Post date: Jan 11, 2013 3:45:21 PM
A police-led report reveals the widespread abuse of hundreds of people by late British television presenter Jimmy Savile.
BBC - The late British TV presenter Jimmy Savile physically abused hundreds of people over six decades, according to a police-led report on Friday (January 11).
The report said Savile carried out attacks at the BBC and at hospitals where he did voluntary work.Of his victims, 73 percent were under 18 and 82 percent were female. The oldest was 47 and the youngest just 8.
Savile, one of the BBC's biggest stars of the 1970s and 80s received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth for charity work. He died in 2011, aged 84, a year before allegations about his abusive behaviour emerged in a TV documentary.
Friday's report said he had committed 214 criminal offences including 34 rapes or serious sexual assaults across the country.
His offending first occurred in 1955 in northern Manchester city and the last attack was in 2009, the report said. He abused people at the BBC from 1965 including in 2006 at the last recording of popular weekly show Top of the Pops.
He also targeted people at hospitals over 30 years from 1965, including at the renowned Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London.
In all, 600 people had come forward to police with information of which 450 related to Savile.
The report, issued jointly by London police and the NSPCC children's charity, said it was likely there would be more victims who did not feel able to come forward.
Friday's report is one of 14 launched since the allegations about Savile emerged, including four at the BBC.
The revelations about Savile plunged the BBC into weeks of turmoil and led to resignation of the publicly funded broadcaster's director general just 54 days into his job.
A one-time professional wrestler, Savile became famous as a pioneering DJ in the 1960s before becoming a regular fixture on TV hosting prime-time pop and children's shows until the 1990s.
He also ran about 200 marathons for charity, raising tens of millions of pounds for hospitals, leading some to give him keys to rooms where victims now allege they were abused.
While many colleagues and viewers thought the cigar-chomping Savile was weird, with his long blonde hair, penchant for garish outfits and flashy jewellery, he was considered a "national treasure", honoured not just by the queen but also by the late Pope John Paul II who made him a papal knight in 1990.