Originally Posted by Damien

Here the effect is accumulative. These rumours surfaced publicly almost instantly after his death, it was sort of ignored by everyone because low-level murmurings are nothing. It's only now after we've heard victim after victim after victim come out that we're lending any weight to those rumours. The celebrities coming out confirming they have heard rumours are just providing some background and circumstantial evidence, not proof. They could not have have forced an investigation or publicly labelled him a paedophile based on a unsubstantiated rumour.