Police could have stopped Savile, says report

London: Numerous police failings left Jimmy Savile free to sexually abuse hundreds of young people over five decades — when he could have been stopped in the 1960s, according to a highly critical report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC). The watchdog’s inquiry into police handling of Savile revealed that the disgraced DJ, who died in October 2011, could have been stopped as early as 1964 but police mishandled evidence and dismissed victims.

In a 61-page report to the home secretary, Theresa May, HMIC raised fresh concerns about information sharing in the police and warned that officers could fail to prevent a Savile-like scandal happening again.

The inspectorate described a “cultural mistrust” of evidence from children, warning that procedures adopted by various agencies over many years had left vulnerable young people unprotected by the criminal justice system.

“The findings in this report are of deep concern, and clearly there were mistakes in how the police handled the allegations made against Savile during his lifetime,” said Drusilla Sharpling of HMIC.

“However, an equally profound problem is that victims felt unable to come forward and report crimes of sexual abuse.”

Five allegations of sexual assault were recorded against Savile in his lifetime, according to HMIC — compared with the 600 made since October last year when the Metropolitan police launched its Operation Yewtree investigation.

Meanwhile, eight victims have so far come forward with concerns about how their allegations against Savile were handled — and the inspectorate revealed examples of how a series of complaints about him were dismissed by police officers.

In 1963, a Cheshire man was told by a police officer to “forget about it” and “move on” when he reported an allegation of rape by Savile, according to HMIC.

Another man who tried to report an assault his girlfriend had suffered at a recording of Top of the Pops was told by police he “could be arrested for making such allegations” and dismissed.

The inspectorate investigated seven incidents — including five sexual assault complaints by victims and two pieces of intelligence — and concluded that a failure to join the dots left police unable to derail Savile’s five-decade reign of abuse.

In an alarming finding, HMIC warned that inconsistencies in intelligence sharing by police forces meant there was a “distinct possibility” the failure to identify Savile’s pattern of abuse could be repeated.

HMIC said it was sufficiently concerned that it will review information management in the police later this year — just two years after the Police National Database (PND) was set up.