Two of Jimmy Savile's charities are set to close amid concerns that they could "damage" their causes over their association with the disgraced former TV presenter, who is at the centre of an "unprecedented" sex abuse scandal.

The trustees of the Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust and Jimmy Savile Stoke Mandeville Hospital Trust said that while they had considered changing their name, they felt they would "always be linked in the public's mind with the late Jimmy Savile".

Just over a year after Savile's death, allegations of widespread abuse emerged with the Met saying the former BBC presenter could have abused 200 victims.

jimmy savile

Two of Jimmy Savile's charities are set to close


The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children described him as "one of the most prolific sex offenders" ever.

But during his life, Savile was known for his work and TV and high-profile support for charity. It is thought he raised up to £40m for various causes.

In the wake of the decision to disband the trusts, the solicitor for the trustees Jo Summers has said they will give their existing money away: "The trustees are eternally grateful to all those people for their support in the past, so we don't want it to be seen as just Jimmy's money."

Summers added that they were shocked by the allegations of abuse by Savile.

"They knew Jimmy for many years, volunteered to be his charity trustees. They can't recognise the person they are reading about in the papers."

The trustees of the charities said in a statement they were "concerned that the continued press attention into the twoS avile charities is potentially damaging to the charitable beneficiaries and thevital work they do."

In addition to the charities closing, a Leeds-based venue named after Savile will close after bosses decided his name was "toxic."

Savile’s Hall will now become New Dock Hall, with Managing Director James Vincent saying: “The sheer volume and nature of these allegations has made the [Savile] name toxic."

Earlier this month Jimmy Savile's gravestone was removed and broken up to put in landfill at his family's request "out of respect for public opinion"."

BBC boss George Entwistle will be quizzed about the corporation's handling of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal by a committee of MPs later on Tuesday.

The full statement from the trustee of Jimmy Savile charities:


The trustees’ primary concern is to protect the charitable causes that theysupport. They are concerned that the continued press attention into the two Savile charities is potentially damaging to the charitable beneficiaries and the vital work they do. The trustees have given much consideration to a possible change of name.

However the trustees feel that, whatever new name they may adopt, the charities will always be linked in the public’s mind with the late Jimmy Savile. The trustees cannot see a future for either charity.

The trustees have, with great sadness, therefore decided to take steps to bring both charities to an end. They will be talking to the charitable beneficiaries that they have committed to support, as well as to the Charity Commission, to ensure that this is done in the most sensitive and appropriate way.

The trustees have already chosen how to distribute the funds in each charity and have decided not to publicly announce who the recipients will be. It will be for each charitable organisation to decide whether to publicise any donation received. No future requests for funding will be considered.

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  • Jimmy Savile in 1961 around the time he was working for Radio Luxembourg. He is at London Airport with Pan American stewardess Birgit Johansson with two gold discs; one is for American singer Elvis Presley for having sold one million copies of "It's Now or Never" in the UK, and the other is for Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker

  • Cilla Black and Jimmy Savile before a Variety Club Luncheon at the Savoy Hotel. Taken in 1964, the year Savile became the first presenter of Top of the Pops

  • Two women have come forward with allegations from the 1960s, one who was 14 and another who was a teenager when she claims Savile sexually abused her in Scarborough

  • Savile in 1969 with Physically Handicapped and Able-Bodied (PHAB) member Erika Mentz from Germany and other PHAB members at a dance at Devonshire House

  • 1969 also saw Savile begin volunteering at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital for specialist spinal injuries. He would later be given a room there

  • Jimmy Savile presenting a cheque to children on behalf of the NSPCC in 1969

  • The 1970s saw Savile start volunteering at Leeds General Infirmary and...

  • ... Broadmoor secure high-security psychiatric hospital. Allegations by former patients have been made against Savile although ex-workers have disputed the idea that he could have been left alone with anyone whilst working there

  • The 70s also saw the start of Jim'll Fix It. Allegations from this period include Caroline Moore, a 13-year-old patient at Stoke Mandeville hospital in 1971, who says Savile "rammed his tongue" down her throat and another allegation accuses Savile of molesting a brain-damaged teenage patient at Leeds General Infirmary in 1972

  • The 1980s saw the continuation of Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It as Savile became a much loved household name. Two allegations relating to this time include one from a then-15-year-old girl (not pictured) who made a complaint of abuse by Savile in Lancashire. Pictured is 12-year-old Rebecca Heap

  • Savile at the Stoke Mandeville hospital with injured children from Beirut in 1987

  • Savile was knighted in 1990 and continued his charity work throughout the decade

  • Savile was questioned in 2007 by police about allegations of sexual abuse but the Crown Prosecution service says there is not enough evidence to warrant a prosecution

  • A 2008 police report into abuse at the Haut de Garenne children's home in Jersey names Savile, although this is never made public

  • Savile re-united with his Jim'll Fix It chair in 2009. The previous year Sussex police received a complaint of sexual assault but went on to say the victim was "unwilling to co-operate in any investigation"

  • Jimmy Savile is found dead at the age of 84 in October 2011. He is buried in Scarborough

  • In December 2011 the BBC drop an investigation by Newsnight into the allegations of sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile. Three tribute programmes are aired instead

  • ITV airs a documentary, 'Exposure, the Other Side of Jimmy Savile', in which a number of women claim they were abused by Savile as youngsters, including Karin Ward (pictured)

  • Within days of the documentary, many more allegations surface. By the 9 October Peter Spindler of the Metropolitan Police tells the BBC: "It is quite clear from what women are telling us that Savile was a predatory sex offender"

  • 11 October 2012 and George Entwistle, Director General of the BBC, asks journalists why the Newsnight programme was dropped as police from Tayside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and North Yorkshire police say they are investigating allegations going back to 1959

  • 12 October and police reveal they have 340 potential lines of inquiry

  • 15 October sees a man come forward alleging that Savile abused him when he was a nine-year-old boyscout

  • Savile's family removed his headstone from his grave and broke it up in the wake of the furore

  • Jimmy Savile sexually abuses transgender man

    A transgender man comes forward alleging that Jimmy Savile 'stuck his hand up his nightdress' while he was a 17-year-old teenage girl at Broadmoor in the 1970's. More here http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/15/jimmy-savile-timeline-abuse-allegations_n_1966426.html?1350304573#slide=1641388