Panorama’s VIP paedophile investigation exposes tensions in BBC

Jane Martinson

Panorama’s report on an alleged VIP paedophile ring has reopened deep wounds at the BBC, which is still recovering from the impact of the Jimmy Saville affair.

Present and former executives at the BBC disagreed over whether it was appropriate for Panorama to question whether a VIP paedophile ring had operated out of flats in Dolphin Square in Westminster in a programme broadcast on Tuesday night.

Meirion Jones, the producer who was prevented from airing an investigation into Jimmy Savile by the BBC, was furious about the special hour-long programme. In an interview, he said: “There are still people at the BBC trying to make the case that you can’t trust victims and therefore they were right not to run the Savile programme.”

Jones, who no longer works for the BBC and went on to win awards for his work on the Savile scandal, said the corporation had behaved “disgracefully” in its treatment of another victim of historical child abuse, Karin Ward, and that this week’s Panorama showed how little the corporation had changed.

Panorama’s report, The VIP Paedophile Ring – What’s the Truth? casts doubt on the testimony of an alleged victim of such historical abuse, a sensitive subject for a broadcaster that had been accused of failing to air allegations about Savile and mishandling false allegations about Lord McAlpine.

The BBC is yet to publish a report, started three years ago by former High court judge Dame Janet Smith, into the culture and practices of the broadcaster during the time Savile worked there. The Metropolitan police has said that her findings could hamper ongoing investigations into sexual abuse claims.

BBC executives rejected Jones’s claims, with one senior executive responsible for the programme insisting that the broadcaster could not allow the need to atone for the mistakes of the past to stop good journalism.

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