Broadmoor silent twins: June Gibbons speaks about Jimmy Savile’s visits to psychiatric hospital in BBC podcast

June Gibbons, one of the notorious ‘silent twins’ who spent years in Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, has spoken about her experience in BBC podcast June: Voice of a Silent Twin.

She and her sister Jennifer, daughters of Windrush immigrants Aubrey and Gloria, alienated by the white world they lived in, stopped speaking to other people entirely from the age of four, to the confusion of their parents, teachers, and doctors.

They continued to stay mute, only communicating with each other, into high school, and in 19 the pair embarked on a spree of vandalism and arson - they were sent to Broadmoor psychiatric hospital to be detained indefinitely  in 1981, where they met another famous twin, gangster Ronnie Kray.

Jennifer died in 1993, and a year later June had begun speaking again and was released from Broadmoor. She began to live a normal life and was able to live independently without psychiatric monitoring.

Now, three decades after her release from Broadmoor, June has spoken in depth about her time at the institution and her run ins with other infamous criminals and Jimmy Savile - who it was later revealed had assaulted staff and patients there on his visits.

What did June Gibbons say about Jimmy Savile?

June discussed her encounter with Jimmy Savile, a TV personality, charity fundraiser, sexual predator who hid in plain sight, using his charitable work to gain access to vulnerable people. At Broadmoor he was a trusted advisor who even had his own set of keys to patients’ rooms.

June said on the podcast: “Dressed in this garish shell suit and sparkly trainers he leapt onto our table and he looked at the two girls and he pointed at June, 'I'll have you first', and then to Jennifer: 'I will have you second.'

“We all looked at each other in astonishment, almost bursting out laughing and June and Jennifer looked at me and said: 'We thought we were the mad ones.'"

June: Voice of a Silent Twin is available to listen to now on BBC Sounds