'Monsters don't act alone - they're aided by people paid a few quid to look away'

Don't kid yourself that the paedophiles and predators hiding in plain sight aren’t just protected by a shambolic legal system.

Yes, it is true to say that 98% of UK adults prosecuted for sexual offences are men. It is also true to say that had the legal system operated as it should have, Mohamed Al Fayed would have gone through the courts to answer the sexual assault allegations made against him posthumously more than 15 years ago.

It is also true to say that there remains a huge army of enablers without whom the likes of Al Fayed could never have operated with impunity. They are the lackeys, the lickspittle and the loyal who run interference to ensure nothing touches or sticks to the individual at the centre of the questions. They are the carefully selected – and positioned – power brokers who melt into the shadows and move to the next big name when the brown stuff hits the fan.

READ MORE: 'Monster' Mohamed Al Fayed was 'like Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein'

This is not to malign them all. Plenty of honourable, efficient, honest employees work hard to play what they believe to be a principled role in the representation of the big names. But without grasping members of staff and establishment owners prepared to look the other way in exchange for a few quid, you’d imagine the video showing superstar artist P Diddy appearing to kick, shove and drag a woman in a hotel hallway in 2016 would have resurfaced far sooner than this year.

It is alleged in court documents that Diddy paid the LA hotel – now under new ownership and which claims not to have access to prior records – $50k for the security footage.

Without his army of media associates to do his bidding, disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein would surely have been exposed far sooner than his conviction four years ago. The word ‘enablers’ appeared more than once ahead of his seven-week trial.

More than 100 women claim to have slept with superstar golfer Tiger Woods. It is inconceivable that the man who at one time ruled the game could have kept his dalliances a secret from his family, the sports fraternity and the wider public without help. Some women claim to have communicated directly with Woods’ advisors – a claim he denied at the time. Make of that what you will.

Make what you want too of the fact that the BBC failed to respond – by its own admission – adequately to a complaint against Huw Edwards made to it in Wales by a young man’s mother and stepfather, who would instead go to the press to have it heard. Worse still, the BBC suspended Edwards on full pay once he’d been named, including for months after they’d been informed “in confidence” he’d been arrested on charges of which he has now been convicted.

Had Jimmy Savile not enjoyed an untouchable status at the state broadcaster, goodness knows how many young people – alive or dead – could have been protected from him.

Without Ghislaine Maxwell to traffic some of the young women who trusted her, Jeffrey Epstein could not have acted with impunity. She was convicted for her part in his sexual offences in 2021.

These cases are merely a tip of a melting iceberg. For too long, too many of the superstars we’ve watched, admired and adored have
taken our support and weaponised it to wreck lives in plain sight. Now that they face their reckoning, the spotlight must be shone on those who allowed it to happen. Some of them are still out there.

READ MORE: CPS admits it twice did not bring charges against Mohamed Al Fayed over sex abuse claims