'Staff Knew What was Going on. They Just Accepted it...':
Four Vulnerable Victims Reveal their Ordeals at the Hands of Jimmy Savile
- So far, 103 victims have come forward to describe the abuse they suffered
- One victim said nurses laughed when she told them she had been sexually assaulted by Savile in the basement of Leeds Infirmary
- Broadmoor patient says Savile targeted victims at the psychiatric hospital
- Female patient was assaulted as she watched Top of the Pops
By Daily Mail UK, 27 June 2014
So far, 103 victims have come forward to describe the abuse they suffered at Jimmy Savile’s hands while in the care of the National Health Service. Below are the stories of just four of the vulnerable people he targeted.
The ‘Chosen One’ aged 16
One victim said nurses laughed when she told them she had been sexually assaulted by Savile in a hospital basement.
So far, 103 victims have come forward to describe the abuse they suffered at Jimmy Saviles hands while in the care of the National Health Service
The woman, who was then a 16-year-old patient at Leeds General Infirmary, said Savile made her feel like the ‘chosen one’, taking her to the local shop and buying her sweets and magazines.
But she claimed that later, a hospital porter led her to an area where Savile was waiting behind a closed door.
‘He pulled me in immediately and started to kiss me with his tongue,’ she told the BBC.
One victim said nurses laughed when she told them she had been sexually assaulted by Savile in a hospital basement
‘At the same time his left hand went on to my right thigh under my dress.
‘There wasn’t time to draw breath, there wasn’t time to analyse even what’s happening here because it was seamless. . . And then he said you’ve got to go.’
The assault lasted no more than five or six minutes, she said.
The incident made her feel ‘dirty and ridiculously stupid’, but when she tried to tell nurses they started laughing, making her feel she couldn’t finish. Only her mother took her claims seriously.
But, she added, ‘everybody knew’ what was going on – yet staff, porters and patients at the hospital all accepted it.
The victim said that when she discovered the full extent of Savile’s abuse, she wished she had reported the harrowing encounter to police.
Terror at Broadmoor
A Broadmoor patient revealed how Savile repeatedly targeted his victims at the psychiatric hospital in the 1990s.
Staff often allowed him to sit unaccompanied in the day room, she said. On one occasion, while talking to her with his back to other patients, he put his hand on her leg and sexually assaulted her, speaking all the time.
She said she froze and felt guilty – but a member of staff later insisted she must have imagined the abuse.
Savile was able to assault her in the same way several times over a number of weeks. The cycle caused her ‘significant distress’, she told investigators.
Savile had a long association with Broadmoor hospital, having worked there as a volunteer in the 1970s and 1980s.
A Broadmoor patient revealed how Savile repeatedly targeted his victims at the psychiatric hospital in the 1990s
He was later given a central position in the administration and was allowed to personally select managers, it has been claimed. He had a set of keys and even living quarters on site.
Hurt herself in vain bid to escape his clutches
Another victim told of the ‘major and lasting impact’ of Savile’s abuse in the late 1970s, when she was less than ten years old.
The first time he attacked her, he picked her up from her house in a two-seater car – meaning that her family were forced to travel in a separate car rather than accompany the pair to Leeds General Infirmary, she said.
As they arrived at the hospital, Savile took her into a room with no windows. When her parents left, he kissed her several times.
Savile's coffin drives past The Leeds General Infirmary in 2011. According to the report his victims at the hospital ranged in age from five to 75
She was targeted again six months later, when he picked her up in the same car to take her alone to another appointment.
By the third appointment, she was terrified of the entertainer.
To avoid the abuse, she said she deliberately hurt herself so badly that she needed to be treated at a different hospital.
But she couldn’t escape – for while she was recovering there, Savile visited her again.
The traumatic experience when she was just a child has left her scarred for life, the report found.
It states that she was only one of many victims at the Leeds hospital, including men, women,
-boys and girls, who ranged in age from five to 75.
Attacked while she watched Top Of The Pops
A female patient at Broadmoor revealed how Savile assaulted her in the early 1970s as she watched Top of the Pops
The presenter used to sit with patients to watch himself appear on the popular music show, which was pre-recorded.
The victim, known in the report as Ms B, told investigators how on one occasion, he was watching the show with patients in front of a large sofa in the day room.
Staff were standing behind the sofa, with their view blocked by the furniture. The paedophile sat on the floor next to the victim.
Effectively hidden from sight, he placed his hand between her legs before assaulting her. The attack lasted for two to three minutes, she said.
But like many others, she felt unable to complain because staff were unsympathetic. She said she did not feel able to tell her story then or later, for fear of being punished as a troublemaker.
Savile presented the BBC show Top of the Pops, which had a largely teenage audience, from 1964 to 1984.
Throughout this period, he escaped punishment for the horrific abuse of young stars and fans. Singer Coleen Nolan has previously claimed that Savile invited her to come to a hotel when she was just 14 after she had recorded at the Top of the Pops studio.
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