Another British TV Personality Identified in Child Sex Investigation
LONDON â€" Another well-known television personality was drawn into Britain’s growing child sex abuse scandal Tuesday when British news media identified a 73-year-old man arrested over allegations dating back to the late 1970s as the entertainer Jimmy Tarbuck.
The latest arrest, which took place in April, concerns the alleged abuse of a young boy in Harrogate in the north of England.
Police in North Yorkshire acted on information passed on from an investigation into Jimmy Savile, a television host who died in 2011 and who is now linked to hundreds of cases of abuse.
In the aftermath of those revelations, which shocked Britons and caused a crisis at the BBC which employed Mr. Savile, many victims have come forward and allegations have surfaced against around a dozen individuals, including some of the country’s best-known television personalities of the 1960s and 1970s.
Earlier this month, another BBC radio and television personality, Stuart Hall, 83, admitted 14 charges of indecently assaulting girls, one aged nine. The offenses, which involved 13 victims, took place between 1967 and 1985.
An entertainer and quiz show host from the north of England, Mr. Tarbuck was a schoolmate of the Beatle, John Lennon in Liverpool and rose to fame in the 1960s and 1970s, winning the affectionate nickname, “Tarby.â€
He was identified by the British media though not by police which in Britain do not normally name individuals until they are formally charged.
In a statement, North Yorkshire police said that a 73-year-old man had been arrested in connection with a child sex abuse investigation in Harrogate.
“The complaint relates to an incident that occurred in the late 1970s when the victim was a young boy,†the police statement said, adding that the man was arrested in Kingston Upon Thames on April 26 and released on bail.
North Yorkshire police officials said the arrest followed information supplied by officers working on Operation Yewtree, the investigation set up into allegations against Mr. Savile. The Tarbuck case, however, forms a separate investigation.
