Savile report on his years of abuse at BBC out next week

A REPORT into sexual abuse by BBC broadcaster Jimmy Savile will be published next week, an inquiry spokesman has said.
By The Newsroom
Published 15th Feb 2016, 15:50 BST
Updated 15th Feb 2016, 17:40 BST
Jimmy Savile in his BBC daysJimmy Savile in his BBC days
Jimmy Savile in his BBC days

A statement from the Dame Janet Smith Review said it is expected the long-awaited findings will be made public on February 25, after the report was passed to BBC head Lord Hall on Monday.

It comes after a version of the report leaked last month said another “predatory child abuser” could be lurking at the BBC.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The statement said: “Dame Janet Smith’s completed report was delivered by her to Lord Hall, who received it on behalf of the BBC’s Executive Board, this afternoon.

“The report is expected to be published by the BBC Trust on February 25, 2016.

“The arrangements for publication will be announced by the BBC.”

Last month’s leaked draft said Savile had assaulted victims at BBC studios across the country, including his home city of Leeds, where his local TV series, Jimmy Savile’s Yorkshire Speakeasy, Jimmy Savile and Friends, and Savile’s Yorkshire Travels, were made.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It was claimed the review condemned the BBC for its “deferential culture” and “untouchable stars”, and criticised it for having managers who were “above the law”.

The report also warned of the possibility that another “predatory child abuser could be lurking undiscovered in the BBC even today”.

A statement on the Dame Janet Smith Review website expressed disappointment at the leak of the draft and said it was out of date.

It said significant changes have been made to its content, adding that the report “cannot be relied upon in any circumstances”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The review focuses on the BBC’s culture and practices during the years that Savile - and fellow shamed presenter Stuart Hall - worked at the corporation.

It’s A Knockout host Hall was jailed in 2013 after admitting indecently assaulting 13 girls - one as young as nine - between 1967 and 1985.

His sentence was extended in the following year when he pleaded guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting a teenage girl. He was released from jail in December 2015.

Former Top Of The Pops presenter Savile was found dead at his home in Leeds in October 2011, aged 84, after a suspected bout of pneumonia.

Almost exactly a year later, he became the subject of Operation Yewtree, a formal criminal investigation by the Metropolitan Police.