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Hall Guilty Of Sex Crimes
Veteran broadcaster Stuart Hall has admitted 14 offences involving 13 victims, including a 9-year-old girl.
Hall, now 83, reportedly confronted one girl in a hotel within minutes of her being chosen as a cheerleader on TV programme “It’s A Knockout.” He kissed the 13-year-old girl on the lips after telling her, “People need to show thanks in other ways.”
“He is not a man easily moved to self-pity, but he is only too aware that his disgrace is complete,” Crispin Aylett – Hall’s barrister – told Preston Crown Court May 2.
Two days later, The Guardian and others revealed that Hall is accused of recently transferring ownership of his home to his wife in a deliberate attempt to avoid paying compensation to his victims.
The papers said Land Registry documents show that Hall’s £1.2 million detached property in Wilmslow, Cheshire, was placed under sole proprietorship of Hazel Hall Feb. 22.
The transfer occurred less than a fortnight after Hall denied indecently assaulting 13 young girls, calling allegations against him “pernicious, callous, cruel and above all spurious.”
Hall, whose TV career blossomed in the 1960s and ’70s with such game shows as “It’s A Knockout “ and “Jeux Sans Frontières,” is one of a long list of celebrities that have either been questioned about or charged with sexual offences.
What began with an investigation into the late Jimmy Savile has become a media uproar that’s embroiled such celebrities as Max Clifford, Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter, comedians Freddie Starr and Jim Davidson, former Radio 1 DJ Dave Lee Travis and “Coronation Street” actor William Roache, who was arrested May 1 and charged with two counts of rape.
Roache, Clifford, Harris, Starr, Davidson and Travis have all denied wrongdoing. Hall is due for sentencing at Preston Crown Court June 17.