Guardian opinion (From South Wales Guardian)

Guardian opinion

12:00am Wednesday 17th October 2012 in Ammanford news

PICTURE the scene: a somewhat boring afternoon in the South Wales Guardian newsroom in 1978. A phone call changes all that. A reader breathlessly informs the news editor that he has just seen legendary radio DJ Jimmy Savile at Cresci’s Café in Quay Street.

The news is greeted with some scepticism.

Celebrities are somewhat thin on the ground in Ammanford. Nevertheless, a somewhat disbelieving young reporter, Lesley Gibbins, is dispatched to check the rumour out.

Her account of her unsettling meeting with Savile forms this week’s front page.

While the mounting evidence that Savile was a serial paedophile is incredibly disturbing, at this point these allegations remain unsubstantiated.

Yet Lesley’s evidence is credible. She concedes that Savile’s conduct that day was not criminal, yet his behaviour was sufficiently bizarre to convince her that most of the evidence now being brought against him rings true.

Big deal, some might say. The man is dead and all this happened a very long time ago.

But we now know that the victims of sexual abuse tend to be victims for the rest of their lives.

In speaking out, Lesley hopes their voices can now be heard, their own testimony treated seriously at long last.

Scotland Yard is convinced that Savile committed despicable crimes wherever he went.

So what was he doing here in Ammanford on that far-off day? Are there victims who still live locally?

If there are, they should have no hesitation in contacting the police. This is a live investigation that mushrooms with each passing day.

Who knows where it will lead?