Stuart Hall Abuse Victims Plan To Sue

Victims of shamed veteran broadcaster Stuart Hall are pursuing civil action after he admitted indecently assaulting 13 girls.

Hall is already facing jail after pleading guilty to a string of offences against girls aged as young as nine.

The 83-year-old, who was a regular football match summariser on Radio 5 Live but has now been banned by the BBC from working there, was described as "opportunistic predator" by prosecutors.

Alan Collins, a partner at law firm Pannone and a specialist in sexual abuse cases, said he has been instructed by a number of Hall's victims to pursue civil cases in relation to injuries and harm suffered.

He said: "Hall's admission of guilt means we will be able to pursue these cases expeditiously on behalf of our clients.

"Victims often live with the memories of the abuse hidden away at the back of their minds for years and it is particularly brave of such victims to come forward and face those memories."

Hall admitted touching and kissing 13 young victims during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Many were daughters of friends.

The former It's A Knockout Presenter had previously denied any wrongdoing, telling reporters the claims against him were "cruel".

However, he ended up entering guilty pleas at Preston Crown Court last month - details of which only emerged this week when reporting restrictions were lifted.

He was told he must sign the sex offenders' register and has been granted bail on condition that he lives at his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, and has no unsupervised contact with children. He faces sentencing on June 17.

The Independent columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown received an anonymous letter from a woman claiming to be one of his victims, which sparked the investigation into the broadcaster.

In the letter, the unnamed woman wrote: "The furore over Jimmy Savile has spurred me on. I cannot bear to think of the lionising obituaries that may await the man who caused me so much shame, and I cannot bear the thought that he will believe that he got away with what he did to me, and most probably many others."

The chairman of the BBC, Lord Patten, has said there will not be an inquiry into Hall.