PAEDOPHILE Jimmy Savile wrote a PR handbook for the royal family and regularly advised Prince Charles, newly uncovered correspondence reveals.
The Prince of Wales asked for the late TV presenter’s input after the Duke of York made insensitive comments about the Lockerbie bombing as well as on a number of other occasions.
Charles’s intimate letters to the disgraced entertainer are revealed in a new Netflix documentary, Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story.
Charles ultimately “incorporated” advice from Savile over Prince Andrew’s remarks during a 20-year period in which he regularly asked for the presenter’s input.
Savile is described as taking on the role of unofficial adviser to Charles, with the pair exchanging letters between 1986 and 2007.
Among the letters is a five-page document called Guidelines for Members of the Royal Family and Their Staffs. It was handwritten by Savile in 1989 and explains how he believes the monarchy should react to major events.
The Netflix filmmakers believe the handbook was created after Prince Andrew’s highly criticised remarks about the Lockerbie disaster, which led to the deaths of 270 people.
During a visit to the Dumfries and Galloway town in the days after the bombing, Andrew said it was “much worse for the Americans”, adding: “I suppose statistically something like this has got to happen at some stage … Of course it only affects the community in a very small way.”
In his PR handbook, Savile recommends the royals hire “a special person with considerable experience in such matters”.
He adds: “There must be an ‘incident room’ with several independent phone lines, teletext etc … The Queen should be informed in advance of any proposed action by family members.”
Charles responded with a handwritten letter on January 27, 1989. “I attach a copy of my memo on disasters which incorporates your points and which I showed to my father,” he wrote. “He showed it to HM [Her Majesty].”
Prince Charles visited Lockerbie January in 1989, reportedly to make amends for his brother’s insensitivity.
He spoke to victims' families and laid a wreath on a memorial.
Clarence House did not respond when approached for comment by the Times.
READ MORE: 'Prince Andrew should be stripped of Queen stand-in role', say experts
Following his death in 2011, police launched an investigation into 500 allegations of abuse against Savile. The vast majority of the victims, who were abused between 1955 and 2009, were under the age of 18.
Rowan Deacon, who directed the new Netflix documentary, says Charles was tricked by Savile.
“He was duped, like we all were,” he told the Times. “The letters show the trust that Prince Charles put into Jimmy Savile. He was trying to appeal to the British people, trying to modernise. And he saw Jimmy Savile as his conduit to that. In hindsight, that was catastrophic.”
Earlier this year, Prince Andrew settled out of court a civil sexual assault case with Virginia Giuffre, a woman he said he had never met.
The Duke of York was stripped of his honorary military titles and patronages by the Queen in January, and forced to relinquish using his HRH style amid his legal battle.
Giuffre was suing him for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 after being trafficked by paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
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