Two more ‘victims’ add names to Jimmy Savile roll of shame
Northamptonshire police said it had been contacted by two members of the public with allegations that occurred outside the county that will therefore be referred to other forces.
The news came as police across the country issued advice to anyone who thinks they might be a victim, and the Association of Chief Police Officers said the national child protection unit CEOP would assess the scale of the allegations.
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Hide AdIt follows the screening of a documentary aired last night amid growing allegations against the late Top of the Pops host.
Historic accounts, which detailed how the presenter allegedly targeted girls in his BBC dressing room and private Rolls-Royce, were shown after Surrey Police confirmed it had referred a historic rape allegation against the Jim’ll Fix It star to Scotland Yard.
Surrey Police has also confirmed it investigated Sir Jimmy over abuse claims in 2007, but dropped the case due to a lack of evidence, while Jersey and Sussex Police said they had both received complaints about the star.
Scotland Yard added last night that it was also assessing a small number of other allegations.
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Hide AdIn Exposed: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile, a total of five women claimed they were indecently assaulted by the TV and radio personality when they were schoolgirls in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Two of the alleged victims said they first had sexual relations with the TV and radio personality when they were 15 - with a number of the indecent acts taking place in his dressing room at BBC television centre.
Another two women who attended Duncroft Approved School for Girls, a now-closed children’s home in Surrey, claimed they were targeted by Sir Jimmy when he regularly visited the school in the 1970s.
The revelations came after former Duncroft pupil Karin Ward, another alleged victim who waived her right to anonymity, claimed the star would ply girls with gifts and have sex with pupils as young as 14.
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Hide AdColeen Nolan also revealed that Sir Jimmy suggested she join him at a hotel following a TV recording when she was just 14.
She had been in the Top Of The Pops studio, along with her chart star sisters who were appearing on the show.
Following the screening, police forces across the country published notices advising any potential victims to contact them, or call children’s charity NSPCC Anyone on 0808 800 5000 for support.
Meanwhile, a circular gold plaque displayed in Scarborough as a memorial to Sir Jimmy, who had a home in the town, was subject to a graffiti attack with the words “rapist” and “paedophile”.
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Hide AdAuthorities in North Yorkshire say they are now reviewing security at the cemetery where his headstone was placed, following his death at the age of 84 last year. A statue of the star has also been taken down in Glasgow.
The BBC said it will assist police with investigations into the child abuse claims surrounding the presenter.
A spokesman said: “We have asked the BBC investigations unit to make direct contact with all the police forces in receipt of allegations and offer to help them investigate these matters and provide full support to any lines of inquiry they wish to pursue.”
An ex-BBC press officer has also claimed that the former head of Radio 1 was aware in the early 1970s of sexual abuse allegations involving Sir Jimmy.
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Hide AdRodney Collins said the late Douglas Muggeridge, an ex-controller of the BBC radio station, asked him to find out if newspapers were looking into rumours about the presenter in 1973.
Mr Collins, who was head of press for Radio 1 when Sir Jimmy worked at the station, told The Guardian: “The BBC should now - having first of all said they knew nothing about this - there should be a full inquiry, they should co-operate with the police.
“If anyone working there at the time had some knowledge of this they should put their hands up.”
Two of the alleged victims said in the documentary that they first had sexual relations with the TV and radio personality when they were 15 - with a number of the indecent acts taking place in his dressing room at BBC television centre.
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Hide AdThe first woman, who did not wish to reveal her identity, said she lost her virginity when she was raped by Sir Jimmy at the age of 16.
She described how she first met the star a year earlier on the set of Top of the Pops and was invited into his dressing room where Sir Jimmy touched her “intimately” under her skirt.
“He did it on various occasions in various places - it was always a quick fumble,” she told the programme.
“The first question he ever asked me was how old I was so he knew.
“He was a predator really, a predator on young girls.”
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Hide AdThe woman said she was indecently assaulted by the personality “dozens of times” before she was raped in his caravan while it was parked by Kings Cross station in London.
She added: “As a mature woman now I look back and think it was rape on the first occasion as I didn’t know we were going to have full sex and I said we were not going to go all the way.”
The second woman met Savile, who raised an estimated £40 million for good causes, in 1968 when she was 15.
She claimed the star had full sex with her for the first time in a London hotel.
“It was a complete shock to me,” she said.
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Hide Ad“I had no idea what was happening. I was very young and naive. I just feel that he took huge advantage of me.”
The woman, who also kept her identity private, said she went on to have sex with Sir Jimmy in his dressing room at BBC television centre on a number of occasions.
Two women who attended Duncroft Approved School for Girls, a now-closed children’s home in Surrey, said they were also targeted by Sir Jimmy when he regularly visited the school in the 1970s.
One, named only as Charlotte, said she met the star in 1974 when she was just 14 and claimed that he put his hand up her jumper and touched her breast as she sat on his lap in a caravan parked in the grounds of the school.
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Hide AdAnother alleged victim, named Fiona, also revealed she was invited for rides in Sir Jimmy’s Rolls Royce where she said she was assaulted and forced to carry out various sex acts on the star.
Fiona added she was later invited to the BBC television centre to watch Sir Jimmy’s Clunk-Click show and was subjected to further abuse there.
An ex-BBC press officer has also claimed that the former head of Radio 1 was aware in the early 1970s of sexual abuse allegations involving Sir Jimmy.
Rodney Collins said the late Douglas Muggeridge, an ex-controller of the BBC radio station, asked him to find out if newspapers were looking into rumours about the presenter in 1973.
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Hide AdMr Collins, who was head of press for Radio 1 when Sir Jimmy worked at the station, told The Guardian: “The BBC should now - having first of all said they knew nothing about this - there should be a full inquiry, they should co-operate with the police.
“If anyone working there at the time had some knowledge of this they should put their hands up.”