Freddie Starr arrested in connection with Met Savile inquiry

The Metropolitan Police issued a statement saying “officers working on operation Yewtree have this evening, Thursday 1 November, arrested a man in his 60s in connection with the investigation. The man, from Warwickshire, was arrested at approximately 17.45 hrs on suspicion of sexual offences, and has been taken into police custody locally.”

The first arrest under operation Yewtree was of former popstar Gary Glitter, who was bailed on Sunday.

Mr Starr had previously denied that he had ever met Karin Ward, the woman who alleged that he had molested her during the filming of the Jimmy Savile BBC show Clunk Click.

Subsequently, his lawyer issued a statement to Channel 4 News.

It read: “Freddie is now 69 and cannot be expected to recollect every show that he has appeared on and to remember every person that he has met.”

The statement added: “When the allegation made by Karin Ward was put to him Freddie’s first reaction was that he would never grope a women and never has.

“He then considered whether he had even been on a Jimmy Savile show or if he had met a women called Karin Ward. His recollection was that he had not been on a Jimmy Savile show and when he contacted the person who was his manager in the 70s he also could not remember Freddie appearing on any of his shows.

“In respect of Karin Ward this was not a name that Freddie could remember and therefore had no recollection of meeting her. It would now appear from seeing footage of a Clunk Click show aired in 1974 that in fact Freddie was mistaken and therefore that he had in fact been on a Jimmy Savile show.

“However, this does not detract away from the fact that Freddie vigorously denies the awful allegation that has been made by Karin Ward, which despite this footage is still totally unsupported and uncorroborated by any other evidence.”

In a previous interview with Channel 4 News recorded on 9 October Freddie Starr said he would welcome the opportunity to speak to police.

Three strands

The officer in charge of operation Yewtree has previously described how he is categorising the hundreds of lines of enquiry that he is dealing with, saying that they break down into three categories: Savile on his own; Savile and others; and others.

In its statement today relating to Mr Starr’s arrest, the Met said “The individual falls under the strand of the investigation we have termed ‘Savile and others’.”