How Savile even preyed on dying child at Great Ormond Street during decades of abuse in hospitals



Savile abused hospital patients between the years of 1962 and 1995

NHS could be set to payout hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation]

Used his celebrity status to dupe hospitals in allowing him to see sick children

Detectives have identified 49 offences against vulnerable patients by Jimmy Savile during decades of abuse.



Most of the 13 hospitals involved have launched investigations into how the sexual predator was able to abuse sick youngsters in their care between 1962 and 1995.



With dozens of the victims preparing to sue, NHS trusts face having to pay out hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation.



Monster: Jimmy Savile with female patients at Stoke Mandeville Hospital - the DJ's abuse there and at other institutions have become well known

Savile was found to have committed a ‘full range’ of sex crimes – from minor assaults to rape.



The offences include 22 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, 16 at Leeds General Infirmary and one – perhaps the most shocking of all – against a dying child at Great Ormond Street in London in 1971.



The DJ even assaulted patients at four secure psychiatric units, including Broadmoor where police believe up to five attacks took place.

There are thought to have been further victims at the Wheatfields Sue Ryder cancer hospice in Leeds but none survived to speak out. In 1977 Savile groped and made lewd comments to a girl aged under 16 who was visiting a sick relative there.



The official report into Savile’s abuse highlighted how the Top of the Pops presenter used his celebrity image and charitable acts to dupe hospitals into allowing him near ill children.



It says: ‘At Leeds General Infirmary, Broadmoor Hospital and Stoke Mandeville Hospital he was taken at face value as a volunteer and fundraiser, probably because of his growing celebrity status.



Astounding: How Savile managed to carry out a catalogue of abuse at hospitals around the UK is shocking

Having been accepted at these institutions he gained access to vulnerable children and adults.’



The internal investigations are looking at how Savile was allowed to get away with his crimes and why in some cases he was given special access to vulnerable patients.



Incredibly, the Department of Health made him the head of a taskforce overseeing Broadmoor mental health hospital in 1988.



In that role, he was given an office, a flat, keys to secure units and access to deeply disturbed and dangerous patients, including Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe. A patient has reported being assaulted by Savile at Broadmoor in 1991. West London Mental Health NHS Trust said an internal investigation into abuse at the secure unit had already inspected thousands of documents.



Steve Shrubb, the trust’s chief executive, said: ‘We welcome the Metropolitan Police report into the alleged criminal activities perpetrated by Jimmy Savile.



‘The scale and nature of the incidents described in the report is deeply distressing for all those involved.’



A Great Ormond Street Hospital spokesman said: ‘The contents of this report are clearly extremely distressing for all those involved.



‘In regards to the allegation made in connection with our organisation, we were made aware of this by the Metropolitan Police very recently. It relates to an incident in the early 1970s.’



Two of the psychiatric hospitals where abuse was carried out have since closed: Saxondale in Nottinghamshire and High Royds in Leeds.



Many have since been taken over by different health trusts who said they had no idea of Savile’s former involvement.



Wirral Community NHS Trust, which runs a health centre on the site where Savile abused a patient of the former St Catherine’s Hospital in Birkenhead, said it did not run the hospital in 1964 when the abuse took place.

