Tarrant says sex crime probes 
into celebrities are ‘out of hand’

The former Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? host hit out after his friend “Dr” Neil Fox, the 53-year-old Magic FM DJ, was arrested and bailed earlier this month over alleged sex offences against two women.

Mr Tarrant, 68, told a national newspaper that it was “appalling that all of this is done in the full glare of the public and media” and also questioned the televised raid on the home of singer Sir Cliff Richard.

Asked whether he ever worried about his own situation, he said: “’I don’t think anyone in this industry hasn’t.”

He added: “Things have got out of hand. The spectacle of Cliff Richard was outrageous. What has happened to innocent till proven guilty?

“There is this instant naming and shaming and a long list from Jimmy Tarbuck to Jim Davidson, Michael Le Vell and William Roache who are eventually vindicated but at a huge cost financially, emotionally, personally.

“Dave Lee Travis went to trial twice and ended up effectively with a slap on the wrists, but the real price is the devastation.”

Mr Tarrant has returned to work after suffering a stroke during a passenger flight in March.

He was returning to London from filming in Bangkok and was taken to London’s Charing Cross Hospital when the plane landed.

He admitted he had always disliked Leeds-born Jimmy Savile, branding him a “lech” and “creep” who did not mix in the matey scene with fellow DJs.

He said that Savile, who died in 2011 and has since been outed as one of the UK’s most prolific paedophiles, once licked the arm of his Tiswas co-host Sally James.

Mr Tarrant said: “I remember Kenny Everett telling me things about him but at the time I just didn’t like him and I thought he was a lech. He was a creep.

“Most DJs are mates, it’s a very social occupation, I remember he’d always walk right past you, not say hello and he’d go straight over to the girls.”