Any institution linked to 'predatory sex offender' could be sued
BBC offers grovelling apology as it launches three inquiries
By ANNA EDWARDS
BBC director-general George Entwistle, offered a 'profound and heartfelt apology' to the alleged victims of Sir Jimmy Savile's sexual abuse
The BBC could be sued for millions of pounds as the scandal around the Jimmy Saville sex claims grew even larger.
The former Top Of The Pops presenter has been accused of a slew of vile crimes, including sexually assaulting hospital patients while they lay in their beds, having sex with underage girls, and molesting youngsters.
A number of alleged victims have contacted lawyers and could sue any institution that is discovered to have links with Savile's alleged crimes, it was reported.
A partner at Farleys Solicitor told The Sun that the costs could mushroom into millions of pounds worth of compensation.
He said: 'You are looking at a potential cost of millions.'
Liz Dux, a partner at Russell Jones & Walker, is representing some of the alleged victims of Jimmy Savile.
The personal injury lawyer, who specialises in abuse cases, said 'a couple' of women had sought legal advice.
'They may well have grounds to sue on the principles of vicarious liability,' Dux said.
'If Savile was acting as an employee or agent of the BBC or a health organisation, then that organisation with whom he had a close connection can be held vicariously liable.
Dux added that the women were not motivated by compensation. 'What motivates people is not money,' she said.
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The developments came after a TV director who allegedly reported Savile to BBC bosses decades ago – when he caught the star having sex with a 15- or 16-year-old girl in his dressing room – revealed he was ignored.
David Nicolson, 67, who had been a director on Jim’ll Fix It, said he made several attempts to expose Savile to the BBC, but was told: ‘That’s Jimmy’ and ‘that’s the way it goes’.
On Mr Nicolson’s claims, a BBC spokesman said: ‘We have been disturbed to hear these allegations.
'Sexual predator': The BBC could be forced to pay compensation if they are found to be linked to the claimns that Jimmy Savile molested children
'All staff past and present who have any information relating to allegations of this kind should raise them with the BBC’s internal investigations unit or the police.’
Grant Shapps, the Conservative Party chairman, told BBC1’s Question Time it ‘seems unimaginable’ people at the BBC were unaware of the child abuse allegations.
The police investigation into Jimmy Savile’s abuse of youngsters has tripled in scale to 340 separate lines of inquiry, Scotland Yard revealed.
There are now 40 potential victims and 15 police forces investigating the paedophile BBC presenter’s reign of child abuse.
It prompted the BBC’s Director General to issue his second grovelling apology of the week – and announce a total of three independent inquiries.
George Entwistle offered a ‘profound and heartfelt apology on behalf of the BBC to every victim’.
He added: ‘I have made clear my revulsion at the thought that these criminal assaults were carried out by someone employed by the BBC and that some may have happened on BBC premises as well as, we now discover, in hospitals and other institutions.’
Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire says it is 'shocked' by the claims made by former patients
Celebrities and former BBC staff potentially face arrest for alleged sex offences as police hunt accomplices of Savile’s four decades of attacks. He is alleged to have raped and molested children as young as ten.
The reported potential law suits follow the revelation that he was given his own keys to high-security Broadmoor mental hospital.
It also comes as former patients Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire and Leeds General Infirmary claim they too were vulnerable to Savile's predatory assaults.
Scotland Yard has branded Savile a ‘predatory sex offender’ who preyed on children as young as 13 for four decades in a nationwide campaign of abuse.
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, which is responsible for Stoke Mandeville, said it was supporting the police inquiries and would take further action ‘if their findings suggest that we do need to’. It also said it had advised staff to contact police if they had any concerns.
West London Mental Health Trust, which covers Broadmoor, said it had not received any allegations of abuse from patients, their representatives or from staff, but would co-operate with police if they investigated.
Leeds General Infirmary, where Savile raised millions of pounds and was given his own office, has declared ‘shock’ at claims he groped vulnerable children recovering from surgery while volunteering as a porter. Two more victims came forward there yesterday.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2217169/Jimmy-Savile-BBC-sued-millions-victims.html#ixzz29BcGQM6j
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