01/10/2012

Police Did Question Jimmy Saville

It has been revealed that Surrey police questioned popular broadcaster Sir Jimmy Saville over allegations of sex abuse in 2007.

They said an individual was interviewed over offences which were "alleged to have occurred at a children's home" in the 1970s.

The case was then dropped after it was found there was "insufficient evidence" for prosecution.

Sir Jimmy Saville died last year.

A documentary is due to be aired this week on ITV 1 exploring some of the allegations.

Saville is accused of sexual abuse against under-age teenage girls.

Throughout the programme, several alleged victims recount their experiences.

Several cases of abuse by the TV star are alleged to have occurred in hospitals, schools and BBC buildings.

In a statement, the BBC said: "Whilst the BBC condemns any behaviour of the type alleged in the strongest terms, in the absence of evidence of any kind found at the BBC that corroborates the allegations that have been made it is simply not possible for the corporation to take any further action."

The broadcaster's nephew, Roger Foster, has lashed out at the programme, saying he and his family are "disgusted and disappointed".

Fellow broadcaster Paul Gambaccini said he had been "waiting 30 years" for such stories to come out.

He was speaking on ITV1's Daybreak programme when he revealed newspapers had, in the past, been about to run stories of a similar nature while Sir Jimmy was alive, but that action by the broadcaster had caused the stories to be dropped.

"On (one) occasion, and this cuts to the chase of the whole matter, he was called and he said 'well you could run that story, but if you do there goes the funds that come in to Stoke Mandeville - do you want to be responsible for the drying up of the charity donations'. And they backed down."

(IT)

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