Police force under fire over Savile sex probe mistakes

WEST Yorkshire Police held virtually no information about Jimmy Savile’s sex abuse before he died despite more than 40 of his victims coming from the county, a damning report reveals today.
Jimmy Savile at his Leeds flatJimmy Savile at his Leeds flat
Jimmy Savile at his Leeds flat

Inspectors from a police watchdog criticised mistakes by forces nationwide in sharing information about the disgraced presenter as they expressed “serious concerns” that so many victims felt unable to come forward. Report in full

Only five allegations and two pieces of intelligence were recorded by police in the entire country though one dated back as early as 1964, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary revealed. And although Savile lived in West Yorkshire for much of his life and had dozens of local victims, the only significant recorded information about his criminal activities were held by other forces.

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Officers in West Yorkshire held no “intelligence reports” about Savile which would have prompted further investigation and only one minor “information report”. This was despite newspaper reports being freely available online revealing that Savile was interviewed by West Yorkshire Police in 1958 and that he had been due to appear in court over sexual abuse allegations. The report said mistakes by officers in Surrey, London and Sussex meant no one force was able to piece together the full extent of the Leeds-born DJ’s sexual abuse. And it claimed inconsistencies in the way they shared information meant there was a “distinct possibility” officers could fail to prevent another similar scandal from happening again.

Jimmy Savile at his Leeds flatJimmy Savile at his Leeds flat
Jimmy Savile at his Leeds flat

HM Inspector of Constabulary, Drusilla Sharpling, said: “The findings in this report are of deep concern, and clearly there were mistakes in how the police handled the allegations made against Savile during his lifetime.”