Police investigating the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal are dealing with around 300 alleged victims, Scotland Yard revealed on Thursday.

Commander Peter Spindler said officers are following more than 400 lines of inquiry linked to the victims, of whom all except two are women.

He said investigators have so far spoken to 130 people who have come forward, and 114 allegations of crime have emerged.

Mr Spindler said Savile was "undoubtedly" one of the most prolific sex offenders of recent history.

jimmy savile

Police investigating the Jimmy Savile abuse scandal are dealing with around 300 alleged victims


He said a retired officer had been in touch to say he had investigated Savile in the 1980s while based in west London but he had not had the evidence to proceed.

Mr Spindler said he believed the allegation was of an indecent assault on BBC premises but officers have still not found the original file.

He said allegations reported today that doctors in hospitals had been involved in abuse "hadn't come through to us at the moment".

Officers are using a "triage" approach, first making contact with victims by phone to get initial details of their allegations, Mr Spindler said.

He told reporters that most of the allegations are linked to Savile, but some involve others who may have acted with him.

The inquiry will be a "watershed" moment in the investigation of child abuse, he said.

Nobody has yet been arrested or interviewed under caution as yet, but the force is "preparing an arrest strategy".

The Commander said: "There's Savile on his own, and that's the vast majority of what we're being told about, there's Savile and others. And it's the others, if they're living, we can look at them."

Officers are trying to contact victims as quickly as possible, but for some it is the first time they have spoken about the allegations, Cmder Spindler said.

He told journalists: "We are trying to make contact with as many victims as quickly as we can. We are doing it initially by telephone but some of those telephone contacts are taking up to four hours.

"This may be the first time that some people have actually spoken in any detail, and we don't underestimate how significant an event it is for them to disclose sexual abuse."

He said that the weight of evidence against the late DJ was overwhelming.

He said: "We have to believe what they are saying because they are all saying the same thing independently."

It came as BBC Trust chairman Lord Chris Patten admitted allegations of sex abuse against BBC DJ and presenter Jimmy Savile have done "terrible damage" to the reputation of the corporation.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's World at One, Lord Patten said: "We have to deal with the terrible damage to the reputation of the BBC, which has hitherto been a national institution which people have trusted."

jimmy savile

Most of the allegations are linked to Savile, but some involve others who may have acted with him


Peter Watt, Director of the NSPCC helpline, said the allegations against Savile had led to more calls to the child protection charity relating to abuse.

“The case of Jimmy Savile has caught the attention of the entire country. And whilst we have seen a wave of calls relating to abuse by the late celebrity, as well as calls from other adults who were abused in childhood, we have also seen a surge of calls relating to children suffering abuse right now. This is especially encouraging as we may be able to help stop this abuse in its tracks and bring the perpetrators to justice," he said.

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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