A child protection expert has rejected the assertion of pop stars of the 1960s and 1970s that the "hedonism" of the era was an excuse for having sex with children.
Paul Roffey said that the pop stars used their position to manipulate young women to carry out acts which were as illegal then as they are now.
The PR guru Max Clifford said he had been approached by dozens of celebrities from the 60s and 70s who are "frightened to death" that they will be implicated in the Jimmy Savile child abuse scandal.
He said the stars, some of whom were still big names, had approached him to handle any fallout from inquiries. He said they were worried because at their peak they had "never asked for anybody's birth certificate" while living a hedonistic lifestyle in which young girls threw themselves at them.
Roffey said: "There is obviously much greater awareness of paedophilia today but in the 1960s everyone knew about the age of consent and people were regularly tried for breaking the law over it. The fact that someone may have looked 16 or 21 if they were male may be mitigation but it is no defence."
Paedophilia became a subject of national concern in the 1970s as it emerged as a civil rights issue. In 1974, paedophiles set up the Paedophile Information Exchange to lobby for the abolition of the age of consent and to oppose the banning of child pornography. The group operated openly until 1978 when the police arrested and charged some of its members. The group was the subject of newspaper exposés and criticism by campaigners including Mary Whitehouse.
On Friday, Clifford said young pop stars at the time had gone from working in a factory one week to performing in front of thousands of people, "and girls are screaming and throwing themselves at them then".
He told LBC radio: "I am hoping that the real predators are the ones we are going to find out about: the Glitters of this world, the Saviles of this world, not people that were randy young pop stars in the 1960s, 70s and 80s even, that had women throwing themselves at them everywhere they went, because that is a whole different area and a whole different situation. No one had heard the word paedophile in those days, the 60s and 70s," he said.
"They never asked for anybody's birth certificate and they were young lads … suddenly everyone's dream was a reality.We are talking about a lot of people that were huge names in the 60s and 70s and a lot of them barely remember what they did last week, genuinely. For them to try and recount what happened in a dressing room in 1965 or 1968 or 1972, genuinely they are frightened to death."
Roffey remains unimpressed by such special pleading. "You don't need a birth certificate to realise the age of a girl even if she looks older than her age. People invariably know they are breaking the law and they still know now," he said.
Clifford's comments came as it emerged that the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichol, has written to the Pope to ask him to consider removing Savile's papal knighthood in recognition of the distress caused to his victims.
Scotland Yard is leading the current investigation into accusations of abuse by the former BBC DJ and presenter Savile, which now involves around 300 possible victims.
Officers have searched a cottage belonging to Savile in Allt na Reigh in Glencoe, Scotland, to look for "any evidence of any others being involved in any offending with him".
In Leeds, members of Savile's family issued a statement expressing their bewilderment at his crimes and their sympathy for his victims. In the statement, the family said their "thoughts" and "prayers" were with those who had suffered abuse.
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