Police 'investigate doctors in Savile scandal'

Detectives investigating the scandal surrounding late BBC television star Jimmy Savile have been passed the names of three doctors accused of sexually abusing children, reports said on Thursday.

The doctors worked at hospitals where Savile, who died last year aged 84, is also alleged to have molested young and vulnerable patients while carrying out charity work, the Guardian and the Daily Mail newspapers reported.

Scotland Yard would not comment on the reports. But police investigating abuse claims against Savile said last week they had also launched a full criminal probe into other suspects who are still alive.

As part of his charity work, Savile had a bedroom at Stoke Mandeville hospital in central England, which specialises in spinal injuries, and living quarters at the Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital in southern England.

He was also a frequent visitor to Leeds General Infirmary in his native city in northern England.

Police had been given the names of three doctors over claims that they were at the centre of a loose network of child abusers connected with Savile, the Guardian reported, without saying which hospitals they were linked to.

The Daily Mail quoted one alleged victim as saying she was sexually abused aged 12 by a doctor at Stoke Mandeville who had a poster on his wall of “Jim’ll Fix It”, a television show in which Savile granted youngsters’ wishes.

Another woman, who is now 52, told the Mail that a doctor at the same hospital abused her for four years from the age of 14 after he operated on her following a burns accident.

The Savile scandal has plunged the British Broadcasting Corporation into crisis, forcing it to launch inquiries into how he was able to get away with the abuse, and into why a programme investigating his activities was dropped.

Savile was long one of Britain’s best-loved entertainers, with his distinctive platinum hair, shiny tracksuits and ever-present cigar.

But the abuse allegations that emerged since his death in October 2011 have destroyed his reputation, and police say Savile appeared to have been a “predatory sex offender” who may have abused up to 200 girls and boys.