Liz MacKean, the former British investigative reporter best known for exposing Jimmy Savile and the culture of pedophile protection at the BBC, has died from complications from a stroke. She was 52. (Her death was reported by the BBC, the very same company who blocked her investigation from airing and spent years trying to destroy her reputation.)

Jimmy Savile, the UK’s “Top of the Pops” host was eventually found to have sexually abused hundreds of children and women at the height of his fame. In fact, investigators believe he preyed on about 500 victims, some as young as two years old, at the BBC’s broadcasting studios and 34 hospitals and children’s hospitals all over England. He died in 2011.

“MacKean worked at the BBC until she quit in 2013 after executives decided to ban her groundbreaking and brave investigation into predatory pedophile Jimmy Savile in order to protect him and other pedophiles.

Dismissed by the establishment as mad and dangerous, MacKean was finally vindicated when the truth about Savile’s pedophilia eventually came out in 2012, a full year after MacKean first tried to bring his notorious crimes to light.” 1

Once it was public knowledge that the BBC was preventing the investigation from airing, she said, “I was very unhappy the story didn’t run because I felt we’d spoken to people who collectively deserved to be heard. And they weren’t heard. I thought that that was a failure… I felt we had a responsibility towards them. We got them to talk to us, but above all, we did believe them. And so then, for their stories not to be heard, I felt very bad about that. I felt, very much, that I’d let them down.”

The fact that BBC executives knew and did nothing shocked the world. In fact, one source was quoted as saying, “The numbers are shocking. Many hundreds and potentially up to 1,000 people were victims of Savile when he was representing the corporation. The report will overshadow Pollard. It will go right to the heart of how Savile was able to get away with the most heinous of crimes under the very noses of BBC staff for more than 40 years.”2

Our heart goes out to MacKean’s family and friends. She was a brave woman and will be missed.

 

Sources and References

  1. A Sheep No More, August 21, 2017.
  2. The Guardian, January 18, 2014.