Jimmy Savile boasted about his links to senior police officers in Leeds while he was being investigated over sexual abuse allegations.
Savile also bragged that if he received letters accusing him of wrongdoing then his police contacts in the city would “get rid” of them for him.
The claims are detailed in a newly-published Surrey Police report on its own failed investigation into crimes allegedly committed by the TV and radio star in the 1970s at Duncroft children’s home in Staines and Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
Leeds-born Savile was interviewed under caution by two officers in his private room at Stoke Mandeville on October 1, 2009. According to the report, “he made various comments about knowing senior police officers from Leeds and seeing them socially”.
It goes on: “He stated that he gets a number of letters from people trying to blackmail him and he gives these to the police as a matter of course.”
The report adds: “Savile also stated that the officers read and destroyed the letters.
“If one of the letters concerned him then he could have it forensically examined as a ‘favour’ if he needed.”
The 44-page report also reveals that an officer from West Yorkshire Police – named only as ‘Inspector 5’ – contacted the Surrey force on Savile’s behalf.
He made the phone call in June 2009, five days after Surrey Police informed Savile about the allegations against him.
During the call Inspector 5 said he knew Savile personally, adding that his friend “gets many of these complaints”.
He also passed on a contact number for Savile, explaining that the star had lost a letter sent to him by the Surrey force.
Surrey Police’s investigation was dropped in late October 2009 due to a lack of evidence. Serial sex attacker Savile died in 2011, aged 84.
Asked about the Surrey report yesterday, (Jan 14) a West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said: “We have reviewed all contact relating to Jimmy Savile, and there is no evidence to suggest any wrongdoing.”