BBC and police ‘must have known of Savile abuse’

Pressure on the BBC grew last night as Nick Clegg, the deputy British prime minister said people in the corporation, and maybe even the police, must have known that Jimmy Savile had been abusing young girls.

Scotland Yard is pursuing 340 lines of inquiry in the Savile abuse case, including 40 potential victims, the force said last night.

Dozens of women have now come forward to claim the TV presenter abused them. Much of the abuse is alleged to have occurred in BBC dressing rooms.

The BBC’s reputation is under fire following an avalanche of allegations that the corporation was aware of claims about Savile’s actions, but did nothing.

David Nicolson, who worked as a director on Jim’ll Fix It, claimed to have caught Savile having sex with a girl in his dressing room, but was laughed away when he voiced concerns.

When he reported the incident, he said he was told: “‘That’s Jimmy.’ I was revolted by his behaviour. They just shrugged it off, saying: ‘Yeah, yeah, that’s the way it goes.’

“Everyone knew what was going on. That includes senior BBC people — chiefs at the highest levels.”

Mr Clegg said the Savile case was “the dark side” of Britain’s celebrity culture. “I just cannot understand how this remained hidden for so long,” he told BBC Radio’s Five Live.

“There must have been just so many people who knew what was going on, in hospitals, the BBC, maybe in the police.

“I just keep asking myself: ‘Why did this remain buried for so long?’

“The only explanation I can come up with is what we are seeing is the dark side of the culture of celebrity and, actually in this case, it wasn’t a culture of celebrity it was the cult of celebrity.

“I get the impression people felt that, with all that glitter and shine, there can’t be a dark side, there can’t be a seedy side.”

Grant Shapps, chairman of the Conservative Party, told BBC1’s Question Time that it “seems unimaginable” that people at the BBC were unaware of the child abuse allegations.

“What happened now appears to be outrageous,” said Mr Shapps. “It’s particularly disturbing that a programme paying tribute, a three-parter, went out just last Christmas after it was already known at senior levels within the BBC that something was wrong, enough to have had a serious Newsnight programme made about it, and enough to raise serious concerns.”

Caroline Moore, now aged 54, has claimed she was assaulted by Savile at the age of 13 while being treated for spinal injuries at a Buckinghamshire hospital in 1971.

Nurses at the hospital are also understood to have dreaded Savile’s visits because of his behaviour and would tell children to stay in bed and pretend to be asleep when he came round.

Moore, from Clarkston East Renfrewshire, near Glasgow, told BBC Radio Scotland: “I was outside a ward or a gym and he came out and just rammed his tongue down my throat.

“I told my family at the time. They didn’t take it seriously because he was such a high-profile character.”

The Office actress Julie Fernandez, 38, also revealed to Five Live that she was groped by Savile when she appeared on Jim’ll Fix It at the age of 14.

Another alleged victim came forward yesterday and said Savile was banned from visiting a council-run children’s home after he molested her when she was 12.

She said he was told to leave the care home in his home city of Leeds after staff found him in a bedroom with her in the 1970s.

The woman, who does not want to be identified, told BBC Radio Leeds she was indecently touched by Savile but a social worker advised her not to report it.

Yesterday, law firm Pannone said it had received allegations that Savile had assaulted a 10-year-old boy at Haut de la Garenne children’s home in Jersey.

Solicitor Alan Collins said: “This is an allegation of a serious sexual assault.

“I would urge other victims and anyone who has information regarding alleged abuse by Jimmy Savile to come forward.”