A retired Broadmoor nurse who helped lift the lid on Jimmy Savile’s abuse is locked in a £35,000 fight to avoid being thrown out of his NHS-owned family home near the hospital.
Keith Palmer, 72, worked as a nurse at the special hospital for the criminally insane between 1976 and 2014, and in November 1988 was granted a tenancy over a house on the hospital estate at Eastern Lane, Crowthorne.
He worked as a senior nurse at the hospital, which has incarcerated multiple psychopaths over the years – including the child killer Ian Brady and gangster Ronnie Kray – and played a part in a pivotal 2014 Panorama documentary exposing Savile’s links with the hospital.
Savile, who died in October 2011 aged 84, had a dedicated bedroom and office at the hospital, as well as a personal set of keys allowing him free rein to wander the interior of the sprawling maximum security institution. An NHS report commissioned after Savile’s death concluded that he had sexually abused five victims during his twisted stint at Broadmoor.
Mr Palmer is now caught up in a fight to keep his home there, with the NHS claiming he has clocked up debts comprising £12,400 in rent arrears and £22,811 for unpaid utility supplies, and looking to boot him out after nearly 40 years.
Mr Palmer lives at the Eastern Lane house with his ex-nurse wife, Jacqueline, and their daughter and grandchild.
He was handed a “notice to quit” in January 2024, but refused to budge, the West London National Health Service Trust’s barrister, Nicholas Grundy, told London’s High Court, prompting a court claim for possession of the house.
But the ex-nurse and whistleblower says he is “disappointed” in his former employers and only fell behind with his rent when they unlawfully increased it.
In written arguments to the court, Mr Grundy said the NHS took over management of the special hospital and became Mr Palmer’s landlord in 2001, with the hospital previously run by the Broadmoor Hospital Authority.
Mr Grundy claimed Mr Palmer’s occupation of the cottage was not recognised as a “protected” tenancy when the nurse first moved in, meaning he has no permanent right of occupation.
In any case, he had forfeited any long-term occupation rights through his alleged failure to cover his rent arrears, the barrister submitted.
The court heard that Mr Palmer had honoured all his rent obligations until June 2021 when the amount was hiked from £750 to £950 per month, but has since fallen behind to the tune of £12,000.
At one point back in 1991, the hospital’s then managers had considered selling cottages such as Mr Palmer’s to their tenants under the government’s new “right to buy” scheme, but the plan was ultimately shelved.
In the witness box, Mr Grundy asked the former nurse whether he had been angered by this decision, to which Mr Palmer replied – “not angry but disappointed”.
Martin Young, for Mr Palmer, disputed the NHS’ claims that he has drastically fallen behind on his rent, insisting that his tenancy is protected under the 1977 Rent Act and that his rent has never been properly “registered or agreed”.
On top of that he argued that any rent increases after June 2018 were not properly authorised by the Secretary of State – as required by law.
As for any outstanding utility bills he claimed Mr Palmer has no obligation to pay some of his bills until an issue with an overflowing septic tank can be resolved.
He also claims that evicting him would violate his right to a settled family life – safeguarded by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights – and has highlighted recent health problems in the form of a minor stroke and high blood pressure.
Jimmy Savile’s links with the hospital dated back to 1968, with his growing involvement in hospital life endorsed by Broadmoor’s medical superintendent, who believed his presence boosted staff and patient morale.
Savile gave the impression of championing the hospital and helping its patients but a 2014 NHS report commissioned after his death found that his fundraising achievements for the hospital were “relatively trivial”, and that he used his Broadmoor accommodation and a nearby caravan to “entertain a regular stream of female visitors”.
Although the enquiry concluded he had abused fewer victims at Broadmoor than at some of the other hospitals where he worked, it decided that five individuals were preyed on by Savile at Broadmoor.
Savile’s set of keys and free access to ward areas were approved by the medical superintendent and his influence at Broadmoor became more entrenched in the late 1980’s when he was made a leading member of the hospital’s task force, “with a direct managerial role at the hospital”.
Such was his clout around the hospital that he was routinely referred to as “Dr Savile”.
The High Court trial is continuing.
