Story highlights
One-time British TV star Jimmy Savile turns out to have been a prolific sexual abuser
Victims ranged in age from 5 to 75, hospital investigations find
Savile abused at least 60 people over several decades at one hospital alone, report says
Twenty-eight hospitals in UK reported Thursday on Savile, with five more to come
Jimmy Savile was once one of the most beloved people in Britain, a radio DJ and television star with big hair, a big cigar and an even bigger attitude.
But since he died in 2011, Savile has become one of the most reviled figures in the country as it becomes clear that he sexually abused untold numbers of people over decades – many of them children, hospital patients or mentally handicapped.
His charity work gave him easy access to hospitals across the UK, 28 of which published reports Thursday into the abuse that Savile committed.
British Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt damned Savile as “a callous, opportunistic, wicked predator who abused and raped individuals … who expected and had a right to expect to be safe” over a period of five decades.
Here are some of the hospitals’ findings published Thursday:
• Number of people reporting abuse or “inappropriate encounters” by Savile at Leeds General Infirmary: 60
• Number of others reporting having been abused by Savile elsewhere in Leeds or West Yorkshire: Four
• Age range of people he abused: 5 to 75 years old
• Number of victims who were patients: 33 -- 19 children and 14 adults
• Number of victims who were staff: 19
• Number of victims who were not patients or staff but had a connection to the infirmary: Eight
• Number of people who reported the abuse at the time: Nine – four children and five adults
• Earliest known case of Savile abuse in Leeds: 1962, when he was 36
• Latest known case: 2009, when he was 82
• Number of people reporting having been sexually assaulted by Savile at Broadmoor, a high-security mental health hospital: Ten, plus one case of indecent exposure involving a minor
• Number who were patients: Six – one male and five females
• Number who were staff: Two
• Number who were minors: Two
• Number of other hospitals besides Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor reporting on Savile abuse Thursday: 26
• Number of hospitals that will report on Savile later this year: Five
READ: Ex-Scout tells of abuse at hands of Savile
READ: Celebrity publicist Max Clifford sentenced to 8 years for assaults on teenage girls
