A senior member of staff at the BBC has revealed he questioned Jimmy Savile over rumours about his private life more than 20 years ago.
As police revealed the DJ and television presenter's alleged catalogue of child sex abuse could have spanned six decades and included around 60 victims, Derek Chinnery, BBC Radio 1 controller from 1978 to 1985, admitted that he quizzed the presenter directly about the rumours.
The scandal has mushroomed since ITV screened a documentary in which five women alleged they were abused by the late DJ and broadcaster, with Scotland Yard saying yesterday that there are allegations spanning 1959 to 2006.
Chinnery, who was Savile's boss at Radio 1, told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House: "I asked, 'what's all this, these rumours we hear about you Jimmy?'
"And he said, 'that's all nonsense'. There was no reason to disbelieve (Savile)."
There are to be two investigations connected with the Jimmy Savile allegations
Savile worked at Radio 1 from 1969 to 1989 presenting a show of chart songs from previous decades.
Speaking about his acceptance of Savile's denial, Chinnery told the BBC: "It's easy now to say @how could you just believe him just like that?'"
He added: "He was the sort of man that attracted rumours, after all, because he was single, he was always on the move, he was always going around the country."
Scotland Yard is pursuing 340 lines of inquiry in the Savile abuse case and so far 12 allegations of sexual offences have been officially recorded but this number is increasing, police said.
Metropolitan Police detectives are in contact with 14 other forces as the number of allegations against the former DJ continues to rise.
The BBC has been sucked into the scandal after it emerged that Newsnight abandoned an investigation into the alleged abuse. The organisation has also come under fire with claims that staff were aware of the Jim'll Fix It presenter's behaviour and failed to take action.
Savile raised millions for charity, especially for Stoke Mandeville Hospital
On Friday, BBC director-general George Entwistle offered a "profound and heartfelt apology" to the alleged victims of Savile's sexual abuse as he announced that two inquiries would be launched.
One will look into whether there were any failings over the handling of the abandoned Newsnight piece.
A second independent inquiry will look into the "culture and practices of the BBC during the years Jimmy Savile worked here", Entwistle said.
Sir Michael Lyons, who was chairman of the BBC Trust from 2007 to 2011, welcomed the investigations into Savile's behaviour but added that there was "a degree of hysteria" when controversies arose involving the BBC.
"It clearly has consequences for the BBC, but frankly I think the consequences spread well beyond the BBC," he told the Sky News Murnaghan programme today:
"There may well be lessons here to learn about the way that we tolerate the behaviour of predatory men, particularly when they are in powerful positions.
"And there may be lessons to learn - I am sure there are - about the license that we sometimes allow to celebrities. This goes well beyond the BBC although there are issues for the BBC to address."
Allegations of abuse against the former DJ date back to the 1960s
Talking generally about controversy at the BBC, he added: "As they emerge the BBC perhaps understandably becomes a very intense focus for people's concern and anxieties, after all it is the national broadcaster, we do want to trust it, we do need to be able to trust what it says, so it is naturally the focus where these cases relate to it.
"But equally you have to say actually there is a degree of hysteria in the extent to which it's focused exclusively on the BBC rather than being seen as something of much wider consequence."
He continued: "What we hear are not just allegations relating to the BBC - although I don't want to diminish those - but also allegations made about hospital and prison contexts.
"If they are proved right here we have a serial offender potentially across a wide range of settings.
"None of that detracts from the importance of the BBC making sure that it understands what happened and makes sure there is no risk at all of such events happening now."
Sir Michael said there was a question to be answered over Newsnight's piece on Savile.
"We do need to be clear there was no inappropriate influence there," he added.
"You know that in any news programme you sometimes put together stories which for one reason or another don't make it to air.
"If this is more than that and there is any suggestion that for the sake of an entertainment programme the BBC failed to investigate allegations which clearly related to its own history then that is a serious matter and I think (current BBC Trust chairman) Chris Patten has made it quite clear the trust takes it seriously and will pursue it to the end."
He said it was important for the "integrity of the BBC's own journalism", adding: "I would be surprised if it was vetoed but it is important that the chapter and verse on that is delivered and that it is scrutinised by the trust and then made public."
The scandal has seen the BBC come under fire with allegations that the corporation was aware and failed to take action
The Department of Health (DH) has also been dragged into the scandal over its decision to appoint Savile to lead a "taskforce" at Broadmoor, one of the hospitals where the celebrity allegedly abused patients.
The department will carry out an investigation into how he was given the position while Ken Clarke was health secretary in 1988. The DH could be sued by victims as it was running the psychiatric hospital at the time, the Guardian reported yesterday.
Clarke, currently a Cabinet minister without portfolio, said yesterday that he did not remember ever meeting Savile or his appointment.
A spokeswoman for Mr Clarke said that as he only became health secretary in July 1988, Savile's appointment to the role at Broadmoor may have been instigated by someone else.
In a statement, the DH said: "Although the framework for child protection and safeguarding for Broadmoor and other special hospital patients changed radically in 1999, we of course want to establish the circumstances and see if any lessons can be learned.
"In hindsight he should very obviously not have been appointed. Had anyone involved in the appointment been aware of allegations of abuse against Savile, we would not have expected him to have been appointed."
The ITV documentary on Savile also included allegations that he targeted young hospital patients at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire and Leeds General Infirmary.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling told Murnaghan that everyone had been shocked by stories involving NHS hospitals and homes for children, adding that "the BBC in particular has to learn lessons from this".
"I think all of us who once saw Jimmy Savile as a great national figure, now are utterly horrified by the truth that's emerged about him," he said.
"Nobody could possibly defend anything that's happened. Of course it's right and proper that we identify how on earth this was able to happen, why senior people did not act earlier, whether there are lessons to learn now.
"I think particularly whether there are people who were also involved at the time - Jimmy Savile is no longer with us - but who were involved and are still with us.
"It's right and proper that the police investigate all allegations."
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