The Metropolitan police will take the national lead on assessing the sexual abuse complaints made by women about Sir Jimmy Savile.

The Met's child abuse unit will examine the flood of information which has come to light this week after several women said they were assaulted by the Jim'll Fix It star in the 1960s and 1970s.

The appointment of a lead force signals that police have received a significant number of fresh allegations over the past 72 hours. Four separate police forces around the UK had received complaints against Savile by Thursday afternoon, including Surrey police and Northamptonshire police.

Scotland Yard will now decide whether to launch a full investigation into the Savile allegations after an assessment by detectives, led by detective superintendent David Grey.

The Met said it would work closely with the BBC investigations unit, the body tasked earlier this week to assist with claims relating to abuse alleged to have taken place on BBC premises in London.

Scotland Yard said in a statement: "Our priority will be to ensure a proportionate and consistent policing response putting the victims at the heart of our inquiries. It is too early to say how many individual allegations there are, and we will be making contact with all those concerned in due course."

Several woman have broken their silence about the claims for the first time this week, prompted by the ITV documentary Exposure: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile, which aired on Wednesday evening.

Mark Williams-Thomas, the former Surrey police child protection detective behind the ITV documentary, said a "significant number" of women had come forward to him with fresh allegations of abuse in the past 72 hours, since plans to air the ITV film were first made public. He added that the women had come forward with significant information that will be passed to police.

Woman have recounted harrowing details of how they were allegedly abused by the TV star when they were as young as 14. Former pupils of the Duncroft Approved School for girls with behavioural problems have said that they were assaulted by Savile, as have several women who went to his popular BBC shows, including Jim'll Fix It and Top of the Pops.

Once hailed as a national treasure, Savile's reputation now appears to be damaged irreparably by the claims. Archive editions of his Top of the Pops show have been pulled by the BBC and on Wednesday a memorial in Scarborough bearing his name was vandalised with the words "paedophile" and "rapist".

The Conservative MP Anne Main has written to Lord Justice Leveson asking him to investigate how the BBC handled the allegations as part of his inquiry into press standards.

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