LONDON, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Police investigating alleged
sexual abuse of young girls by the former BBC presenter Jimmy
Savile said on Thursday they were pursuing over 400 lines of
inquiry involving some 300 victims.
"It's quite staggering," said inquiry leader, Commander
Peter Spindler.
He told a news conference that all bar two of the potential
victims were women and that the vast majority of alleged
offences involved Savile, who died last year.
Police had spoken to 130 victims to date and recorded 114
reports of sexual assault or serious sexual assault, mostly
against Savile. No arrests have been made so far.
Spindler did not say who else might have been involved but
lawyers representing some of the victims, several of whom were
as young as eight when the abuse occurred, said their clients
had indicated a paedophile ring involving other celebrities had
existed at the BBC during the height of Savile's fame in the
1970s and 80s.
The BBC has been thrown into disarray by accusations it
helped cover up sexual abuse by Savile, and has struggled to
explain why one of its own shows killed an investigation into
it. At this stage there was no evidence of an organised
paedophile ring, Spindler added.
(Reporting by Michael Holden, Writing by Stephen Addison
Editing by Maria Golovnina)
