LONDON: The BBC spent more than £5m on inquiries into the late TV presenter Jimmy Savile, according to a report released by the public broadcaster yesterday.
Savile was one of Britain’s biggest TV stars in the 1970s and 1980s, but revelations after his death in November 2011 that he had been one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders stunned Britons.
Police say he took advantage of his fame to commit 214 offences, including 34 rapes or serious sexual assaults, beginning as long ago as 1955.
Inquiries into the BBC’s working environment during the Savile years and allegations of an internal cover-up cost taxpayers £5.3m, according to the BBC’s annual financial report, which covers the period up to March 31.
Spending on the Pollard Review, an investigation into allegations that senior managers at the BBC applied pressure on the editor of the flagship “Newsnight” programme to drop an expose of Savile, totalled £2.8m alone, the report showed.
“While the priority is clearly the impact on his victims, the Jimmy Savile affair and all that came after it revealed some serious weaknesses in the BBC’s culture and behaviours,” said Lord Patten, Chairman of BBC Trust, the BBC’s governing body.
Reuters
