A MOTHER has claimed her sister was driven to suicide after being abused by Jimmy Savile.
Julie Carlson, 49, from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, said her sibling Deborah Faulds, who said she was a victim of three attacks by the TV star, took her own life in 1994 at the age of 31.
The claims are the latest in a large number of allegations against Savile, with evidence of 214 criminal offences having been recorded in 28 police force areas, including 34 rapes.
An official report into decades of alleged abuse by Savile said five offences are known to have been committed in Scotland, with victims across Strathclyde, Fife, Grampian, Lothian and Borders and in the Northern Constabulary area, where he owned a holiday cottage at Glencoe. Ms Carlson reportedly said her sister had told her family of the attacks, but they had not believed her.
She said: "It haunts me that we didn't believe her. It makes me sick.
"It was not until it all came out about Savile that I finally realised she was telling the truth."
Deborah Faulds took her own life while a patient at Birmingham's Readside Clinic where she had been admitted after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
She had previously been a patient at Moss Side Hospital in Liverpool, where Savile is known to have paid regular visits during the 1980s.
Ms Carlson added: "My sister was a patient at Moss Side for many, many years.
"Jimmy Savile visited her three times when she was very ill, and Debs told me and my mum he'd abused her.
"We thought because she was mentally ill she was just making it up. But now I know she was telling the truth.
"I know one thing my sister couldn't do is lie, I just wish I had believed her at the time."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article