His shock departure comes ahead of the publication on Thursday of a report into the BBC’s culture and practices during the years Jimmy Savile and fellow shamed presenter Stuart Hall worked at the corporation by former Court of Appeal judge Dame Janet Smith.
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“I have found no evidence that the BBC, as a corporate body, was aware of Savile’s inappropriate sexual conduct in connection with his work for the BBC”, she said.
Canon Semper was one of three people who were named by Dame Janet Smith in a new report where she said they should have spoken up. There was “a culture within the BBC which made it hard to complain or to say anything to the management which might “rock the boat”, the report said.
Britain’s globally respected broadcaster, the BBC has been told it was guilty of serious failings in its handling of Jimmy Savile, a celebrated TV and radio showman revealed after death to have been one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.
In conclusion, Dame Janet wrote: “The delivery of these reports presents an opportunity for the BBC to take steps to ensure that history can not repeat itself”.
It added there was a “culture of separation, competition and even hostility between different parts of the BBC, so that concerns arising in one part would not be discussed with others”.
The report says that 117 people at the BBC had heard rumours of Savile’s conduct but did not report the allegations up the chain of command.
Earlier, Dame Janet praised the honesty of the evidence Canon Semper gave her, and said the failure to stop Savile’s behaviour had clearly weighed heavily on his mind.
Dame Janet Smith’s review referred to an “A7” who was said to have “seduced” teenager Claire McAlpine after inviting her to his flat following a recording of Top Of The Pops.
The report cited 72 Savile victims (57 female and 15 male), 34 of whom were aged under 16, all attacked in incidents “connected with his work at the BBC”.
Tony Hall, who is the director general of the BBC and no relations to the disgraced broadcaster, told the victims that the corporation had “failed” them.
Simon Bass, from the Churches Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS), was speaking after the release of the Dame Janet Smith report (below) on the former DJs’ sexual crimes – and how the BBC responded to them.
I have never seen the diary and neither has anyone at the BBC or the Dame Janet Review. “Just as powerful as the accusation “you knew”, is the legitimate question: ‘How could you not have known?'”
But a lawyer for Savile’s victims called the findings a “whitewash” and implausible. “I’m making a judgement about how someone has engaged with a seriously important inquiry”, said Hall, reading from prepared notes.
“I am sure that all of us who have been through the 1,000 pages are probably overwhelmed by what we hear about the nature of the seriousness of what they have said and also the cultural response of the BBC”.
Savile’s scandal became very public in 2012 when the police stated that Savile had sexually abused more than 100 victims.
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“I’m making no judgement about what happened in the past”.
