Leeds council removes Jimmy Savile memorial

The late celebrity’s name was inscribed on the wall there in recognition of his charity work but this is now being taken down.

It is the latest dedication to Savile to be removed after a plaque and a street sign in Scarborough, North Yorkshire were also taken away.

A charity named after the former television presenter has also said it is considering changing its name.

Police also said they have reports of someone attacking Savile’s grave.

A spokesman for Leeds City Council said it has removed the inscription in light of the allegations and has stopped work on any other possible commemorations.

Tom Riordan, chief executive of the council, said: “Over the last week we have become very aware of the allegations being made against the late Sir Jimmy Savile. In recognition of his charity work, he received the Leeds Award and his name was inscribed on the wall at Civic Hall. The response to the award was a clear indication of people’s feelings towards Sir Jimmy Savile at that time.

“In light of the very serious nature of the allegations now made, we will be removing the inscription and have stopped work on other possible commemorations. We’ll await the outcome of any investigations before deciding whether any further action is necessary.”

Last week a circular gold plaque in Scarborough was removed because it was subject to a graffiti attack, with the words “rapist” and “paedophile” written on it.

A street sign named Savile’s View, also in the seaside town, was also removed.

Police said that someone attacked Savile’s grave last week and authorities in the town said they are reviewing security at the cemetery where he is buried.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “North Yorkshire Police received a report at around 4.30pm on Thursday 4 October 2012 of a bottle being thrown at Jimmy Savile’s grave in Woodlands Cemetery in Scarborough. The grave was not damaged in the incident.”

The Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust also said it is considering changing its title in the wake of the allegations.

A spokeswoman for the charity said it received a large proportion of funds from donors other than Savile and is now looking into supporting charities working with survivors of sexual abuse.

“The trustees have been contacted by a number of members of the public suggesting that they should change the charity’s name, and they are in the process of looking into this,” the spokeswoman said.

“The trustees have already committed to providing further funds to some of the causes the charity currently supports and they will be meeting soon to discuss how to best use the funds that remain at their disposal.

“They are actively looking at supporting, amongst others, charities that work with survivors of sexual abuse. They feel this is the right thing to do in the circumstances.”

The charity recently committed substantial funds to medical research, hospitals and the Leeds Undergraduate Research Endowment.

Earlier, BBC Director General George Entwistle said he would like to “apologise on behalf of the organisation” in the wake of the allegations of sexual abuse against Savile. He also confirmed the BBC would conduct an inquiry following a police investigation.

He spoke out a day after Prime Minister David Cameron called for allegations of sexual abuse against the late celebrity to be fully investigated.

Mr Cameron said that the claims from a number of women which have emerged over recent weeks that they were abused by Savile as teenagers were “truly shocking”.

And he said that the allegations should be looked into by the BBC - which employed Savile at the time - and, if necessary, by the police.

Mr Entwistle said there needed to be a “comprehensive examination” of what went on, following the police investigation.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “These are awful allegations that have been made and they are criminal allegations and the first thing I want to say is that the women involved here have gone through something awful, something I deeply regret they should have to go through and I would like to apologise on behalf of the organisation to each and every one of them for what they’ve had to endure here.”

He added: “When the police have finished everything they have to do and when they give me an assurance that there is no danger of us in any way compromising or contaminating an investigation, I will take it further and ensure that any outstanding questions are answered properly.”

Mr Entwistle said any investigation needed to be done in “two phases”, and the BBC would “take a look properly” after the police inquiry.

He said: “At the heart of what went on are a series of criminal allegations about the behaviour of Sir Jimmy Savile, Now, the way to deal with those is to make sure that the police, who are the only properly constituted authority for dealing with criminal investigations, are allowed to make the examinations and inquiries they need to make.

“So... it is critically important that we start by putting the BBC at the disposal of the police in this regard.”

Any BBC probe, he added, would examine the “broad question of what was going and whether anybody around Jimmy Savile knew what was going on”.

Mr Entwistle said he was told that Newsnight was looking at a possible investigation into Savile at around early December last year.

He said: “The BBC is designed in such a way that news and current affairs programmes are protected from the interests and influence of the rest of the organisation.”

He added: “With the benefit of hindsight I think we could all wish that Newsnight had been able to go as far as ITV went.”

But he also stressed he was supportive of the judgement made in relation to the programme based on knowledge at the time.

Asked why the BBC ran a eulogy on Savile after evidence surfaced, he said: “I didn’t know what had become of that investigation, I didn’t know what discoveries, if any, that they had.

“A great many people in the country loved Jimmy Savile and wanted to contribute to that programme.”

Asked if he had heard about the rumours about Savile at the time the programme was broadcast, he said: “No, I had not. Jimmy Savile was regarded as, I think by a great many people, as odd, a bit peculiar, that was something I was aware some people believed, but I did not know, and I’ve heard an awful lot of talk from people about what they knew, and it does seem to me that if people knew, they’d seen something themselves or been told something directly or had evidence of his behaviour, if they knew that then there was an enormous obligation on them to have done something about it.”

The BBC of today, he added, has a child protection policy which would “absolutely stop” access for people in Savile’s position to under-18s on BBC premises.

He said: “It’s very important that people don’t think the BBC of today is anything like in character managed the way it was at the time.”