Newsnight !

[adrianben]

Is Savile guilty ?

[Zacs-Master]

Innocent until proven, I think. But.....

[adrianben]

Their word against his, but ?

[EDDIE51]

Is The Pope a Catholic?

[jno]

hard to be guilty when you're dead, just as it's hard to be witty or sad.

[adrianben]

Very often a case will depend upon "who the judge believes" .

[FredPuli43]

Well, adrianben, the most important speech is not that of either counsel but that of the judge when summing up. Some judges take great pride in , and some are renowned for, their skill in 'potting' (getting guilty verdicts while remaining unappealable). But juries have common sense and will swiftly go against a judge who seems out of touch with the realities of life or human nature, however much he tries to get a conviction.

Had Savile been facing not one accusation of assault on one person but a series of counts of assault on several complainants, he would have gone down like a stone. That's what should have happened. One incident, one complainant, is fairly easy for the defence but a series of counts involving victims who were assaulted at different times, in different places, who had no common purpose or motive in complaining against him, and who did not know one another, forms such evidence of system that the whole indictment is vastly greater than the sum of its parts