Jimmy Savile Sex Abuse: Teenage Girls 'Taken To Leeds General Infirmary' Claims Former Porter Terry Pratt

Jimmy Savile 'Took Teenage Girls To Hospital'

Jimmy Savile was handed a key to a hospital block where he regularly would take teenage girls alone, a former porter has claimed.

Terry Pratt said Savile would arrive with the girls in the early hours of the morning and then leave before dawn.

The late Jim'll Fix It star was often given access to the nurses' accommodation building at Leeds General Infirmary during the late 1980s, the ex-worker told the BBC.

Some have suggested Jimmy Savile may have used his celebrity status to get away with the abuse

Mr Pratt said he became suspicious when Savile began arriving in the middle of the night with different girls who seemed "star-struck" and were "not streetwise".

He added that the celebrity, who was a volunteer and fundraiser for the hospital, would make several late-night visits a month where he would ask for the key to the accommodation block, spend a few hours there and then leave at 5am.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said it was "shocked" by the claims surrounding Leeds General Infirmary and has vowed to help the Metropolitan Police with inquiries into the alleged abuse.

A spokesman for the trust said: "We continue to be shocked by each new allegation. It is important that they are investigated properly.

"Once again we urge anybody who has any concerns to contact us so that we can pass information on to the police or to contact the police directly via the NSPCC helpline, 0808 800 5000.

"The trust is in contact with senior detectives from the Metropolitan Police and we have indicated our intention to help with their inquiries.

"If there are any issues which need to be addressed following the police investigation then we will take action."

Scotland Yard has launched an investigation into the television and radio star's activities, and he is now believed to have been of the UK's most prolific abusers, with about 300 possible victims.

Detectives are following 400 lines of inquiry as part of the investigation while the BBC has launched an inquiry into the culture and practices at the corporation in the era of Savile's alleged sexual abuse.

It is also looking at the decision-making process that saw a Newsnight investigation into Savile's activities shelved.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said "heads will need to roll" at the BBC if it is discovered that abuse was ignored.

"Serious questions need to be asked and if after we find out what's happened, it's clear that people have turned a blind eye or, worse still, connived with it, then of course they're going to have to be held to account and - if that turns out to be the case - heads will need to roll of course," he told ITV's The Agenda.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said police and other organisations had not connected a number of separate claims made about Savile's allegedly predatory actions.

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