Savile: Abuse Charities Report Spike In Calls

Charities helping victims of sexual abuse have been swamped with inquiries – prompted by the widening Jimmy Savile controversy.

The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) has seen nearly a trebling of calls to its hotline.

Napac chief executive Pete Saunders told Sky News: "As we speak it is well over 2,500 calls we have received and is rapidly heading towards 3,000.

"It has been relentless. Normally we deal with up to 300 inquiries weekly but since Savile it is up to 800 a week."

ITV broadcast a documentary on Savile's on October 3, after a similar programme was halted by the BBC Newsnight show, and it included the Napac hotline number for adults who suffered childhood abuse.

"We had 150 calls on the night the documentary was aired and it has remained consistently high. It has been relentless and we have to thank our amazing team of volunteers who have answered calls," Mr Saunders said.

Abuse claims by BBC star Savile date back decades

Children's charity the NSPCC said it has received 161 calls relating to Savile, which have been passed to police, and another 105 not related to the performer.

These came from adults who wanted to discuss being abused as children following media coverage of the case, and 24 of those allegations have also been referred to the police, the charity said.

Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said: "It's a figure that's rising all the time. The police have been told of these latest figures."

Prime Minister David Cameron has confirmed that the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, is to review legal papers relating to abuse allegations against Savile.

He told MPs that it was essential that lessons were learned from the scandal of Savile's decades of alleged abuse.

It comes as pressure continues to mount on BBC bosses, past and present, over the halting of an investigation into sexual abuse by Savile.

Sources at current affairs programme Newsnight told The Times that director of news Helen Boaden allegedly intervened last year, insisting staff gather evidence as if the late star were still alive and able to sue.

BBC Newsnight editor Peter Rippon has "stepped down" amid an inquiry

It said Ms Boaden's approach subsequently influenced the show's editor Peter Rippon to halt the investigation - he has since "stepped aside" while the corporation undertakes a review into Savile's predatory behaviour over several decades on BBC premises.

The spreading concerns of BBC managerial responsibility have also drawn in the previous BBC boss, Mark Thompson, about how much he knew.

Mr Thompson, who recently resigned as director general, said: "There is nothing to suggest that I acted inappropriately in the handling of this matter.

"I did not impede or stop the Newsnight investigation, nor have I done anything else that could be construed as untoward or unreasonable."

On Tuesday, current director general George Entwistle was urged to "get a grip" on his organisation during a hostile grilling by MPs about the broadcaster's handling of the claims.

Mr Entwistle told the committee he had ordered an internal audit of the operation of the BBC's child protection policies and would report its results to the BBC Trust in December.

He said the corporation was now investigating up to 10 "serious allegations" involving past and present employees over the "Savile period".

Scotland Yard said 60 of the 200 people who have come forward since ITV first aired a documentary on the former DJ's sexual abuse have made claims against people other than Savile.

It is understood that the Metropolitan Police have made preparations for the first arrests in its own investigation.

Lord Patten has been urged to resign by a former parliamentary colleague

Meanwhile, in a letter to BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten, Culture Secretary Maria Miller warned that the scandal had raised "very real concerns" about public trust in the corporation.

In his response Lord Patten said the inquiries would be "comprehensive and independent", but also delivered a thinly-veiled warning that the Government should not wade into the row.

"I know that you will not want to give any impression that you are questioning the independence of the BBC," he wrote.

Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale, a former director of current affairs programmes for the BBC, suggested Lord Patten and Mr Entwistle may have to "fall on their swords".

He said: "Chris Patten is an old friend and a former parliamentary colleague for whom I have had a high regard but in his comment he has made it clear that he is out of touch.

"Not only with the strength of feeling and concern in Parliament about the 'Savile affair' and related matters but, more importantly, with the strength of public revulsion at what has happened at Television Centre and with the corporate culture that, for the best part of 40 years, has apparently covered it up.

"Attack may be the best form of defence but in seeking to criticise a Culture Secretary who has not, ever, sought to challenge the independence of the BBC, he indicates how very little, within that corporate arrogance, has really changed," Mr Gale said.

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