A senior member of staff at the BBC has revealed he questioned Jimmy Savile over rumours about his private life more than 20 years ago.
As police revealed the DJ and television presenter’s alleged catalogue of child sex abuse could have spanned six decades and included about 60 victims, Derek Chinnery, BBC Radio 1 controller from 1978 to 1985, admitted that he had quizzed the presenter directly about the rumours.
Mr Chinnery, who was Savile’s boss at Radio 1, told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House: “I asked, ‘what’s all this, these rumours we hear about you Jimmy?’
“And he said, ‘that’s all nonsense’. There was no reason to disbelieve [Savile].”