BBC presenter Stuart Hall gets fresh jail term
British broadcaster Stuart Hall AFP FILE PHOTO
LONDON—Veteran former BBC presenter Stuart Hall was jailed for a further two years and six months Friday for indecently assaulting an under-age girl, adding to an earlier prison term for sexual offences.
Hall, 84, is one of a series of ageing British celebrities to face investigation in the wake of the revelation that one of the BBC’s biggest stars, Jimmy Savile, was a prolific child sex offender.
Hall was cleared last week of raping two girls after a two-week trial at Preston Crown Court in northwest England but was convicted of one count of indecent assault and admitted another.
“It was an act of vile bravado and horrible betrayal,” judge Mark Turner told Hall as he passed sentence.
His victim wiped away tears as details were read out in court of how he crept into her bedroom and assaulted her while attending a dinner party.
The new prison sentence on Friday adds to a 15-month jail term that Hall was already serving. He had been jailed in June 2013 after admitting to 14 charges of indecently assaulting girls as young as nine.
Hall, a married father-of-two, had been due to be released in September, but will now stay in jail until at least December 2015, the judge ruled.
The former presenter of the chaotic game show “It’s A Knockout” later became an eccentric football match summariser for BBC radio known for his florid descriptive style, scattered with allusions to literary classics.
Hall was arrested in the wake of the revelations about Jimmy Savile, although the charges against him were not officially filed as part of the investigation — codenamed Operation Yewtree — that British police launched to look at allegations arising from the Savile scandal.
Australian entertainer Rolf Harris is currently on trial on unrelated sexual assault charges that arose out of Operation Yewtree, which he denies.
Another former BBC DJ, Chris Denning, appeared in court on Friday charged with 41 alleged sex attacks, largely against young boys.
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