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October 3, 2012updated 04 Oct 2012 2:53pm

Newsnight Savile child abuse source felt ‘upset’, ‘aggrieved’ and ‘angry’ that story was dropped

By Dominic Ponsford

Newsnight Jimmy Savile child-abuse source Karin Warn has spoken of her anger at the BBC spiking her story 10 months ago.

Ward has waived her right to anonymity under the Sexual Offences Act to repeat testimony which she said she gave to the BBC ten months ago.

It is understood that the BBC spoke to 10 women from Duncroft Approved School about historic allegations of child abuse involving the former DJ who died last year aged 84.

Asked by ITV News what she told Newsnight, Ward said:

I told Newsnight what was the absolute truth, was that Jimmy Savile took me out in his car one afternoon and pulled into a lay-by. This had happened before and he had just groped…there had been a bit of snogging and groping.

This time he wanted more… But I know when I mentioned it to the other girls later on, when we found out we were going to London, I said ‘well it’s because of me, what I did, I did this’ and I found out some of the other girls had done similar. One or two of them had had sex with him…all on the promise of going to London to be on his show.

She added:

I told Newsnight that I saw Gary Glitter have sex with a girl in Jimmy Savile’s dressing room…in that little alcove bit. I didn’t see it completely but that’s what was going on and nobody batted an eye-lid.

I also told them that I was horribly, horribly humiliated. Jimmy Savile had a girl on his lap and he had his hand up her skirt and inside her underwear. She came from Duncroft and she was 14 and we were good friends.

The girl Gary Glitter was having sex with also came from Duncroft. I think she might have been not quite 14. But we were all from Duncroft that day.

She claims she was told that the programme had been cut by text message and said:

I was not surprised but I did feel extremely aggrieved and angry because that meant yet again I hadn’t been believed when in actual fact I was telling the truth.

Asked how she felt about the fact that Newsnight didn’t run the story, she said:

Really quite upset. Because it wasn’t easy. This isn’t easy. It’s not easy to come out and admit to something that you’re actually bitterly ashamed of. I am ashamed of that. It’s disgusting. What I did…it’s not easy.

It’s never easy to admit that you’re a victim. It’s never easy to admit that you did anything you’re ashamed of. Having done it and found it was scrapped. Didn’t matter. Once again. Yes. Upset…aggrieved…angry.

I spoke to several other people that I know were at Duncroft who said ‘no I’m not saying anything. I’m not coming forward’ and a lot of them said to me ‘I told you so. I told you before you did it, don’t do it, it won’t happen’.

Newsnight editor Peter Rippon explained his decision not to air the ten-minute segment dealing with Savile abuse allegations on the BBC Editor's blog last night.

He said the factors against broadcasting the story included:

Newsnight is not normally interested in celebrity expose. Savile was unable to defend himself. What was the public interest served by reporting it given he is dead? The nature of the allegations and the level of proof required. The fact the incidents were 40 years ago.

Rippon said that the decision not to broadcast the story came down to a failure to show that the Crown Prosecution Service decision not to proceed with a case against Savile in 2007 amounted to an "institutional failure".

Exposure: The other side of Jimmy Savile is broadcast tonight on ITV1.

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