NHS sites across the region targeted by pervert

The bulk were committed at Leeds General Infirmary where Savile worked as a volunteer porter for 30 years until 1995.

But he is also accused of one offence of abuse at St James’s Hospital as early as 1962, at Dewsbury’s hospital in 1969 and at High Royds Hospital at Menston, near Leeds, in 1989.

There were 16 reported cases of assaults at the infirmary, half carried out from 1968-1970, according to the report.

The first was said to have been committed in 1965 when he began working there and the last in 1995 when he ended his voluntary role as he approached the age of 70.

Savile was also a major fund-raiser for hospitals in Leeds, in particular for research into heart disease which saw him require quadruple bypass surgery in the city in the 1990s. He had an office on the infirmary site and there are claims – disputed by health chiefs – that he took teenage girls into an accommodation block there.

A spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said yesterday it would look into any complaints made to police or the trust about this “extremely distressing subject”.

He said: “In early December, the trust published the terms of reference for its internal investigation into matters relating to Jimmy Savile’s long-standing involvement with the Leeds Teaching Hospitals as a volunteer and fundraiser.

“This will be a thorough and detailed piece of work and will be carried out in conjunction with parallel investigations by the Department of Health and other NHS trusts. Work is now under way and we expect our report will be ready towards the end of this year.

“As part of this work, our panel will look at approaches from people who have contacted the trust directly to share information on this extremely distressing subject.

“The panel will also examine in detail any information the police pass to us about incidents reported to them at Leeds General Infirmary and St James’s Hospital.”

High Royds – once the biggest asylum in the North of England – was shut a decade ago.

A spokesman for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which now runs mental health services in the city, said it would offer police its full cooperation to investigate the allegation.