Yorkshire Trusts Publish Fresh Savile Reports
A number of reports have been published today revealing details about Jimmy Savile’s activities in Leeds.
The Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said it had examined a claim from a former student nurse about an incident during a placement in a Mencap nursery between July 1981 and July 1982.
She said she was warned by the nursery 'not to let Savile near the children'.
In a statement, the trust said: “The investigation concluded that any possible comment made by the tutor to keep Savile away from the children at the Mencap nursery would have been made in order to protect them and the staff from the nuisance and intrusive nature of Savile's behaviour. It would not have been made with any knowledge that Savile posed a risk to them in terms of abuse.”
In another allegation, a former nurse said she was warned about the activities of someone she believes to have been Jimmy Savile in the mortuary at Leeds General Infirmary as long ago as 1954.
The woman - referred to in today's report as TB - told investigators that as a trainee nurse in that year, she was heading down to the hospital's mortuary when the ward sister told her “to be careful and come back if the pink-haired man is there”.
The report said: "TB recalls that when she went to the mortuary, he was there 'so I turned round and went back to the ward'.
“TB told us that she felt angry that there were people in a position of authority who she felt knew about Savile and she was cross that nobody said or did anything about it.
“TB was specifically referring to the ward sister, who warned her about 'pink hair', but also named the matron. TB felt that as they were in positions of authority, they would have known about Savile's activities but TB did not specify any abusive behaviour.”
The woman is one of a number of new witnesses who have come forward since the main report on Savile's activities at the LGI was published last June.
That report outlined how the entertainer claimed to have 'interfered with the bodies of deceased patients' at the LGI mortuary. A patient at another hospital overheard nurses discussing that they had seen Savile have sex with a dead body at another hospital.
Savile's other victims at the LGI ranged from five-year-old children to pensioners and included men, women, boys and girls.
Julian Hartley, Chief Executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “A small number of new victims came forward following the publication of the detailed Leeds hospitals report in June last year. I recognise how difficult this must have been and I respect and thank them for being brave enough to speak out.
"I want them to be in no doubt how seriously we have taken these matters and to emphasise to them and to our patients, their families and members of the public that the way hospitals in Leeds operate today is very different from the accounts included in the report.
“We have a much greater focus now on security, safeguarding and raising concerns."
A separate investigation into the former West Yorkshire Ambulance Service has found that Savile was occasionally allowed to travel with ambulance staff and their patients in Leeds.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service has confirmed that Savile had what they call an ‘association’ with them between 1975 and 1995.
But it says he was never left unaccompanied with patients and that no evidence has been found of any acts of sexual abuse.
In a statement they say they recognise that the level of access he had was entirely inappropriate and that measures are in place to ensure such an association could not happen again.
Steve Page, executive director for Standards and Compliance at Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said: “Our investigation has found no evidence that Savile had committed any acts of sexual abuse during his association with us and our predecessor organisations.
“It is regrettable that this level of access was available to him and we recognise the potential increased risk to patients and staff during this time.”
A third report by Leeds City Council looked into four allegations relating to children’s establishments.
The claims concerned Beechcroft Children’s Home, Leeds Children’s Services, Northways Residential School and Notre Dame Grammar School.
But the investigators decided no evidence was found to corroborate any of the allegations.
In a statement, Leeds City Council said: “The organisations responsible for children’s safeguarding in Leeds were concerned about these allegations, and took the request to investigate them very seriously.
“It is important that the Leeds Safeguarding Children Board uses the reports that have been completed into Savile over the last two years to inform and improve our policies, practice standards and our expectations of what a safe child protection system should be like and we are constantly amending what we do accordingly.”