Jimmy Savile groomed an entire nation for 50 years

IT is becoming clear that Jimmy Savile was a prolific child sex offender, and he did it while hiding in plain sight as a celebrity..

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PICTURE this. An ABC radio star of the 1960s moves smoothly into television and gains the popularity and longevity of Molly Meldrum, Bert Newton and Daryl Somers put together.

Our hero remains famous for 50 years, doing so much charity work for hospitals and vulnerable children that he is knighted by both the Pope and the Queen.

Then imagine the national embarrassment if, after this man dies, it turns out that he had in fact been a serial sexual abuser all along, using his celebrity status and all that charity work to get access to hundreds of vulnerable people, mostly girls as young as 12.

That is what is happening in Britain now as it becomes evident that Sir Jimmy Savile was the most prolific child sex offender yet uncovered in Britain, and that he did it all while hiding in plain sight as a national celebrity.

In fact, Savile did not just groom his young victims, he "groomed" an entire nation to give him the young sexual fodder he wanted.

Police said yesterday that the number of his likely victims had topped 300, more than 30 detectives had had to be assigned to the case to cope with the scale of his wrongdoing, and criminal charges could soon be laid against other men who may have also abused some of Savile's victims.

"We have to believe what they are saying because they are all saying the same thing independently," said Commander Peter Spindler of the Metropolitan Police.

The Top of the Pops TV presenter molested star-struck girls in his BBC changing room and assaulted others at the hospitals, mental institutions and schools for troubled girls where he volunteered to raise funds and "lift spirits", having chosen charity work that gave him access to those youngsters who were least likely to be believed if they complained.

He managed it so successfully from his first apparent assault in 1959 to the 1990s that when he died last year at the age of 84, he was still being hailed as a much-loved national icon with buildings, parks and streets named in his honour. The plaques have now been pulled down and even his grandiose gravestone has been smashed up and carted away but death protects him from justice, and even from having his knighthood taken away.

Instead, the unravelling of Savile's life story is a bid to provide some solace and support to his victims, and to grapple with the psychological mystery of how he could hide the truth from so many people for so long. The real story was known or suspected by media and entertainment insiders but began to reach the public only a month ago when the rival ITV network screened a program based on accusations by five women that he had assaulted them in the 1970s.

Hundreds of other victims and witnesses then came forward to reveal what BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten called "a tsunami of filth", leaving the BBC, hospital administrators, three police forces and national prosecutors squirming as they tried to explain their failure to act on complaints and rumours that circulated for decades without ever prompting action to protect his victims.

Even TV viewers are watching uncomfortably as they see replays of old programs in which Savile leered over teenage girls in his studio audiences, touched them over-enthusiastically and joked about his preference for "the young ones" without sounding alarm bells among his audiences of the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

While most of his victims were teenage girls, he has also been accused of raping women in their early 20s, and sexually assaulting at least two boys as young as nine.

Savile's life work was an extreme example of what psychologist Samantha Craven says is a complex process in which an offender can spend years grooming not just their victim but also their environment and themselves.

"Offenders groom the environment and their potential victims' significant others: parents, carers, teachers, etc," according to the Coventry University psychologist, who co-wrote an important academic paper on the topic.

"This may mean the offender integrating themselves into society and places where they are likely to meet children. This will often be a position of trust. Offenders then begin grooming the adults in this community, specifically those who are significant to their potential victim, with the aim of creating an opportunity to access and abuse a child or children."

Charity work is not just a good cover, it can also strengthen the resolve of the offender because "it may be used as a means of justifying or denying their actions", as the predator convinces himself he is a good person despite his assaults, and perhaps even deserves "rewards" for his altruism.

"Offenders groom the community so well that if a victim discloses their abuse, the community may support the offender rather than the victim," Dr Craven says.

Savile certainly manipulated dozens of his colleagues and other adults into keeping quiet after they saw girls leaving his changing room, heard rumours of his actions or in one case caught him assaulting a paralysed woman in a hospital.

"Nobody would have believed me," has been the mantra of witnesses who are now mortified by their silence.

The BBC faces two damaging allegations: that it tolerated the behaviour at the time and then tried to cover it up after his death.

The expose by ITV was based on research that reporters from the BBC's own Newsnight program did soon after his death.

The reporters were furious when their editor, Peter Rippon, refused to screen their work, and their research found its way to ITV.

The BBC has since aired aggressive investigations into its management's failures. Rippon has been suspended and the corporation has set up an independent inquiry into why the Newsnight report was pulled and whether it was because the BBC was at that time planning to screen three Christmas tributes eulogising Savile and his career.