BBC to launch Savile inquiries

12 October 2012

Last updated at 18:58 GMT

There has been a series of sexual abuse claims made against the late Sir Jimmy Savile

The BBC is to launch two inquiries surrounding sex abuse claims made against Sir Jimmy Savile, director-general George Entwistle has announced.

The first into why a BBC Newsnight investigation into Savile was shelved last year will start straight away.

The other into whether culture and practice at the BBC at the time enabled Savile to carry out the sexual abuse of children will wait for police go-ahead.

Police said they had now received 340 potential lines of inquiry.

At a news conference, Mr Entwistle said both inquiries – commissioned by the BBC Executive Board – would be chaired by independent external experts, whose names would be announced next week.

He said: “Jimmy Savile’s victims have faced years of pain and we owe it to them and our audiences to understand how this happened and make sure nothing like it can happen again.”

He added: “I have one thing to repeat – that is a profound and heartfelt apology on behalf of the BBC to every victim. It is the victims, these women who were subject to criminal actions, who must be central in our thoughts.”

“And it is the fundamentally criminal nature of many of these allegations that has made supporting the police my first priority. But the BBC will not avoid confronting the events of its past to understand what happened and to try to ensure that nothing of this kind can happen ever again at the BBC. “

Earlier, Conservative MP Rob Wilson wrote to the director general calling for an independent public inquiry into the Newsnight investigation.

Meanwhile, the BBC said it could reconsider naming a new wing of its Broadcasting House in central London after the late DJ John Peel after allegations were published in the Daily Mail.

Sexual offences

The Metropolitan Police said it was now in contact with 40 potential victims of Savile and continued to liaise with 14 police forces.

The Met has officially recorded 12 allegations of sexual offences but expects this number to grow.

A spokesman said: “Officers from the serious case team of the child abuse investigation command will continue to contact those who have come forward, to ensure that they are given the advice and support they need.

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George Entwistle: “The biggest risk was that we would damage their capacity to carry out criminal investigations”

“We would once again praise the courage of, and thank everyone who has come forward to provide us with information to assist in understanding the scale of abuse perpetrated by Savile.”

Earlier the BBC said it was “disturbed” by allegations that a former TV producer was ignored when he reported an abuse claim against Savile to bosses.

The Sun newspaper said that David Nicolson caught Savile having sex with a young girl in a BBC dressing room.

Mr Nicolson, now 67, is reported to have told managers at the BBC about the alleged incident but was told: “That’s the way it goes.”

The incident is said to have happened in a dressing room for the Jim’ll Fix It programme, involving a girl Mr Nicholson said was aged “16, maybe 15″.

A BBC spokeswoman said: “We have been disturbed to hear these allegations. All staff past and present who have any information relating to allegations of this kind should raise them with the BBC’s internal investigations unit or with the police directly.”

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said he could not understand how [the alleged abuse] had “remained hidden for so long”.

He told the BBC: “We need to teach particularly our kids – because we’re such a celebrity driven culture at the moment – that however rich you are, however famous you are, however glamorous you are, everybody has to live by the same rules.

“There cannot be one set of rules and laws for one bunch of people just because they’re famous celebrities and another for everybody else.”

‘Duty of care’

The allegations against Savile, who died a year ago, continued to mount on Friday.

Television actress Julie Fernandez said Savile groped her when she appeared on the BBC’s Jim’ll Fix It programme at the age of 14.

Ms Fernandez, who went on to appear in the BBC shows The Office and Eldorado, said Savile’s hands “lingered in places they shouldn’t” as she sat beside the presenter in her wheelchair.

She and other children from her school were on the show in 1988 after she wrote to Savile.

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She said: “He had wandering hands. It was expertly done. His hands lingered on me – on my thigh, on my back, on my shoulder on my arm, two, three four seconds. Just that little bit too long.

“We were in a room full of people – we were in studios. So it wasn’t obvious – and had I said anything he would have probably told me that I was a silly little girl who got the wrong impression.”

It has also been claimed that Savile sexually assaulted a 10-year-old boy while he was at the Haut de la Garenne children’s home in Jersey.

Alan Collins, a lawyer for the alleged victim, said the “vulnerable” boy had been subjected to a serious assault.

The BBC has learned that some of the women making abuse claims may seek compensation from the BBC and from Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Child abuse lawyer Liz Dux, who said she had been contacted by several of the women in the past few days, told BBC Radio 4′s the World at One: “The case would be against the BBC or the hospital because essentially they would be held vicariously liable in law for the acts of someone like Savile who was acting as their agent.

“That’s particularly the case where they might have had suspicions about what was going on. Their duty of care is heightened if there was that degree of foreseeability.

“By the nature of abuse, abuse cases are often historic, people feel great shame and psychologically don’t feel able to talk about it for quite some time.”

The BBC said it would not be able to comment on the claims while the police investigation was ongoing.

According to the Daily Mail John Peel had an affair with a 15-year-old, Jane Nevin, whom he met in 1969. She told the paper they had an affair during which she became pregnant.

A BBC spokesman said: “Clearly, in the event of proven allegations of sexual abuse the BBC would reconsider its decision on the naming of part of our new building.”

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BBC to launch Savile inquiries