BBC Sued in First Case Over Ex-TV Star Savile’s Sex Abuse!

• BBC Sued in First Case Over Ex-TV Star Savile’s Sex Abuse! 
  by Erik Larson & Jeremy Hodges, http://www.bloomberg.com/ , 13 Feb 2013
  The British Broadcasting Corp. was sued by a victim of the late television star Jimmy Savile, who police say sexually abused hundreds of young girls and women for decades, including on the BBC’s property.
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  The lawsuit, the first since the scandal started, was filed Feb. 5 in London, according to court records. The victim, who wasn’t identified in the filing, also sued Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s NatWest unit, which is the executor of Savile’s estate.
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  “We have 31 cases ready to go and potentially many more to come,” Alan Collins, the lawyer for the victims, said today in a phone interview. The BBC is accused of “vicarious liability” in the case, he said.
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  The BBC was plunged into crisis after competitor ITV Plc aired a story in October alleging Savile abused young girls decades ago. George Entwistle, the then-director general of the BBC, stepped down the next month after revelations the publicly- funded broadcaster had dropped an earlier probe into Savile’s abuse by its news division and instead aired tributes following his death in October 2011, at the age of 84.
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  The BBC declined to comment on the lawsuit. RBS, based in Edinburgh, froze Savile’s estate last year in anticipation of possible legal claims. The bank’s press office said it wasn’t aware of the lawsuit and declined to comment further.
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  Strong Case
  While claims of vicarious liability against an employer aren’t common, the victims have a strong case and the BBC will probably seek to “lance the boil” and settle before a trial, said David Foster, a lawyer with Barlow Robbins LLP in Guildford, England, who isn’t involved in the cases.
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  “There will be an issue over how much the BBC should objectively have known, and whether or not they are culpable for not seeing the risk and done something about it,” Foster said. “They’ll have to have some evidence.”
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