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'''James Stuart Hall''', [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] (born 25 December 1929) is an English former radio and television presenter. He presented regional news programmes for the [[BBC]] in [[North West England]] in the 1960s and 1970s, and in the same period, became known nationally for presenting ''[[It's a Knockout]]'' and ''[[Jeux Sans Frontières]]''. His later career mainly involved football reporting on BBC radio. He has been described as "eccentric, erudite, egotistical – a distinctive personality who could balance light entertainment buffoonery with sports and serious news".<ref name=bbcprofile/>
'''James Stuart Hall''', [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] (born 25 December 1929) is an English former radio and television presenterand convicted child sex abuser <ref>[[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22932222]]</ref>. He presented regional news programmes for the [[BBC]] in [[North West England]] in the 1960s and 1970s, and in the same period, became known nationally for presenting ''[[It's a Knockout]]'' and ''[[Jeux Sans Frontières]]''. His later career mainly involved football reporting on BBC radio. He has been described as "eccentric, erudite, egotistical – a distinctive personality who could balance light entertainment buffoonery with sports and serious news".<ref name=bbcprofile/>


Through an investigation initiated in May 2012, police established that Hall had a history of sexually abusing prepubescent and adolescent girls. He was charged with multiple sexual offences in December 2012 and January 2013, which he initially denied. In April 2013 he pleaded guilty to [[indecent assault|indecently assaulting]] 13 girls, aged between 9 and 17 years, between 1967 and 1986<ref name="BBC020513"></ref> and on 17 June 2013, he was sentenced at Preston Crown Court to 15-months in jail.<ref>http://news.sky.com/story/1104682/stuart-hall-jailed-for-sex-attacks-on-girls</ref> When the story became public, the BBC immediately terminated his contract. It will launch an inquiry into his conduct while at the corporation.
Through an investigation initiated in May 2012, police established that Hall had a history of sexually abusing prepubescent and adolescent girls. He was charged with multiple sexual offences in December 2012 and January 2013, which he initially denied. In April 2013 he pleaded guilty to [[indecent assault|indecently assaulting]] 13 girls, aged between 9 and 17 years, between 1967 and 1986<ref name="BBC020513"></ref> and on 17 June 2013, he was sentenced at Preston Crown Court to 15-months in jail.<ref>http://news.sky.com/story/1104682/stuart-hall-jailed-for-sex-attacks-on-girls</ref> When the story became public, the BBC immediately terminated his contract. It will launch an inquiry into his conduct while at the corporation.

Revision as of 13:16, 17 June 2013

For other people named Stuart Hall, see Stuart Hall (disambiguation).

Stuart Hall
Born
James Stuart Hall

(1929-12-25) 25 December 1929 (age 94)[1]
Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England[1]
NationalityBritish
OccupationTelevision presenter

James Stuart Hall, OBE (born 25 December 1929) is an English former radio and television presenterand convicted child sex abuser [2]. He presented regional news programmes for the BBC in North West England in the 1960s and 1970s, and in the same period, became known nationally for presenting It's a Knockout and Jeux Sans Frontières. His later career mainly involved football reporting on BBC radio. He has been described as "eccentric, erudite, egotistical – a distinctive personality who could balance light entertainment buffoonery with sports and serious news".[3]

Through an investigation initiated in May 2012, police established that Hall had a history of sexually abusing prepubescent and adolescent girls. He was charged with multiple sexual offences in December 2012 and January 2013, which he initially denied. In April 2013 he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting 13 girls, aged between 9 and 17 years, between 1967 and 1986[4] and on 17 June 2013, he was sentenced at Preston Crown Court to 15-months in jail.[5] When the story became public, the BBC immediately terminated his contract. It will launch an inquiry into his conduct while at the corporation.

Early life

Hall was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, the eldest son of baker James Stuart, and his Irish-born wife, Mary Hall.[1][6][7] He was brought up in Hyde, Cheshire, and Glossop, Derbyshire, attending the local grammar school where he stayed after school hours for voluntary extra English language tuition.[6] He directed plays when at school, and chaired its debating society.[3]

While studying at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, he was offered a contract with Crystal Palace F.C., but turned it down because of the low wages.[3]

Career

Journalism

Hall joined the BBC in 1959 as a general reporter on Radio Newsreel and a sports journalist on Sports Report.[1][8]. Between 1965 and 1990, he presented the BBC's regional news programmes for the North West produced in Manchester, originally called Look North, then Look North West and finally North West Tonight, alongside John Mundy.[1][8] During the run of Nationwide (1969–83), he became known nationally through live link-ups.[3]

In 1990, he moved to Granada Reports, where he worked with Bob Greaves in a slot titled "Greaves and Hall."[1][8]

During the 2000s, he joined Channel M, a local television station in Greater Manchester, presenting Hall's Heroes on Channel M News.[1][8]

Light entertainment

Hall became particularly well known as the presenter of It's a Knockout between 1972 and 1982 and its European equivalent, Jeux Sans Frontières.[1] In particular, during the latter programme, more usually providing the off-screen commentary, he would often be overcome by laughter at the slapstick antics of the competitors. This led to his becoming a popular subject for impersonation. After the series was cancelled, he presented the one-off Grand Knockout Tournament (also known as "It's a Royal Knockout") in 1987, and retained the rights to the programme and some costumes, which enabled him to host similar programmes and events in other parts of the world.[3]

He also presented Quiz Ball (a football quiz) on BBC television during the early 1970s and he was the original host of the long-running sports quiz A Question of Sport (at that time only broadcast in the North of England); and in the late 1990s he presented Going, Going, Gone, an antiques quiz show for the BBC and provided the voice-over for God's Gift for Granada.

From 2007 to 2008, he was the voice-over for the UK version of the Japanese obstacle course show Ninja Warrior on Challenge.

In 2008, he provided his voice for a special segment on Les Dennis's Home Video Heroes. In a typical episode, he would be shown a series of funny clips and there would be a 'laugh-o-meter' at the bottom of the screen measuring how much he laughed.

Football

As a football reporter, Hall is associated with the phrase "The Beautiful Game", which he popularised, and which he reports he coined in his youth to describe football. As a lifelong Manchester City supporter[1] he admired prolific goal-scorer Peter Doherty's style of playing and consequently used the phrase "The Beautiful Game" to describe Doherty.[1][9]

The first football match that he reported on was Sheffield Wednesday versus Leicester City at Hillsborough in 1958, where the teams shared eight goals.[1][7] His reports are unique, scattered with allusions to the works of William Shakespeare and all manner of linguistic tricks. Despite his love of Manchester City,[10] he has affectionately referred to their former home ground Maine Road as the Theatre of Base Comedy,[10] an allusion to City's Manchester rivals Manchester United's home ground Old Trafford, which is known as the "Theatre of Dreams".

During the 1970s, Hall developed a relationship with Liverpool F.C. manager Bill Shankly, and became a regular visitor to the Anfield 'Boot Room'.[7] His relationship with Bob Paisley enabled him to pull off a coup, capturing the team's first European Cup final in 1977 in Rome. Smuggled into the ground as a club employee, Hall spent the match on the substitutes' bench wearing the No 14 shirt. This enabled him to get inside television footage of the team's 3–1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach.[1][7] As a television presenter with Look North, he used to turn out for benefit matches, scoring twice against Gordon Banks in Eddie Hopkinson's testimonial at Bolton Wanderers F.C.[1][7]

Hall worked as a football reporter for BBC Radio 5 Live for some years. On 10 December 2009 Radio 5 Live presented a special programme, Stuart Hall Night, broadcast live from the City of Manchester Stadium.

Prosecution and Conviction

In May 2012, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a journalist and regular columnist for The Independent, received an anonymous three-page letter alleging that Hall had groomed and sexually abused the writer while she was a schoolgirl in the 1970s. The writer stated that she had been motivated to disclose her experiences by the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal and by her anger at Hall's appointment as an OBE in the 2012 New Year Honours. Alibhai-Brown passed the letter to Ealing police, who in turn sent it on to Lancashire Constabulary, who then began an investigation.[11]

On 5 December 2012, police arrested Hall and charged him with three historic counts of indecent assault, involving a 16- or 17-year-old girl in 1974, a 9-year-old girl in 1983, and a 13-year-old girl in 1984.[12][13] Released on bail, he initially denied any wrongdoing, stating through his solicitor that he was "innocent of these charges".[14][15] When he appeared at Preston Magistrates Court on 7 January 2013, he pleaded not guilty to all three charges. The prosecutor argued that the issues concerned were serious enough that Hall should stand trial at Crown Court, to which the defence did not object.[16] He was released on bail on condition that he remained resident at his home address and had no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 17.[14][17]

Media coverage of the case led to more women coming forward to state that they had also been sexually abused by Hall.[18] On 22 January 2013, he was charged with raping a 22-year-old woman in 1976 and indecently assaulting 10 more girls, then aged from 9 to 17 years old, between 1967 and 1986.[19][20] Speaking to reporters after an appearance at Preston Magistrates Court on 7 February 2013, Hall again denied any wrongdoing, calling the charges "pernicious, callous, cruel and, above all, spurious."[15]

At a pre-trial hearing at Preston Crown Court on 16 April 2013, Hall pleaded guilty to 14 charges of indecent assault involving 13 girls aged between 9 and 17. Two of the offences related to indecent penetration, and all but four of the offences took place between 1972 and 1982, during the time Hall was at the height of his fame with It's a Knockout. Hall was released on bail pending sentencing on 17 June. Reporting restrictions prevented the media from making the news public until 2 May 2013, when the Crown Prosecution Service elected not to pursue the rape charge or three other indecent assault charges relating to the same complainant, who had decided not to give evidence. Through a statement made by his barrister, Hall issued an "unreserved apology" to his victims.[4][21][22][23]

When the news of Hall's guilty plea became public, the BBC immediately terminated his contract and stated: "The BBC is appalled by the disgraceful actions of Stuart Hall and we would like to express our sympathy to his victims."[23] Lord Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, initially announced that Dame Janet Smith would extend her inquiry into the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal to include Hall's sex offences.[24] The BBC subsequently decided to launch a separate inquiry headed by a different individual.[25]

A number of Hall's victims have instructed their lawyers to sue him and possibly the BBC, on whose premises a number of assaults allegedly occurred.[26] Land Registry records revealed that on 22 February 2013, Hall had transferred his home, which he and his wife Hazel Hall had owned jointly since 1981, into his wife's sole name. Although he claimed that he was getting his financial affairs in order due to an "extreme heart condition" that left him at risk of sudden death, lawyers acting for his victims said they would seek a court order to nullify the transfer of the property, worth an estimated £1.2 million, on the basis that he had relinquished ownership to avoid compensation claims. On 17 June 2013 he was sentenced, at Preston Crown Court, to 15 months imprisonment.[27][28]

Private life and honours

Hall married Hazel on 1 March 1958 and lives in Wilmslow, Cheshire. The couple's first son, Nicholas, died shortly after birth due to a heart defect.[29] They went on to have a daughter, Francesca, and a son, Daniel. They now have four grandchildren.[30] His family are reported to be standing by him after his prosecution.[4] Hall owns an extensive collection of clocks, including one that belonged to Napoleon.[7]

In 1999 various Members of Parliament signed a House of Commons motion, congratulating Hall on 40 years in broadcasting.[31]

Hall was appointed OBE in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting and charity.[32][33]

References

Citations
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Stuart Hall (2000). Heaven and Hall: a prodigal life. ISBN 0-563-53811-2.
  2. ^ [[1]]
  3. ^ a b c d e BBC News, Profile: Stuart Hall, 2 May 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013
  4. ^ a b c "Broadcaster Stuart Hall admits indecent assaults". BBC News. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  5. ^ http://news.sky.com/story/1104682/stuart-hall-jailed-for-sex-attacks-on-girls
  6. ^ a b Mike Dickson (4 January 2008). "Stuart Hall, the knockout king of the radio, has fond memories of Newcastle boss Allardyce". Daily Mail. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Michael Henderson (28 July 2007). "Stuart Hall enjoying time of his life". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  8. ^ a b c d "Stuart Hall". TV Cream. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  9. ^ Harper, Nick (2 May 2003). "Stuart Hall". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 April 2011. The player I fell in love with and who inspired me to coin the phrase "the beautiful game" was Peter Doherty, an inside forward, my first hero.
  10. ^ a b City will be back, BBC Sport, 22 May 2001.
  11. ^ Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin (3 May 2012). "How I exposed Stuart Hall's sex abuse: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on the letter that kick-started the investigation". The Independent. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  12. ^ "Stuart Hall charged with indecent assaults". BBC. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  13. ^ "It's a Knockout presenter Stuart Hall charged with child abuse". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  14. ^ a b "Stuart Hall 'innocent of abuse charges' says solicitor". BBC News. 7 December 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  15. ^ a b "Stuart Hall's guilty pleas follow strenuous public denials". The Daily Telegraph. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  16. ^ "British broadcaster Stuart Hall facing sexual abuse allegations". RTÉ News. 7 January 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  17. ^ "Stuart Hall Denies Child Sex Abuse Charges". Sky News. 7 January 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  18. ^ "Stuart Hall case: 'Pattern at BBC of turning blind eye to abuse'". The Daily Telegraph. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
  19. ^ "Broadcaster Stuart Hall charged with rape". BBC News. 22 January 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  20. ^ "Stuart Hall charged with rape and indecent assault". ITV. 22 January 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  21. ^ "Stuart Hall admits to sexual abuse of girls". The Guardian. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  22. ^ "Stuart Hall Admits Sex Assaults on Children". Sky News. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  23. ^ a b "Stuart Hall pleads guilty to child sex abuse". Channel 4 News. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.
  24. ^ "BBC inquiry must answer Stuart Hall claims, says Lord Patten". BBC News. 5 May 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  25. ^ "Stuart Hall: BBC to hold separate conduct inquiry". BBC News. 6 May 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  26. ^ "Stuart Hall and BBC face compensation claims after sexual abuse case". The Guardian. 3 May 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
  27. ^ "Stuart Hall accused of dodging payout for abuse victims". The Daily Telegraph. 03 May 2013. Retrieved 06 May 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  28. ^ "Stuart Hall put home in wife's name 'to avoid payouts to victims'". The Guardian. 4 May 2013. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  29. ^ "I have a cupboard of rattling skeletons, boasted Stuart Hall". Express. 03 May 2013. Retrieved 05 May 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  30. ^ "Child sex shame of TV's Stuart Hall, a vile predator". Express. 03 May 2013. Retrieved 05 May 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  31. ^ "All-party backing for 'youth icon' Hall". BBC News. 11 February 1999. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
  32. ^ "No. 60009". The London Gazette (invalid |supp= (help)). 31 December 2011.
  33. ^ "Stuart Hall is made an OBE by Queen for services to broadcasting and charity". BBC Sport. 31 December 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
Bibliography
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