Long-awaited report says BBC missed chances to stop Savile

“No one reading the reports can be in any doubt that the BBC failed them”.

Savile, a one-time wrestler with long blonde hair, a love of cigars and a penchant for garish outfits and jewellery, started out as a pioneering DJ in the 1960s and went on to host some of the BBC’s biggest prime time TV shows.

The impartial investigation by Dame Janet, a former High Court judge, was set up by the BBC in 2012 to look at the corporation’s culture and practices during the years it employed Savile – thought to be from 1964 to 2007.

The revelations about him plunged the BBC into crisis and prompted allegations of a cover-up.

Savile, who Smith described as a danger to both girls and boys, had 72 victims – the youngest was eight years old.

He said the draft report was “clear” at least 107 people within the BBC had “some knowledge or inkling” of Savile’s activities.

BBC staff failed to report disgraced It’s a Knockout presenter Stuart Hall’s “inappropriate sexual conduct” partly because he was seen as an “untouchable” celebrity, the report added.

“What’s apparent is that the senior managers only had to scratch at the very surface and a lot of Savile’s offending would have been revealed”.

A year after his death, he became the subject of Operation Yewtree, a formal criminal investigation by the Metropolitan Police.

She added that the BBC’s culture had made it hard for employees to flag up issues which might “rock the boat” and that an “atmosphere of fear” about whistleblowing still exists today. They are destroying my career and reputation because my version of events does not tally with theirs.

“I was not guilty of any inappropriate conduct; my lawyers will take immediate action against anyone suggesting that I was”. I was also, supposedly, interviewed by Brian Neill QC as part of his report in to the Payola scandal at the BBC.

These included the BBC Television Theatre (in connection with Clunk Click and Jimll Fix It), Television Centre (in particular in connection with Top of the Pops), Broadcasting House and Egton House (where he worked in connection with BBC Radio 1), Lime Grove studios and various provincial studios, including Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow. Sadly, despite being aware of my evidence for many months, if not years, the BBC have chose to make me a scapegoat and have taken away any future opportunity I have to broadcast for them.

“It seems to me that the BBC needs to demonstrate to the public that it has taken the current criticisms seriously and has made, or is making, such changes as are necessary and appropriate to ensure that these bad events can not occur again”.