Celebrity and philanthropy shielded a child abuser from scrutiny for decades

Evidence

Savile exploited his celebrity, philanthropy, and social connections in high circles, as documented earlier, to enable his sexual abuses to go unchecked for over four decades under a succession of BBC presidents. They all professed unawareness of his unlawful conduct, even though it was widely known among their colleagues. Despite the seriousness of the harm inflicted on vulnerable children, widespread suspicion and rumors of sexual misconduct and hundreds of charges filed with police department, BBC officials made no serious efforts to investigate Savile’s behavior. Commander Peter Spindler of Scotland Yard summarized the tragic state of affairs: “He was hiding in plain sight, and none of us was able to do anything about it” (Burns & Cowell, 2013). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 572

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the institutional-moral-blindness themes in the book’s broader framework on moral disengagement. — connects to: Personal grief over a child’s autism made a celebrity a vaccine skeptic — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 511