Jimmy Savile accused in ITV documentary

Sir Jimmy Savile allegations: Call for his knighthood to be stripped posthumously over child abuse claims

Sir Jimmy Savile could be posthumously stripped of his knighthood in the wake of sickening child abuse allegations.

A Cabinet Office source confirmed the “unprecedented” move will be considered if the claims are found to have substance.

Savile was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 1990, in addition to an OBE he received in 1971 for services to charity and broadcasting.

Calls for his title to be revoked were posted on the Government’s official e-petitions website, although they were later removed because the site bans discussions about honours and appointments.

Hundreds more shocked fans vented their fury on Twitter and Facebook.

One wrote: “If you can posthumously take away a knighthood, Jimmy Savile should be number one on the list.”

The Cabinet Office source said: “To remove someone’s knighthood after their death is virtually unheard of, but it is possible.

“It would normally only be considered where an individual has been convicted of a criminal offence or officially censured by a professional body.”

Documentary details Savile claims
Press Association – 7 hours ago

Detailed testimonies of women who claim they were sexually abused by Sir Jimmy Savile when they were schoolgirls have been broadcast on television.
A number of alleged victims were interviewed as part of a documentary aired on Wednesday night amid growing allegations against the late Top of the Pops host.
Their historic accounts, which detailed how the presenter allegedly targeted girls in his BBC dressing room and private Rolls Royce, were shown after Surrey Police confirmed it had referred a historic rape allegation against the Jim'll Fix It star to Scotland Yard.
The Surrey force has also confirmed it investigated Sir Jimmy over abuse claims in 2007, but dropped the case due to a lack of evidence, while Jersey and Sussex Police said they had both received complaints about the star. Scotland Yard added on Wednesday night that it was also assessing a small number of other allegations.
In Exposed: The Other Side of Jimmy Savile, a total of five women claimed they were indecently assaulted by the TV and radio personality when they were schoolgirls in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Two of the alleged victims said they first had sexual relations with the TV and radio personality when they were 15 - with a number of the indecent acts taking place in his dressing room at BBC television centre.
The first woman, who did not wish to reveal her identity, said she lost her virginity when she was raped by Sir Jimmy at the age of 16. She described how she first met the star a year earlier on the set of Top of the Pops and was invited into his dressing room where Sir Jimmy touched her "intimately" under her skirt.
The second woman met Savile, who raised an estimated £40 million for good causes, in 1968 when she was 15. She claimed the star had full sex with her for the first time in a London hotel. The woman, who also kept her identity private, said she went on to have sex with Sir Jimmy in his dressing room at BBC television centre on a number of occasions.
Meanwhile, a circular gold plaque displayed in Scarborough as a memorial to Sir Jimmy, who had a home in the town, was subject to a graffiti attack with the words "rapist" and "paedophile".
Authorities in North Yorkshire say they are now reviewing security at the cemetery where his headstone was placed, following his death at the age of 84 last year. A statue of the star has also been taken down in Glasgow.

Jimmy Savile Claims: BBC To Hold Inquiry
Sky News – 1 hour 1 minute ago

The BBC has said it will hold an inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse against Sir Jimmy Savile. The corporation's director-general said the probe would take place after the criminal investigation is complete.

Speaking on the Radio 4 Today programme, George Entwistle said he would like to "apologise on behalf of the organisation" in the wake of the allegations of sexual abuse against the former DJ and star of Jim'll Fix It. He said the women involved had "gone through something awful", which he "deeply regrets".

Mr Entwistle spoke out a day after the Prime Minister called for allegations of sexual abuse against the late celebrity, who was employed by the BBC at the time, to be fully investigated. David Cameron said the claims from a number of women which have emerged over recent weeks that they were abused by Savile as teenagers were "truly shocking".

Mr Entwistle, who took over as director-general at the BBC last month, said there needed to be a "comprehensive examination" of what went on, following the police investigation. He said: "At the heart of what went on are a series of criminal allegations about the behaviour of Sir Jimmy Savile. Now, the way to deal with those is to make sure that the police, who are the only properly constituted authority for dealing with criminal investigations, are allowed to make the examinations and inquiries they need to make. So ... it is critically important that we start by putting the BBC at the disposal of the police in this regard."

Any BBC probe, he added, would examine the "broad question of what was going and whether anybody around Jimmy Savile knew what was going on". Mr Entwistle refuted claims that Newsnight was forced to axe an investigation into the Saville abuse claims, due to be broadcast on the BBC programme before Christmas last year.

He said: "The BBC is designed in such a way that news and current affairs programmes are protected from the interests and influence of the rest of the organisation." He added: "With the benefit of hindsight I think we could all wish that Newsnight had been able to go as far as ITV went." Asked why the BBC ran a eulogy on Savile after evidence surfaced, he said: "I didn't know what had become of that investigation, I didn't know what discoveries, if any, that they had. A great many people in the country loved Jimmy Savile and wanted to contribute to that programme." Meanwhile, police child abuse officers have met BBC officials to discuss allegations over Savile.

Scotland Yard said they were contacting all individuals who have made claims about the late presenter and should know how many victims there are some time this week.
A growing number of victims have come forward to allege that Savile sexually assaulted them after five women took part in an ITV documentary claiming that they had been abused.

Jim Gamble, the former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, welcomed the BBC’s internal review but warned it would only be "credible" if it had the expertise and independence "that will deal with the perception, perhaps, that this culture of cover-up still exists within the organisation".