March 2014

Nephew of disgraced Jimmy Savile speaks of his shame as it emerges he is a convicted paedophile who was jailed for assaulting a schoolgirl

The nephew of disgraced television star Jimmy Savile has today revealed that he is a convicted paedophile who abused a teenage girl.

Michael Johnson was sentenced to four years in custody in 1986 after admitting five counts of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

The former nightclub owner today revealed that he had served two-and-a-half years of the  sentence and claimed he had been completely ‘rehabilitated.’

He also expressed his own ‘self disgust and shame’ at the crime.

Mr Johnson, now aged 67 years, was among family members who decided to remove the headstone from the former Radio 1 star’s grave after the allegations of sex abuse came to light.

In a family statement they said they were ‘reeling’ with shock about their uncle’s past.

Today he said: ‘As a member of Jimmy Savile’s family, I too shared their feelings of disappointment and was appalled at the level of allegations made toward him after his recent death. 

‘This has been a burden for me and my own immediate family since that time and have had to deal with the circumstances and devastating affects in my social domestic and business life and notwithstanding the more devastating affects on those that have been victims of Jimmy Savile.

‘My and my family burden now continues, in having to prepare this statement which refers to my own past of nearly 30 years ago when I served a 2.5 year sentence for a sexual offence against a 14 year old female.

‘I cannot stress my own self-disgust and shame together with the huge sorrow I have for that person.

‘Since my release I have been properly rehabilitated and with my forgiving family, have continued to live my life socially and from a business perspective, to the best of my ability whilst attempting to draw an underscore in that period of my life.

‘I sincerely hope that I am allowed to continue my life in peace in the community and not have to face the traumas of the past anymore and the family connection with Jimmy Savile which has devastated us, and those who admired him, prior to the allegations of the past.’

Mr Johnson’s own wife claims she was kept completely in the dark about her husband’s convictions until they became embroiled in a custody battle.

‘Social services carried out an assessment and, to my horror, their report revealed Michael had gone to prison in 1986, before I knew him, for sexual offences against a child,’ said 54-year-old Karen who lives in Loughton, near Milton Keynes, Bucks.

She said that she had visited ‘Uncle Jimmy’ with her husband a number of times during their marriage.

‘Uncle Jimmy always gave me the creeps.

‘Once he kept asking me to sit on his knee and he was grabbing me. It was disgusting.’

Mr Johnson is a director of city property company. He once ran the Talk of the Town nightclub in The Point in Milton Keynes.

Ms Davison said she met Mr Johnson in 1995 and that he actively pursued her while still married to another woman.

They married in 2004 before separating just two years later after Mr Johnson walked out in 2006.

She claimed she only learned of her former husband’s history of sexual offending after their relationship had ended.

As a result she called social services who carried out an assessment on her former partner and this later concluded that he was a low risk.