Investigator who exposed Jimmy Savile is working on child sex case against ‘very significant’ person

The investigator who uncovered Jimmy Savile’s prolific paedophilia has said he is in the process – and has been for a while – uncovering another known living child sex offender.

Mark Williams-Thomas, the former police detective turned TV journalist who exposed Savile, claimed the other person has so far evaded justice because he is “untouchable.”

Williams-Thomas was the lead investigator on the ITV Exposure documentary, The Other Side of Jimmy Savile, which revealed how one of Britain’s most beloved entertainers systematically and disturbingly preyed on young and vulnerable girls.

The award-winning film, which aired just over a decade ago on October 3, 2012, a year after Savile’s death, prompted hundreds of other unheard of victims to come forward with their experiences.

In the documentary, five women stated that they had been sexually abused by Savile as teenagers. This revelation of Savile as a pedophile sparked extensive media coverage, including 41 days on the front pages.

The film sparked the Met Police’s Operation Yewtree investigation, which ultimately resulted in multiple celebrity sexual abuse convictions.

By October 2015, 19 people had been arrested by Operation Yewtree; seven of those arrests led to convictions.

However, Williams-Thomas, a child protection expert, has expressed frustration that his pursuit of a high-profile target has so far been thwarted.

“There are still people who are untouchable,” the former Surrey Police and Family Liaison Officer told i.

“There is one very important person that I have done everything I can to try to be prosecuted because he is clearly a child molester.”

“To date, the CPS will not prosecute. The police and I tried very hard to get there. He will die in due course and then the floodgates will open the same way they did with Savile. That is not true. But justice takes many different forms.’

He added: ‘The truth is that no broadcaster would have made a program about Savile when he was alive. We live in a society where you can’t handle some people and that’s very sad.’

Williams-Thomas, who left the police force 20 years ago to set up a specialist child protection consultancy, has become a favorite with broadcasters and contributed to a recent Channel 4 film starring Sir Cliff Richard, Paul Gambaccini and DJ Neil Fox. told how their lives were ruined by sexual abuse allegations against them.

The cases against Richard and Gambaccini never went to trial, while Fox was found not guilty in a magistrate.

“There’s always collateral damage,” Williams-Thomas told me, “there will always be innocent casualties of war, and that’s what happened here.”

While he believes the charges against Sir Cliff were justified, he also said police were conducting a “chaotic investigation”.

“What was wrong was the way they did it,” he added.

His experience breaking the Savile story means Williams-Thomas will not accept Sir Cliff’s plea to anonymize sex offenders before charges are brought, i.e.

“I have seen the value of lifting anonymity for victims to come forward. It’s one of the reasons the CPS had no evidence to prosecute Savile while he was alive.”

“The media plays a crucial role in bringing victims to the fore by publishing names. But they have to consider the consequences for the suspect, because there is no more heinous crime than the sexual abuse of children.’

When the Savile film was produced, ITV was cautious about releasing it, Williams-Thomas said.

The BBC Newsnight had also launched an investigation – which Williams-Thomas was also working on – that allegedly aired the sick claims about Savile at the same time that the broadcaster was preparing Savile tribute programs after his death.

‘The ITV lawyers have lost their nerves in the last few days before the broadcast. You could see the temperature reaching boiling point,” Williams-Thomas told i. “This was a man who had enormous power during his TV regime and even after his death people were afraid to hire him.”

“I knew we had to take the story away from child abuse at home. Rightly or wrongly, one would say that these were the stories of damaged children, can we believe them?’

‘We conducted a well-researched, forensic police investigation for months. TV is also a visual medium, so we had to find the victims willing to speak in front of the camera, we couldn’t have everyone made anonymous. The program was due to the courage of those women who told their stories.’

Although the program aired at 11:10 PM, the effect of the program was immediately noticeable. “The NSPCC sent us a letter a week after the broadcast stating that it allowed them to follow up 1000 cases of child abuse.”

“When the lead detectives from Operation Yewtree sat down with us to see what we had, they said they thought there were 30 Savile victims. It was quiet in the room when I said the number was closer to 500. That’s about the number the subsequent investigation came up with.’

“What our small team achieved gave victims across the country a voice. If we hadn’t done Savile, I really don’t think this movement would have gone around the world,” Williams-Thomas said.

“It created Harvey Weinstein and Epstein (their exposure). I am honored to have been a catalyst for something that has changed people’s lives.”

Reflecting on Savile, Williams-Thomas told me he understands how even King Charles was gripped by such a manipulative figure.

“I’ve seen communication between Savile and Prince Charles where there was a conversation about using Savile as a sounding board for his relationship with Diana. Pretty crazy, because Savile has never been in a real relationship in his life.’

“I don’t blame Charles, Savile wanted to integrate himself into the royal family. If he saw any advantage in being somewhere, he would exploit it for personal gain. He managed to get a foot in the door. He also did a lot for charity and that helped build a profile that he built through contact with the royal family.”