Tourism PR coup guest arrested for sexual assault in Jimmy Savile abuse scandal

by Jonathan Williams

What started off as a major coup for the Tourism Department has left them not with egg but with sour butter all over their faces as an invited guest to the County was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree.

Mr Wilfred De’ath, a travel columnist with The Oldie Magazine was arrested on Monday morning and questioned for around 5 hours at Parkside police station in Cambridge.

Though he maintains his innocence (he told the Telegraph), he was freed on police bail and taken back to his home pending further inquiries.

Early in October a Council press release reported that Mr De’ath had written an article in The Oldie where he said that:

‘Welsh people seemed reluctant to share more than a bare minimum of their butter with visitors’ and ‘how many years ago he was refused a second pat of butter at a Carmarthenshire hotel for his toasty.’

Spotting an opportunity, quick as flash the Tourism Department sent off an invite to Mr De’ath to stay in the County and included a package of local cheeses and butter.

The Oldie magazine reported it as:

“The sub editor tore the thing open and discovered in a brilliant masterstroke of PR genius, the marketing officer of Carmarthenshire County Council, Sarah Owen, refusing to be bowed or bloodied in any way by this terrible slur on her county, had despatched a huge package of delicious Welsh Cheeses and Butters to Oldie Towers.”

“She also sent Mr De’Ath an offer to stay in the county in a Five Star holiday cottage and B&B.”

Mr De’ath duly arrived in Carmarthenshire and spent five days staying at a bed and breakfast in Llandeilo and also in Carmarthen. He was shown around Dinefwr Park and whisked around the best Carmarthenshire food experiences the county has to offer.

However, the ‘brilliant masterstroke of genius’ unlike the free butter, turned sour when he was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a well-known British actress.

We contacted the Council and asked if they had any comments regarding Mr De’ath, they replied with the following statement from Huw Parsons, Tourism Department Manager:

“This year, as is usual, we’ve welcomed a number of travel journalists from national newspapers and magazines, including the Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Guardian, and Oldie Magazine.

“Such visits are vital in promoting Carmarthenshire as a top tourist destination and are invaluable in terms of the publicity they generate.

“Mr De’ath’s visit was one of these and he was invited to Carmarthenshire in his capacity as a magazine writer. The county council dealt directly through the magazine to arrange the visit, and it was not an all expenses paid trip fully funded by the council.”

“It would not be practical or customary to do a detailed background check on every journalist, features writer or magazine contributor who visits Carmarthenshire.”

“We do, however, check the authenticity of the publication, which was also done in this case, and it was established that it was a legitimate and respected publication.”

“There was no possible way that the county council could have predicted Mr De’ath’s arrest in connection with the Jimmy Savile case.”

Whilst you can feel something sympathy for the Council, it is worth noting that according to the Guardian and Private Eye, it is common knowledge that Mr De’ath had allegedly spent time in prison for defrauding hotels.

Not only that, but Mr De’ath describes himself as a ‘sexual predator’ in his 2008 autobiography ‘Uncommon Criminal’ and he had ‘targeted’ the actresses Susanna York, Julie Christie, and Charlotte Rampling.

He had also appeared in the national press and on TV prior to his visit condemning Jimmy Savile. Mr De’Ath, told ITV that he warned Jimmy he was “living dangerously”.

He said: “I know for a fact that Jimmy spent a night in a rather squalid hotel with a girl who was at the most 12, or probably 10, and I said to him, ‘Jimmy you are living dangerously. Surely you must realise you’re living dangerously?’.

“All he said was, ‘Oh no no no. I’m much too valuable to the BBC for them to do anything to me.’

“He didn’t think anything could happen. And nothing did happen. Nobody grassed on him in any way, although we all knew.”

It would appear that the Tourism department are keen to forget about their PR coup as an article about Mr De’ath’s visit to the County has disappeared from their website.

See below, this is an image of a Google search carried out today. It clearly shows that there is an article mentioning the Tourism Officers showing Mr De’ath around.

When you click on the link, the article doesn’t exist.

The council say that it isn’t possible to do a detailed search on every journalist and hindsight is a wonderful thing, however the Tourism department still invited an alleged fraudster who by his own admission failed to report a suspected sexual assault against a girl of 10 to Carmarthenshire in order to boost its image!