09 October 2023 , 18:30
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Paedophile Jimmy Savile's disturbing friendship with serial killer Peter Sutcliffe was concerning to those unfortunate enough to witness it.
Savile, whose vile crimes were exposed after his death in 2011, was a regular at the infamous psychiatric hospital Broadmoor, which he was previously a patron of and where he first met Sutcliffe in the 80s. The pair went on to strike up a friendship, which saw the pair drink tea together in Sutcliffe's cell, a former inmate claims.
James Grant, now 70, spent six years with Sutcliffe and recalls their unusual meetings in prison.
“Jimmy Savile was quite a regular at Broadmoor. He paid a lot of attention to Sutcliffe," he told the Daily Star. He went on to explain that Savile was "very chatty" with the killer that he would always go into Sutcliffe's cell and "they'd drink tea together". He added: "It made me think there was something going on there, it just wasn’t quite right."
Grant, who left Broadmoor in 1993 and went on to marry, said that he used to find it "a bit weird" that the pair spent so much time together. "I thought maybe, I was a bit paranoid but now I wonder at times, now that we know the full story about Savile," he continued.
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Sutcliffe's vile crimes cast a long shadow over Yorkshire for decades after the serial killer's eventual capture in 1981, 12 years after his first documented assault. He was convicted of murdering thirteen women and attempting to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980 and was sentenced to twenty concurrent sentences of life imprisonment, which were converted to a whole life order in 2010.
Suffering from schizophrenia and angina and spending his final days battling diarrhoea and intense vomiting, it was an uncomfortable ending for the Covid-ridden Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe. He died in hospital almost three years ago in severe pain.
While Savile got away with never facing the consequences of his crimes when he diedof pneumonia two days before his 85th birthday at his penthouse home in Roundhay, Leeds.
Savile is suspected of committing close to 500 crimes in his life and was accused of "mucking about" with dead bodies in a mortuary, as well as using his grooming techniques to abuse freely at Broadmoor.
His death brought accusations that continue to horrify the public to this day and resulted in Operation Yewtree, an investigation into historical acts of sex abuse that led to the downfall of some of Britain's most famous broadcast personalities and showbiz people like Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall.
Both Savile and Sutcliffe are now the subject of new BBC and ITV dramas The Reckoning and The Long Shadow.