An investigator who helped expose Jimmy Savile has warned that "powerful" high-profile men are still hiding "in plain sight" after Russell Brand was jailed for rape and sexual assault. Brand, 51, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years in prison on Monday, joining the ranks of disgraced celebrities convicted of sexual crimes, including Savile and Harvey Weinstein.
Investigator warns of protected offenders
Meirion Jones, the investigative journalist who played a key role in exposing Savile's crimes, said other powerful people in the UK are being "broadly protected." He made the comments during an episode of the Mirror's Sense Check YouTube series, discussing the Brand trial with host Nicola Thorp.
Jones said: "I think we've all heard allegations about several other media celebrities, and not just the media. There are some other very powerful people in Britain who I have been told very, very serious allegations about sexual abuse, rape, and it's still the case that they are broadly protected."
He added: "The legal system, which essentially it depends how much money you get, how much justice you get. And a lot of these people are still being protected, and it really does need to be challenged."
Brand's sentencing and parallels to Savile
At Brand's sentencing, the judge said the comedian harboured a "casual arrogant disregard to any woman's right to say no to you" while his fame meant he believed "you could act when you liked and how you liked." The judge added that evidence in the case showed his entourage during the peak of his celebrity had "indulged your dreadful behaviour."
In the Sense Check episode, Jones highlighted parallels between Savile and Brand, noting how both operated openly. Thorp said: "Savile in the 80s... you look back at footage now and just go, well, how did anybody not know? Or how could anyone possibly claim not to know?"
Jones responded: "And Russell Brand is in that category again. Everything you always saw, I mean he was openly saying what he was doing."
Crimes in plain sight
Discussing the 2007 radio interview between Savile and Brand, where the comedian offered his personal assistant to give Savile a massage, Jones said: "Yeah, it's in plain sight, as you say." He also told Thorp: "Anyone who is in the industry knows stories about Brand and it's astonishing it went on so long and in plain sight."
Savile died in October 2011, aged 84, but was exposed as one of the UK's most prolific sexual abusers after his death. The episode with Thorp and Jones is available on YouTube, with new episodes of Sense Check available on the Pod Save The King channel.
