‘No evidence’ presenter was Ripper case suspect

Questions were raised about the broadcaster’s relationship with the Ripper investigation last year when a retired senior officer claimed the disgraced DJ was a suspect in the notorious case more than 30 years ago.

But a new report on West Yorkshire Police’s (WYP) contacts with Savile concluded it could find no evidence of this being true.

The review found that many records have been destroyed but detectives had found huge numbers of record cards with information about thousands of men who had been spoken to.

The report said: “Searches of the paperwork relating to the investigation have identified four index cards relating to Savile. They contain scant information and do not indicate whether Savile was a ‘person of interest’ to the enquiry team.

“The information held was his name, date of birth, home address and various reference numbers. It was not possible to establish the relevance of the reference numbers as a large proportion of the investigation paperwork had been destroyed in the 1980s.”

But the review said: “One card does make reference to Savile offering his services as an intermediary for the police, should the ‘Ripper’ wish to make contact.”

Last year West Yorkshire Police detective John Stainthorpe said police approached the Leeds-born presenter after an anonymous tip-off.

Mr Stainthorpe, who spent 40 years in the force, told ITV’s Calendar News: “When the Ripper was really active, one of the suspects put forward by the public was, in fact, Jimmy Savile. Obviously it was not he, but he was interviewed along with many others.”

The new report said investigators had spoken to one retired senior officer who worked on the investigation who remembered Savile’s name being mentioned during a senior officers’ meeting.