Legal News

An independent report into sexual abuse by celebrity DJ Jimmy Savile has revealed that he abused up to 63 NHS patients at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, where he volunteered and also fund raised for.

BBC News reports that Savile was reported to staff at the hospital in 1977 for sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl at Stoke Mandeville while she was being treated for cancer skin at the hospital.

The girl told her father who complained to hospital staff, but no action was taken against Savile.

This is now being viewed as a missed opportunity to have stopped Savile’s catalogue of abuse against NHS hospital patients as well as children he met during the course of his activities in the entertainment world.

The report says that the incident in which Savile abused the 11-year-old girl at Stoke Mandeville should have been reported to the police by hospital staff.

It has also emerged that Savile’s brother Johnny – who worked as a entertainments officer at Springfield mental health hospital in south London in the 1970s – also abused patients at the hospital. Johnny Savile died in 1998.

His more-famous brother Jimmy Savile abused patients at Stoke Mandeville Hospital between 1968 and 1992 – the victims were aged from aged eight to 40.

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that Savile was allowed to get away with the abuse because people were “too dazzled or too intimidated to confront the evil predator we now know he was”.

The report's lead investigator Dr Androulla Johnstone said:

“Around one-third of his attacks were against patients – just over 90 per cent of the victims were female.

“Savile was an opportunistic predator who could also on occasions show a high degree of pre-meditation when planning attacks on his victims.”

The girl who was abused at Stoke Mandeville at the age of 11 has called the report a whitewash, however.

She said that parts of her evidence had been omitted from the report – and also criticised the authors of the report for concluding that senior management would not have known about her father's complaint regarding Savile’s abuse of her.
“How they can say that those in authority did not know is inconceivable.

“I feel that I am being blamed for not taking it further – but I was just a child suffering from cancer.

“The report is nothing but a whitewash,” she added.

Police officers from Operation Yewtree are investigating the allegations of abuse involving Jimmy Savile and other public figures. Operation Yewtree’s investigations also uncovered the claims about Jimmy Savile’s brother Johnny at Springfield Hospital in the 1970s.

Duncan Lewis Personal Injury Solicitors – Sexual and Physical Abuse Claims

Duncan Lewis is leading firm of specialist claims solicitors and can advise survivors of sexual abuse or physical abuse on how to make a no win no fee claim for compensation, including compensation for historic cases of sexual and/or physical abuse.

Survivors of sexual abuse or physical abuse can usually make a claim for compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority once a conviction has been obtained against a perpetrator.

Usually a police report has to have been made and a police investigation carried out before making a claim for sexual abuse or physical abuse.

Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors can also advise on making compensation claims in the civil courts for sexual and physical abuse.

For expert legal advice on no win no fee Sexual and Physical Abuse Claims, call Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors on 020 7923 4020.