Savile: Pressure Mounts On BBC Bosses

Charities helping victims of sexual abuse have been swamped with inquiries – prompted by the widening Jimmy Savile controversy.

The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) has seen nearly a trebling of calls to its hotline.

Napac chief executive Pete Saunders told Sky News: "As we speak it is well over 2,500 calls we have received and is rapidly heading towards 3,000.

"It has been relentless. Normally we deal with up to 300 inquiries weekly but since Savile it is up to 800 a week.

ITV broadcast a documentary on Savile's on October 3, after a similar programme was halted by the BBC Newsnight show, and it included the Napac hotline number for adults who suffered childhood abuse.

"We had 150 calls on the night the documentary was aired and it has remained consistently high. It has been relentless and we have to thank our amazing team of volunteers who have answered calls," Mr Saunders said.

Abuse claims by BBC star Savile date back decades

The NSPCC, which deals with stopping cruelty to those who are children now, also received calls relating to Savile victims who are now adults.

A spokeswoman told Sky News: "We have received 157 calls directly related to claims against Jimmy Savile, and these have been passed to police.

"We have also received 99 other calls of abuse unrelated to him since the documentary was broadcast."

The spike in calls to charities comes as pressure has continued to mount on BBC bosses, past and present, over the halting of an investigation into sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile.

According to The Times, the corporation's director of news insisted on an "impossibly high barrier" on Newsnight journalists over allegations of Savile being a paedophile.

Sources at the current affairs programme told the newspaper that Helen Boaden allegedly intervened last year, insisting staff gather evidence as if the late star were still alive and able to sue.

The Times said sources at Newsnight claimed Ms Boaden's approach subsequently influenced the show's editor Peter Rippon to halt the investigation.

BBC Newsnight editor Peter Rippon has "stepped down" amid an inquiry

Mr Rippon has since "stepped aside" while the corporation launches a review into Savile's predatory behaviour over several decades on BBC premises.

The spreading concerns of BBC managerial responsibility have also drawn in the previous BBC boss, Mark Thompson, about how much he knew.

Mr Thompson, who recently resigned as director general, said: "There is nothing to suggest that I acted inappropriately in the handling of this matter.

"I did not impede or stop the Newsnight investigation, nor have I done anything else that could be construed as untoward or unreasonable."

On Tuesday, current director general George Entwistle was urged to "get a grip" on his organisation during a hostile grilling by MPs about the broadcaster's handling of the claims.

Condemning the "broader cultural problem" at the BBC that had allowed Savile's alleged behaviour to take place, he conceded the corporation had been slow to react to the emerging crisis.

Mr Entwistle told the committee he had ordered an internal audit of the operation of the BBC's child protection policies and would report its results to the BBC Trust in December.

He said the corporation was now investigating up to 10 "serious allegations" involving past and present employees over the "Savile period".

Scotland Yard said 60 of the 200 people who have come forward since ITV first aired a documentary on the former DJ's sexual abuse have made claims against people other than Savile.

Lord Patten has been urged to resign by a former colleague

It is understood that the Metropolitan Police have made preparations for the first arrests in its own investigation.

Meanwhile, in a letter to BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten, Culture Secretary Maria Miller warned that the scandal had raised "very real concerns" about public trust in the corporation.

She said it was vital that the independent inquiries were "able to follow the evidence wherever it takes them".

In his response Lord Patten wrote: "You know how seriously the Trust takes the allegations surrounding Jimmy Savile and the need to maintain public trust in the BBC."

The peer said the inquiries would be "comprehensive and independent", but also delivered a thinly-veiled warning that the Government should not wade into the row.

"I know that you will not want to give any impression that you are questioning the independence of the BBC," he wrote.

Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale, a former director of current affairs programmes for the BBC, suggested Lord Patten and Mr Entwistle may have to "fall on their swords".

He said: "Chris Patten is an old friend and a former parliamentary colleague for whom I have had a high regard but in his comment he has made it clear that he is out of touch.

"Not only with the strength of feeling and concern in Parliament about the 'Savile affair' and related matters but, more importantly, with the strength of public revulsion at what has happened at Television Centre and with the corporate culture that, for the best part of 40 years, has apparently covered it up.

"Attack may be the best form of defence but in seeking to criticise a Culture Secretary who has not, ever, sought to challenge the independence of the BBC, he indicates how very little, within that corporate arrogance, has really changed," Mr Gale said.

Mr Entwistle told MPs he believed the Newsnight investigation into Savile should have continued and said there had been a "breakdown of communication" between its reporters and the editor and he did not feel "confident" that he could get an explanation over what happened from within the BBC.

Conservative MP Therese Coffey branded as "chilling" an email sent by Mr Rippon last November that said "our sources so far are just the women" and questioned whether the culture had really changed at the BBC.

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