UK - the late Jimmy Savile and the underage sex charges now confronting the BBC

• TV star is accused of grooming girls as young as 12
• Esther Rantzen admits many in the industry 'blocked' their ears to claims about Savile
• ITV documentary claims some BBC producers were aware of behaviour as far back as the mid 1960s

Click to expand...

The BBC faced growing anger yesterday amid claims it turned a blind eye to Sir Jimmy Savile’s alleged abuse of under-age girls.

There were also questions over why, in the months after his death, the corporation axed a Newsnight investigation into the star’s ‘predatory behaviour’.

Savile, who died last year aged 84, is accused of grooming girls as young as 12, by offering them sweets, cigarettes and tickets to be in the audience of his shows.

Six women have come forward to say they were sexually abused by the former Jim’ll Fix It star in his Rolls-Royce, at a hospital, at a school and BBC Television Centre.

One of the alleged victims claims the former Radio 1 DJ raped her in his dressing room.
---
One former BBC producer who saw Savile in a restaurant with a girl aged around 12 describes Top of the Pops as his ‘happy hunting ground’.
---

Click to expand...

Betty P said:

I've never watched much BBC, but he always gave me the creeps. This one doesn't surprise me.

Click to expand...

Lera213 said:

Why didn't these victim's come forward before he died or did they and nothing came of it because of who he was? Not blaming them but I just wished when stuff like this happens that they all get reported.

Click to expand...

ITV has said it stands by a documentary which claims Sir Jimmy Savile sexually abused schoolgirls after a member of his family said they are "disgusted and disappointed" by the allegations.

Exposure: The Other Side Of Jimmy Savile, which airs later this week, details claims from women dating to the 1970s, including allegations that he abused girls in his Rolls-Royce and at BBC TV Centre.
---
An ITV spokesman said: "This documentary is the result of an in-depth investigation into long-standing allegations of serious and widespread sexual misconduct by Sir Jimmy Savile.
---

Click to expand...

Lera213 said:

Why didn't these victim's come forward before he died or did they and nothing came of it because of who he was? Not blaming them but I just wished when stuff like this happens that they all get reported.

Click to expand...

Two women stepped forward yesterday to say they had been abused as teenagers by Sir Jimmy Savile.

As the scandal around the star deepened, Katrina Rose, 51, described how she was attacked in his flat after being invited to his radio show when she was 14.

She now regrets not speaking out when he was alive but ‘lost her nerve’ even though Savile ‘ruined her life’.

The second victim to bravely waive her anonymity, Bebe Roberts, 62, claimed the ‘sleazy’ Jim’ll Fix It presenter regularly sneaked into bedrooms at a girls' boarding school and once assaulted her when she was 15 and made a lewd proposition.

She said: ‘I did not know what he was like until he did that. There were girls in there who were quite terrified of him.’
---

Click to expand...

badhorsie said:

I always thought he was a creepy man, even as a child. Interestingly he was a good friend to Prince Charles.

Click to expand...

Speaking on ITV1’s Daybreak programme this morning, Gambaccini said he had been waiting 30-years for the allegations to come out.

He alleged that at one point Saville was about to be exposed by a tabloid newspaper, but quickly arranged an interview with a rival tabloid which had the effect of stopping the negative article.

Click to expand...

Betty P said:

I've never watched much BBC, but he always gave me the creeps. This one doesn't surprise me.

Click to expand...

Lera213 said:

Why didn't these victim's come forward before he died or did they and nothing came of it because of who he was? Not blaming them but I just wished when stuff like this happens that they all get reported.

Click to expand...

webnut said:

Me too, I couldnt stand him. If the rumours are true, how smug does he look in all the pics of him surrounded by children with a cigar in his mouth! I've done loads of searching on the net, reading comments on articles and forums etc and there could possibly be lots more to come out involving other famous/important people. jmo

Click to expand...

badhorsie said:

I was sexually abused by my piano teacher aged 8-11.I told my nanna but the blame was on me. This kind of thing was almost accepted in the 1970s. I believed it was my fault, even to this day. I always "knew" JS was dodgy

Click to expand...