News Digest

Stephen Fry: I’m the only victim of my historical cocaine abuse

Actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry last night insisted there is a “huge moral difference” between historical drug use and cases of sexual abuse. Responding to suggestions that he should be arrested after admitting in his latest memoirs to taking cocaine in places such as Buckingham Palace, Fry told BBC’s Newsnight programme: “I see a huge moral difference between invading somebody’s physical space, raping them, groping them against their will, having sex with when they’re under age, and me feeding my face with stuff that did me harm.”

If people think I should be arrested for historical drug abuse, that’s fine. I’m the only person I hurt.

Stephen Fry

He also described the late DJ Jimmy Savile as “an absolutely monstrous, depraved and repulsive piece of work”. He accused establishment organisations of being “so horrified by their own lack of judgment” about Savile and his abuse that they have turned against disc jockeys and light entertainers. He added: “If you want to talk about rock stars, do we have to name the rock stars that we think almost certainly had sex with 14-year-old children? But those 14-year-old girls were so proud of it that they now in their 50s wouldn’t for a minute call themselves ‘victims’.”

Suddenly, everyone isn’t Jimmy Savile just because they may have patted somebody’s bottom,

Stephen Fry