Half of Savile's local victims were in hospital
Almost half of Jimmy Savile’s victims in his home county – including three people who were just five at the time – were abused in hospitals, according to newly released figures.
Last week, a West Yorkshire Police report into the disgraced broadcaster’s relationship with the force confirmed officers had identified 68 victims in the area since his death.
Nobody came forward when Savile was alive.
Now the force has released a further breakdown which reveals 29 were abused in hospitals across the region – 23 of them at Leeds General Hospital (LGI).
The youngest abuse victim at LGI was just five, police said.
Savile had a close relationship with the LGI, famously volunteering as a porter and raising cash for the hospital over decades.
The force said other victims included a five-year-old and 12-year-old at St James’s Hospital, also in Leeds.
Another person who has come forward said they could not remember at which of these two hospitals the abuse happened due to the passage of time.
One reported being abused at Dewsbury and District Hospital when they were 15, and two said it happened at the now shut High Royds psychiatric hospital in Menston, near Bradford.
The force said the High Royds victims were five and 45 at the time.
Last week’s report looked in detail at opportunities West Yorkshire Police might have had to spot Savile’s offending.
It concluded there was no evidence that officers protected the DJ, who lived in Leeds, from investigation or prosecution. But some victims condemned the review as a whitewash.
The report said nine West Yorkshire victims were under 10; nine victims were 10 to 13; 30 were 14 to 17; and 20 were adults.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs LGI and St James’s, is part way through an investigation into Savile’s activities.
