The eternal question, how could it happen?

As shocking stories go the continually evolving news about Jimmy Saville has to beat most. I find myself drawn to having to comment on the case, particularly as it is escalating beyond anything anyone could ever have imagined.

Normally I would try and step aside from any article which deals with anything other than cold hard facts. It is one thing to espouse my opinions but at least when I am writing about my usual fair I know that people will normally have the sense to ensure that the facts are correct. When dealing with a topic such as Jimmy Saville, however, it will always be hard to establish what all the facts are though. His death has robbed people of a final reckoning. Too many questions left unanswered, too many lives wrecked and no conclusive ending to the whole debacle.

With what is coming to the fore at the moment it would appear from the media that Saville was one of, if not the, most prolific sex offenders to have ever lived. Unfortunately we will never know the true extent of what he did. We will have no trial, other than that by public opinion and media, to get the facts out in the open.

United Kingdom Justice Secretary Chris Grayling warned of the risks of such a trial by media when saying on the British Sunday morning current affairs programme the Andrew Marr Show that while what had happened was "horrendous" it was important not to "rush into a judge-led inquiry," arguing it would take "much longer to get to the truth".

It is perhaps for this reason that those who can still face the music are being hunted so diligently by the authorities. When police sources announced that "officers working on Operation Yewtree have arrested a man in his 60s in connection with the investigation...The individual falls under the strand of the investigation we have termed 'Savile and others',” it wasn’t much of a surprise that it was Paul Gadd, Gary Glitter for those who really care.

Saville escaped justice by shear dint of dying, in his wake he left shattered lives, not just those who suffered at his hands but those who put their faith in him, those who worked for his charities, those who relied upon his good name to help them continue. He duped the world, not just those who were subjected to his depravations. The world now wants blood and they will get it in the shape of those who helped him and even more from those who shared with him. Arresting Gadd/Glitter is just the start but at least it is a start.

One of the argument’s being spouted as to how the affair was covered up for so long has been that they were different times, different ethics, certain things weren’t talked about. That may have been true four decades ago when Saville started but it does not excuse it, nor does it explain how it continued for so long into an era when it wasn’t tolerated anymore. Those in the “others” section should start feeling a bit uneasy as Yewtree continues, the public will start to bay for blood and the courts will start to deliver justice where it can be delivered. So long as these things happen then as hard as it may be the media must deliver only the truth and only the facts.