Terry Gilliam: 'Operation Yewtree is a witch-hunt'

With all the fanfare surrounding Monty Python's upcoming reunion at London's O2 arena, an announcement, perhaps even more unexpected, has managed to slip under the radar. Terry Gilliam, the troupe's resident cartoonist turned acclaimed filmmaker, has stuck his head above the parapet to puncture the post-Savile hysteria - dubbing Operation Yewtree a 'witch-hunt' and likening it to something you would expect to find in the former Soviet Union. [...]

The 71-year-old was apparently moved to speak up when his friend and BBC Radio DJ Paul Gambaccini was arrested in an Operation Yewtree probe. 'In his case the police came at 4.30am. They took everything. He's been suspended from the BBC - you're guilty until proven innocent', said Gilliam, in an interview with the Sun. 'It's civilisation based on victimisation - and that makes everyone in the public eye a potential target.'

Gilliam goes on to suggest that the hyperactive investigators are ignoring the different standards that existed in the past. 'During that period, there was a liberation. Yes, there will always be people who take advantage. Jimmy Savile was one of them. That was a clear case', he said.

source: < Terry Gilliam: 'Operation Yewtree is a witch-hunt' > by Tom Slater; www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/14347#.UpyF2aqDiRt; spiked; 26 November 2013