Lenny Harper, former child abuse investigator, says he believes Savile was involved in indecent assault at Jersey institution
Haut de la Garenne
children’s home in Jersey, the scene of a child-abuse scandal, where
Jimmy Savile visited in 1970s. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Lenny Harper said he now has "no reason to doubt" that Savile was involved in indecent assault at the notorious Jersey children's home, despite there being insufficient evidence to question the Jim'll Fix It star when he was alive.
The observation came on the day that the BBC's director-general, George Entwistle, gave his first interview regarding the row, and indicated that the broadcaster would "take a look properly" and hold its own inquiry whenever a police investigation into alleged sexual abuse by the late celebrity closes.
Harper, the detective who led Jersey's three-year child abuse probe, told the Guardian that Savile's name came up in the initial police inquiry in 2008 – but there were no specific allegations of abuse against the BBC presenter at the time.
He added: "There definitely wasn't enough even to question him at the time, but in light of all the evidence that has come out then I'm not surprised because it fits perfectly the profile of what was going on."
A solicitor who acted for victims of child abuse in Jersey also told the Guardian that some former Haut de la Garenne residents, both women and men, now claim they were assaulted by Savile in the 1970s.
Alan Collins, a solicitor for several Haut de la Garenne victims, said "a handful" of former residents have now made abuse allegations about Savile. He said Savile's name was mentioned several times during the police investigation of 2008 but that the evidence did not seem to stack up at the time.
The States of Jersey police confirmed last week that Savile was investigated as part of the 2008 inquiry into abuse at the children's home. That followed claims from a former Haut de la Garenne resident that Savile was involved in an indecent assault in the 1970s. The late BBC entertainer, who died last year aged 84, was never charged with any abuse offences.
Elsewhere at the BBC, broadcaster Sandi Toksvig reacted angrily to the way her revelation that she had been groped on air by a celebrity was being used as a way to criticise the corporation.
"It's not about the BBC, and I'm distressed it's being portrayed in that way," Toksvig told the Guardian, 24 hours after she disclosed that she had been "very unpleasantly groped by a famous individual" during a broadcast in the 1980s.
"It's being used as a stick to beat the BBC, but it was commonplace, it was the culture," she said.
Toksvig refused to name the man involved. "This is isn't about who he is – I'm going to grant the man who assaulted me the respect he did not grant me by never naming him. Because otherwise it becomes about that one individual, when in fact it was going on everywhere."
In a statement, Toksvig said that the man who groped her is now dead. She added: "Whilst the recent manifold revelations regarding the abuse and mistreatment of women in broadcasting have focused on the BBC, I would like to clarify that I consider this a culture endemic across the whole of radio and television and is certainly not limited to the BBC."
Entwistle told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday that he deeply regretted what had happened and apologised to the women involved for what they have had to endure, but he said he did not want to compromise the police inquiry.
"I think this has to be done in two phases," Entwistle said. "First the police are given the chance to do everything they have to do – that is the only way justice can possibly be done for the women in question. But once the police assure me that they have done everything they have to do, then we can take a look properly."
Entwistle said the police are also looking at the people who worked with Savile and examining whether criminal charges will be brought against them.
Entwistle, who rose through the ranks of the BBC as a journalist, said he had not heard about heard the rumours of sex abuse until late last year, but conceded: "Jimmy Savile was regarded by a great many people as odd, a bit peculiar, and that was something I was aware some people believed."
He also revealed that he was told last December that Newsnight had launched an investigation – which was later dropped – into allegations of sexual abuse against Savile.
The programme's reporters spoke to 10 women who claimed they had been abused or had knowledge of abuse at the Duncroft school at the height of his fame in the 1970s.
Entwistle insisted that the Newsnight editor, Peter Rippon, was not pressurised to drop the film, and its shelving had nothing to do with tribute programmes that were scheduled in the wake of Savile's death last October.
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