Police: Savile was a ‘sexual predator’ who used fame to prey on vulnerable

Patients in hospital beds; star-struck teenagers in a TV show audience; pupils at a school for troubled girls; a 10-year-old autograph hunter.

All fell victim to the late British entertainer Jimmy Savile, police said, describing him as a sexual predator who used his fame to find victims and deliberately targeted individuals who would not speak out against him.

A three-month investigation with child protection experts found that the late television presenter took every opportunity to abuse young girls, boys and adult women across the country, including in hospitals, psychiatric units and even a hospice.

The investigation has yielded a staggering litany of sexual crimes: 214 offences, including 34 rapes, over more than half a century, the majority of the victims under 18. Police say they expect the number of offences to rise as more allegations are investigated.

A police report published yesterday describes a “prolific, predatory sex offender” whose celebrity unlocked the doors of institutions across Britain, from hospitals where he served as a charity fundraiser to schools whose pupils eagerly watched his television programmes — and even to the prime minister’s country house, where he dined with Margaret Thatcher.

“It could be said that he groomed a nation,” said Cmdr. Peter Spindler, head of the Metropolitan Police specialist crimes unit. “He was hiding in plain sight, but none of us were able to do anything about it.”

The catalogue of abuse provides the fullest accounting yet of the allegations against Savile, a cigar-chomping TV and radio personality who died in Oct 2011 aged 84. Savile’s elaborate funeral reflected his status as a popular entertainer and tireless charity worker, but a documentary broadcast late last year pulled the mask away, claiming he was a serial sex offender who traded on his celebrity to prey on the vulnerable.

The subsequent police investigation more than bore out those allegations. Detectives initially believed there were between 20 and 25 victims. So far, 450 have come forward with claims against Savile — a scale of abuse police called “unprecedented in Britain”

Child welfare experts say his fame helped him achieve that grim distinction.

“Savile cunningly built his entire life around gaining access to vulnerable children,” said Peter Watt of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Savile set himself up as a sinister Pied Piper; children came to him. Police say victims were assaulted in dressing rooms or groped during filming breaks.