With Savile, it's almost as if he seemed so dodgy and unlikeable (and with plenty of "nudge nudge, wink wink" rumours) that we believed it couldn't be true, because if it were, then surely the authorities would have done something about it. A sort of double bluff.
I'm probably trying to over-rationalise things, based on a memory of how I felt all those years ago, but I don't know how else to explain it. After all, when the dozens of testimonies emerged after his death, none of us were utterly shocked, whereas when Rolf (for example) was charged, I felt a real disappointment, as if a little bit of my childhood had been chipped away.