Yet Another BBC Host Cops to Sex Abuse

BBC idols continue to tumble in a continuing sex abuse investigation that's forcing the broadcaster to report on itself. The latest disgraced icon: Radio personality Stuart Hall, 83, who has admitted to 14 charges of indecent assault against girls. The youngest of his 13 victims was just nine years old, a court heard. Hall "is all too aware that his disgrace is complete," his lawyer says. In attacks that ranged from 1967 to 1985, "Hall would first approach under friendly pretenses and then bide his time until the victim was isolated," said a prosecutor.

The investigation, which stemmed from scores of allegations against the late Jimmy Savile, has made suspects of many aging British entertainment legends, from Gary Glitter to Rolf Harris, not to mention a BBC driver and a publicist. "In American terms, it is as if Captain Kangaroo, Dick Clark, and Jerry Lewis were suddenly being accused of committing sexual crimes dating back 30 or 40 years," writes Sarah Lyall in the New York Times, calling the investigation—which has reportedly cost some $2.7 million so far—"one of the more ambitious, and possibly quixotic, law enforcement investigations in Britain in recent years." (More BBC stories.)