The Steeple Times

Tag: paedophile

  • “As it ‘appens,” sir, Jimmy’s ‘ad you too

    “As it ‘appens,” sir, Jimmy’s ‘ad you too

    The purchaser of Sir Jimmy Savile’s Rolls-Royce whinges about his lacking lot

     

    As 14 police forces announce that they are investigating an astonishing 340 leads and the claims of 40 alleged victims of Sir Jimmy Savile, we at The Steeple Times were equally astounded when we received a Tweet from one of our most esteemed followers @veniviedivici this afternoon.

     

    In his Tweet, @veniviedivici provided a link to a SKY News “exclusive” with the purchaser of a 2002 Rolls-Royce Corniche that had been sold by auctioneers Dreweatts as part of an auction of the possessions of the late Savile that took place on the 30th July.

     

    Charlotte Leeming of the BBC with the former Sir Jimmy Savile Rolls-Royce Corniche. Follow her on Twitter at @lottyleeming
    Bidders at the Dreweatts auction of the possessions of the late Sir Jimmy Saville in Leeds on 30th July 2012

    At the time, the Rolls-Royce, which Savile had (rather appropriately – given the current turn in events) nicknamed “The Beast,” was listed in the auction catalogue at a guide price of £60,000 to £90,000. It eventually sold for £130,000. With a buyer’s premium, this figure totaled a figure of £161,000 and of it the anonymous buyer, a scrap dealer from Poole in Dorset, told SKY News:

     

    “I never met him, but he was someone I’ve grown up with. I’ll only drive it now and again.”

     

    He added: “I bought it on a whim,” whilst the disappointed underbidder, a “colourful pie and peas” charity fundraiser named Leon Parrish, stated:

     

    “I’m gutted. Good to luck to him [the buyer] but at the end, I hated him.”

     

    He had a lucky escape: charity fundraiser Leon Parrish was pipped at the post and missed out on buying the late Sir Jimmy Savile’s 2002 Rolls-Royce Corniche

    Mr Parrish may now have changed his mind. Readers may also recall our own coverage of the sale and we even admit to having been somewhat hoodwinked by Savile’s supposed largesse in the statement we made at the time:

     

    “Jim fixed it that all proceeds will go to charity. Even in death, this top dollar gent continues to do good.”

     

    Since then, Savile has been exposed at worst as a rapist and paedophile and at best as a dirty old creep. As he lies in a concrete encased grave (minus it’s headstone now), we retract our last sentence. He was not a good man and sadly, though he’ll be forever remembered as a disgrace, he’ll never face a single charge.

     

    The new owner of Savile’s Rolls-Royce Corniche, as a result of the media furore over the current allegations, is certainly not laughing but today when he gave a bleeding heart interview, he just made a pathetic fool of himself. Here are a few sentences from it:

     

    “I don’t want to be associated with it… I’m just gutted because all of this should have come out beforehand… The only way that car will sell is to get the Savile name off of it and try to sell it for £70,000 if I’m lucky… I’ve never even driven it… I bought it, they delivered it, I had it picked up, they took it to Surrey for servicing [he’s had to spend £8,000 on the brakes and other problems with the car] and it’s still there… A lot of people spent a lot of money on that stuff [other items in the Dreweatt sale], tracksuits and that, and they’ve got to burn them now because they’re worth nothing… I’ve got my lawyers looking at it now, but my solicitor has spoken to a barrister and he seemed to think none of us had a leg to stand on.”

     

    The scrap dealer went on to add that his plans to rent the car out for weddings and children’s parties had been scuppered but worse still, he informed Gerard Tubb of Sky News that his wife knew nothing of his somewhat stupid purchase:

     

    “She’d absolutely kill me, I’d get thrown out… Probably she knows deep down, but I’ve just got to deny it because I wouldn’t get away with this one.”

     

    Whoever he may be, this scrap dealer is truly not worthy of any of our sympathies. He bought a car unseen and didn’t adhere to the principle: “Caveat emptor.” We at The Steeple Times have no sympathies for this nitwit.

     

    Read the SKY News 31st July interview with the purchaser of Sir Jimmy Savile’s Rolls-Royce at: http://news.sky.com/story/996611/buyer-of-jimmy-saviles-rolls-royce-gutted

     

    Read The Steeple Times article about the sale of the car at: http://thesteepletimes.com/opulence-splendour/a-top-roller

     

    Read the SKY News 12th October interview with the owner of the former Jimmy Savile Rolls-Royce at: http://news.sky.com/story/996611/buyer-of-jimmy-saviles-rolls-royce-gutted

     

    Follow @veniviedivici at: http://twitter.com/veniviedivici

     

  • Now then, now then, not now then

    Now then, now then, not now then

    Matthew Steeples shares his somewhat mixed thoughts on the allegations against Sir Jimmy Savile

     

    When Sir Jimmy Savile’s 2002 Rolls-Royce Corniche went to auction in July with a guide price of £60,000 to £90,000, he seemed destined to be remembered as a man who would continue to do as much good in death as he appeared to have done in life. Savile (1926 – 2011) had arranged that all proceeds of the auction would go to charity and in the end the car fetched £130,000.

     

    By September 2012, however, everything had changed. Savile, a man who had raised an estimated £40,000,000 for charity during his lifetime, now stands accused of allegations of sexual assault against numerous women and at least one male following an ITV1 documentary, Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile.

     

    Sir Jimmy Savile OBE, KCSG outside the highland retreat at Allt na Reigh, Glencoe, Ballachulish, Scotland, PH49 4HX where he entertained amongst HRH The Prince of Wales and TV presenter Louis Theroux
    Sir Jimmy Savile’s humour and approach to life was considered “saucy” and “Carry On-esque” during his lifetime. Now, many appear to regret allowing his behaviour to go unnoticed.

    When I first heard these allegations, I was somewhat perturbed. My initial thought was: “Is it right that these allegations surface when the alleged perpetrator is not here to defend himself?” Yes, Savile and many other stars of his generation and ilk appeared eccentric and perhaps even a little sinister, but that does not mean that they were or are necessarily paedophiles and rapists. In the days that followed, I found myself questioning the motivations of those who had waited until this supposedly affable star was dead before they opted to blacken his name. The fact that many of these “victims” remain hidden behind masks of anonymity, equally, is somewhat questionable especially when their alleged abuser is not here to “threaten” them any longer either.

     

    Having since watched the documentary, presented by former police detective Mark Williams-Thomas, and subsequently heard an incredibly creepy recording released by the BBC of Savile with a 14-year old girl, my mind changed somewhat and I now find myself appalled that this individual was allowed to get away with his perverted ways for so long.

     

    Even in his lifetime, the bachelor Savile made some pretty sordid comments about his sex life and attitude towards women. A passage from his 1974 autobiography, As it Happens, gives an example:

     

    “There have been trains and, with apologies to the hit parade, boats and planes (I am a member of the 40,000 foot club) and bushes and fields, corridors, doorways, floors, chairs, slag heaps, desks and probably everything except the celebrated chandelier and ironing board.”

     

    It is also true that Savile was investigated and interviewed under caution over allegations of indecent assault in the 1970s by British police in 2007 and that the States of Jersey police had similarly looked into another assault in 2008. Neither resulted in any charges being brought but now that many of his former colleagues have come forward to state that knowledge of the Jim’ll Fix It star’s predatory ways were “well known,” one has to ask why no one shouted louder back then. After all, many of these people were in positions of power equal and in some cases senior to Savile.

     

    Rather like with Leveson, though, the present calls for an investigation into the activities of Jimmy Savile come too late and are in my view pointless. Such an inquiry would certainly give the camera loving blabbermouths their day in court but it will not bring any closure for those who were allegedly abused. Their alleged abuser will never be punished for what he allegedly did and the only people to benefit will be the lawyers. Column inches will indeed also be filled but what else would be achieved?

     

    Savile is buried in a coffin inclined at 45 degrees to fulfill his wish to “see the sea” at Woodlands Cemetery in Scarborough, Yorkshire. It has recently been encased in concrete “as a security measure” and given that a memorial plaque on his former home had to be removed after being defaced with graffiti, this is probably wise.

     

    Whether Jimmy Savile is innocent or guilty of the abuses that he has been accused, his name now is forever tarnished. That now will be this strange man’s only legacy.

     

    For more details on The Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust, go to: http://www.thejimmysavilecharitabletrust.com/

     

  • Why pay less?

    Why pay less?

    Living life to the full Donald G. Abbey style

     

    “Why pay less when you can pay more?” is a mantra that some strangely choose to live by. In my time, I have encountered a couple with a different Ferrari for each day of the week, someone who proudly declared their home had a window for each day of the year and an heiress who insists upon the local baker feeding her dog daily with a freshly baked caviar pie.

     

    When I discovered a house in California priced at $78,000,000, I didn’t expect to subsequently find out that the same vendor is also selling another of his homes in Montana at the very same price. Having done a little research into Donald G. Abbey, the commercial real estate tycoon who owns both The Bradbury Estate and Shelter Island, I discovered that here indeed is another personality whose excess knows no bounds.

     

    I suppose when people sell homes of this worth, the asking price they set is quite irrelevant. “What,” I’m sure they ask, “is $5 million between friends?” Equally, when it comes to developing such properties, characters of this nature do not show any reserve. Bling is most definitely the order of the day and the larger and flashier one can build, I guess, the better.

     

    An aerial shot of The Bradbury Estate, 172 Bliss Canyon Road, Bradbury, California, CA 91008, USA
    The front elevation of the main house
    The owner and his guests need not get wet on arrival in their limousines

     

    Abbey’s Bradbury Estate is a case in point. This vast property consists of a 33,000 square foot main house with 7 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. It is almost entirely made of French limestone and includes a chef’s kitchen with a pizza oven, a 2,000 bottle wine cellar, an oak paneled elevator and a leather paneled poker room. Bedrooms include domes with hand painted frescos and in addition there is a detached 6,700 square foot guest house above a 10 car garage and a 5,700 square foot pool house with a catering kitchen, gym, massage room and a subterranean EPA certified 25 yard rifle shooting range complete with a gun storage room and 2 large safes.

     

    The hall of the main residence comes complete with a gallery and bar
    A vast library provides the perfect space to enjoy a good book
    The library’s glazed ceiling
    Another palatial reception room
    The house features a rather impressive kitchen
    Mr Abbey’s copper bath tub comes complete with a mat displaying his initials in front of it

     

    Within the 8 acre grounds there is a cross shaped infinity-edged pool – perhaps Mr Abbey is religious – that is “just a few feet short of Olympic length.” It requires 350,000 gallons of water if it is to be filled to capacity. Adjoining this is something even more ludicrous: a 1,000,000 gallon, temperature-controlled rainbow trout pond that cost some $8,000,000 to construct. The pond is said to be “adorned with perennials,” is heated by a custom gravity separator with UV filters and is “chilled for the trout by a 300-tonne central cooling plant.” At Bradbury, thoughts of water crisis in Sudan and Ethiopia come way behind the needs of Abbey’s rainbows.

     

    The rear of the house viewed from above The Bradbury Estate’s $8,000,000 trout pond
    The estate’s 350,000 gallon near Olympic length cross shaped infinity edged swimming pool
    The property’s EPA certified 25 yard rifle range

     

    For those wanting to avoid California’s UV rays, Bradbury also boasts an acre of porches, decks, loggia and walkways. A 600ft blue stone driveway completes this “once in a lifetime trophy property” that “belongs in the portfolio of the most astute collector” and it has space for “60 foot truck access or multiple limousines.”

     

    When Mr Abbey has tired of California, he is able to retreat to his own island in Montana. The 24 acre Shelter Island on Flathead Lake includes 7,000 feet of frontage to the water, a world class sporting clay course and 3 computer controlled tracks and docking systems that allow boats to be landed in the dry dock without riders ever leaving the craft or handling a line. The island is powered via an underground armoured utility cable that carry 12,000 amps to it along with CAT-5 computer cable and phonelines and the main entertaining space features a mammoth television of some 120-inches in size.

     

    An aerial view of Donald G. Abbey’s Shelter Island
    Mr Abbey’s passion for copper continues with a conservatory made out of the metal on the lakeside elevation of the main residence on Shelter Island
    The Great Room of the main residence on Shelter Island
    Mr Abbey’s passion for fine wines is displayed in a bar and tasting room in the property
    The owner and his guests can access their boats without having to go anywhere near the water

     

    Abbey has built over 44,000 square foot of accommodation on his island. The main house has 5 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms. His “Great Room” features ceilings of some 45 foot in height and in addition to yet another indoor shooting range, there is a kitchen that woudn’t look out of place in The Savoy hotel.

     

    In the UK, the property most similar to anything Abbey has built has to be Updown Court at Windlesham in Surrey. Developed by a former bricklayer named Leslie Allen-Vercoe, the house was described by him as being: “The most important residence to be built in England since the 19th century.” Architectural critics did not agree and some went as far as to say that it looked like: “A cross between a Tesco superstore and Center Parcs.”

     

    Allen-Vercoe’s behemoth of a house is gargantuan in size. With 103 rooms it includes 24 bedrooms, 5 swimming pools, a 2-lane bowling alley, a squash court, a floodlit tennis court, a 50-seat cinema and a panic room. The heated driveway that led to the house is entirely made of marble and cost some £2.5 million to construct but plainly none of this appealed to the market as it languished for sale at a price of £70,000,000 from 2006 to 2011 before being repossessed by the Irish National Asset Management Agency (NAMA). Updown Court was sold for half the original asking price to a foreign buyer in October 2011 and is, I believe, due to undergo extensive remodeling.

     

    Updown Court, Chertsey Road, Windlesham, Surrey, GU20 6HY, UK

     

    Allen Vercoe once stated: “If Elton John were a house, he’d be Updown Court.” Equally, I imagine if Mr Abbey’s residences were to be compared to any celebrities they’d be the vulgar car crash that is Donatella Versace and the ludicrous money obsessed singer with a dollar sign in her name, Ke$ha.

     

    Updown Court, Shelter Island and The Bradbury Estate all illustrate that money cannot buy you good taste. I suppose, though, that those who ultimately come to live in them will have plenty of space to choose how and where to enjoy their own form of misery.

     

    For more information about Donald G. Abbey, go to: http://www.theabbeyco.com

     

    For information on both The Bradbury Estate and Shelter Island, contact Bob Hurwitz of the Hurwitz James Company on +1 310-477-8865. Website: http://www.hurwitzjamesco.com

     

    A website devoted to The Bradbury Estate can be viewed at: http://www.bradburyestate.com

     

    A video of Shelter Island can be watched at: http://vimeo.com/11404637

     

    For more details on Updown Court, go to: http://www.updowncourt.com/

     

  • Winging it

    Winging it

    Sarah Tucker gives an update on goings on at the resort where Madeleine McCann vanished

     

    Four hundred and thirty euros, one bedroom apartment, one week at the height of season at a luxury family resort in Portugal. And oh yes, it’s the Ocean Club at Praia da Luz. There’s availability with two and three bedroom apartments as well. I asked about apartment 5a where Madeleine disappeared but the PR is coming back to me on that one. That was four days ago.

     

    The Ocean Club entrance and Apartment 5A at the top of the street

    I checked this out because having looked at the comments on The Steeple Times McCann roll call entry, I wanted to know what became of the resort where she disappeared.  Last year the lady who owned the property itself couldn’t sell it because women buyers were put off by it’s history.  I don’t blame them. I would never recommend buying from a divorcing couple, no matter how good the deal, so buying somewhere where a child has been allegedly kidnapped is a no no. Estate agents will say nonsense, but that’s a woman’s superstition for you. Or a mother’s superstition.

     

    I remember writing at the time about Mark Warner, a company synonymous with a reputation for keeping parents who treated parenting as a subject to be studied to A*, not as something to leave to instinct, God forbid.  Perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but having recently vox popped over 500 parents* asking if they would leave their children in their hotel room unsupervised while they ate in a restaurant on site, none of them, not one, said they would do so. I never mentioned the McCann case. The question about childcare was mixed in with other family travel related stuff, but some even mentioned the McCann’s case when they responded.  And all claimed they would take advantage of a babysitting service if it was offered or eat earlier and with the kids if it wasn’t.

     

    I was asked at the time if I would ever leave my son alone. I never have. Too risky and having lost him for ten minutes in the salubrious area that is East Sheen high street at five in the afternoon five years ago, because I refused to wait for him to tie up his shoe lace for the nth time, and getting no less than eighteen other men and women, all who had been either waiting for buses, serving or being served in shops, or in several cases drinking in the local pub, to run up and down, shouting his name, I understand the McCann’s need to go to the end of the earth, the prime minister, the Pope, to find their daughter. I completely understand this. What I never understood was their emotional reaction or rather lack of it.    In the meantime babysitting services are still offered at the Ocean Club.

     

    * Using social media (parents of three to six year olds).

     

  • Gerry & Kate McCann

    Gerry & Kate McCann

    Their daughter Madeleine disappeared on the evening 3rd May 2007 from a holiday apartment whilst they sat enjoying tapas with a bunch of friends. Some believe the poor child was kidnapped. Others have alternative theories. A public fund to find “Maddie” raised hundreds of thousands of pounds but Mrs McCann’s book, Madeleine, contains so many references to trips on private jets and meeting famous people that it makes one question whether the search for the child or fame has become the focus.

  • Eugene Carokis

    Eugene Carokis

    He’s shunned Facebook and Twitter and is often to be found in the V&A library at weekends. Some say Carokis is developing an intellectual side but his day job is more typically Greek. This diplomat’s son works in shipping and is especially talented at making Greek salads. His costume choices for fancy dress parties are anything other than conservative.

  • Katie Price (AKA Katie Hayler, Katie Reid, Katie Andre, Katie Infield and Jordan)

    Katie Price (AKA Katie Hayler, Katie Reid, Katie Andre, Katie Infield and Jordan)

    This glamour model is to be commended for having made a fortune. Her taste in men and cars however is utterly lacking. Her pink Range Rover is perhaps symbolic of all that is wrong about her.