As virtually everyone who has ever been connected testifies to William Roache's decency, it reminds me of my two kids who hosted No Limits for several years in the 80s, who, now mature adults, stood in the Old Bailey to testify to my own decency. I shall always be grateful to Jenny Powell and Tony Baker.

I was very disappointed Kenneth Cope/Jed Stone didn't turn up to Court in his Marty Hopkirk suit & wig. A missed opportunity.

Keep Deirdre inside.

Those who know and work with the man, day in, day out, testify to his character. I too had dozens of friends and neighbours who were prepared to face the trauma of the Old Bailey to tell the jury I was not the kind of person to abuse people. My lawyers told me not to call them; the prosecution and judge would simply say "yes he may have been nice most of the time; it doesn't mean he didn't commit the offences". So we didn't call the majority. Looking back, I wish we had.

British justice stinks.

your lawyer was terrible, did you hire him or did the police get him for you ?

No Andrew, they weren't terrible, just ordinary (like most professionals). In many cases I myself made bad decisions (like splitting the trial up; it made sense at the time but, looking back, was a mistake). And the system is broken. To this day I cannot believe that a Judge considers it fair to allow the Prosecution to change almost all of the dates after my defence was finished, without allowing us to find alternative alibis (like being in another country at the time).

If that is how British Justice works, one might as well give up.

It would be very unusual for someone who shows consideration to the feelings of others to be a secret rapist, so I think character witnesses are important.

Tomorrow (Thursday) BBC2 'Daily Politics' will feature "Sir" Keir Starmer debating 'victim treatment' with the legendary Barbara Hewson. The Starmtrooper feels the justice system is currently doing enough "for victims" and he doesn't think criminal trials should be 'a straight fight between the prosecution and defendant'.

JK2006 wrote:
To this day I cannot believe that a Judge considers it fair to allow the Prosecution to change almost all of the dates after my defence was finished, without allowing us to find alternative alibis (like being in another country at the time).

If that is how British Justice works, one might as well give up.

That is shocking. Is that actually legal?

Not just legal but "standard procedure" according to my QC.

JK2006 wrote:
Not just legal but "standard procedure" according to my QC.

You'd have thought being given the opportunity to defend yourself against allegations would have been a basic right.

Sounds awful...

We simply can't get it right, can we? Having gone through decades of the victim being largely ignored, we're now putting the alleged victim before the very tenets of our so-called justice system.
I would be the last person to say that Jimmy Savile shouldn't have been prosecuted, or that Stuart Hall doesn't belong where he is.
But when we see what's going on with Dave Lee Travis (never liked the man, but that's not a crime) and Bill Roache, it's easy to imagine there's not a man who alive and sexually active in the 70s who might not get the knock.
And as for the police naming but not prosecuting for months on end - Jimmy Tarbuck, Paul Gambaccini - well, that's a disgrace and shames us all.
Never been any doubt in my mind that JK was stitched up. I didn't follow the minutiae of the trial, but it didn't take a genius to work out that on the basis of the accusations against him, many heterosexuals should have been ahead of him in the queue - at least one Rolling Stone, a bevy of Led Zeps and countless others.

What is also wrong Jonathan is that you've been waiting for a chance to appeal your conviction, it must be at least seven years. Is there any further news on this?

Driver 67 wrote:
I would be the last person to say that Jimmy Savile shouldn't have been prosecuted

The police and CPS never believed that there was enough information or evidence to charge him at the time of the only police investigation into him between 2008 and 2009. The recent allegations that have spung up since his death in 2011 and that woman (Karin Ward's) online book (inspired by the 2008/2009 police investigation, which she never for found out about till later because she made no mention of him to the police or in the online synopsis of her story in 2008/2009), the recent allegations (apart from the ones taken in 2008/2009 after a lot of effort and trawling by the police), haven't actually been investigated to see if there could be any truth in them at all...