All have been caught up in what surely qualifies as one of the more ambitious, and possibly quixotic, law enforcement investigations in Britain in recent years: Operation Yewtree, a nationwide inquiry into sexual offenses that may or may not have been committed decades ago. In American terms, it is as if Captain Kangaroo, Dick Clark and Jerry Lewis were suddenly being accused of committing sexual crimes dating back 30 or 40 years.
Yewtree was formed in response to the disclosures last year that the entertainer Jimmy Savile had been a serial sexual predator with scores of victims, many of them under age, in an entertainment career spanning four decades. The case, the authorities say, spurred hundreds of people to come forward with their own accounts of being sexually assaulted as teenagers — in some instances, they said, at the hands of Savile-esque celebrities during a time when such men seemed to all but help themselves to girls they came in contact with.
Stung by criticism that they failed to follow through on numerous complaints against Mr. Savile, the police are now going out of their way to appear receptive to even the most minor complaint, even ones that are decades old. The operation involves at least 69 police officers and staff members and has already cost more than $2.7 million, according to figures obtained by The Independent newspaper through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The result has been a flurry of arrests, about a dozen involving very public people. But even as women’s rights advocates and others applaud a new era of openness, in which once-cowed victims feel able to speak out, lawyers for the high-profile suspects say that in the current climate, the accusers appear to be going out of their way to opportunistically target celebrities. And, they say, many of the accusations — of gropings, lewd behavior and drunken passes, as well as sex that seemed consensual at the time — have more to do with the anything-goes culture of the era than with any criminal behavior.
“It’s very easy to make a complaint, and it seems there are a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon,” said a lawyer involved in one of the cases, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity because lawyers and prosecutors in Britain generally do not discuss pending cases. “I’m not saying they’re not true or unfounded, but it’s very easy to go back 30 years and make accusations — especially when memories are hazy.”
England has no statute of limitations on serious crimes like rape and murder, yet it is notoriously hard to obtain convictions for sexual crimes, especially ones from years ago when no physical evidence exists. In those cases, prosecutors say, they have been looking for patterns — for instance, when a number of different women who are strangers come forward with similar accounts of being attacked by the same person.
“If there are a lot of unconnected allegations from people who couldn’t have colluded, if 10 people come forward and there is no link between them, it’s either a hell of a coincidence or each claim tends to support the others,” said a prosecutor with knowledge of the Yewtree investigation.
Of the dozen people arrested, two have been formally charged. One is a former BBC driver, David Smith, who has been charged with five counts of sexually assaulting and raping a 14-year-old boy in 1984. The second is Max Clifford, Britain’s best-known celebrity publicist and fixer, and a celebrity in his own right, the man that boldface names hire when they want to sell a story or make one go away.
Mr. Clifford, who is 70, has been charged with 11 counts of indecent assault in cases involving seven girls from 14 to 19 years old between 1966 and 1985. He has denied doing anything wrong.
The other people caught in the Yewtree net have all been arrested, a procedure that in Britain means that there is “reasonable suspicion” that they are guilty. But they have not yet been formally charged, a step that requires a higher burden of evidence. Suspects are often arrested, released and then charged months later.
The names evoke entertainers of a certain time and a certain type, and there has been a sense with each arrest of, who will be next?
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/world/europe/sex-inquiry-operation-yewtree-nabs-british-stars-of-yesteryear.html?partner=rss&emc=rss