A former BBC colleague of Jimmy Savile accused him of being a necrophiliac whose usual sexual partners were “underaged subnormals”.

The astonishing allegations were made on Radio 5 Live by Paul Gambaccini, who started working as a DJ on Radio 1 in 1973. He said he was made aware of the necrophilia claims in the Eighties.

Mr Gambaccini said: "The expression I came to associate with Savile's sexual partners was either one used by production assistants or one I made up to summarise their reports ...'under-age subnormals'. He targeted the institutionalised, the hospitalised – and this was known. Why did Jimmy go to hospitals? That's where the patients were."

The NHS trust which now runs the hospital in question told The Independent it was aware of the claims and believed they were a fantasy suggested by Savile.

In a statement, the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: "This is an extremely distasteful suggestion, which we believe owes more to Mr Savile's fantasy life than reality. There is a police investigation going on and genuine evidence of wrongdoing should be reported to them."

Sources at the hospital said Savile had worked in the X-ray department and would have had little excuse to visit the mortuary, which was a restricted area.

l The Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust and the Jimmy Savile Stoke Mandeville Hospital Trust charities are to close after their trustees decided that even a change of name could not prevent their association with the presenter fatally damaging their causes.