Chief Inspector of Scarborough Police finally responded. Real Whitby reported his remarks in full and they can be seen here.

However, Nigel has had no response to his email dated 18th February 2013:

• “What is the intention of the Leader in respect of the many serious allegations, every bit as horrific as those against Jimmy SAVILE, against former Councillor and Mayor Peter JACONELLI, in respect of his status as Alderman of the Borough. Is there a process in train for the Council to adopt the same approach as in the SAVILE case?” 

Nor, as of yesterday, has Mr Trevor Harrington had any response from SBC to his Formal Complaint about Jaconelli .

North Yorkshire Police has also been notified in advance of our intention to publish these allegations and been offered the opportunity to comment. It has declined to do so. It appears that Councillor Tom Fox has been abandoned to field the criticism alone.

In short, everyone has put their umbrellas up and is maintaining their right to silence.

OPERATION YEWTREE

If any reader has information they wish to pass on to the Metropolitan Police investigation into the activities of Savile and his associates in Scarborough and Whitby, they should contact:

The Operation Yewtree Incident Room, on 0208 217 6446 in complete confidence, indicating they are doing so pursuant to the Real Whitby investigation.