Jimmy Savile Hospitals Sex Abuse Report Due

Reports by 28 hospitals into their involvement with the disgraced entertainer and fundraiser Jimmy Savile will be published this morning.

The investigations were announced by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt last year after the hospitals were identified by the Metropolitan Police.

It is thought Savile, who died in October 2011, abused hundreds of patients in hospitals, principally at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital in Berkshire, Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire, and Leeds General Infirmary.

Only last month the NSPCC said its research showed Savile had abused at least 500 girls and boys, one just two years old, making him one of the UK's most prolific sex offenders.

He had a bedroom at Broadmoor and was eventually put in charge of management there.

He also had an office and staff at Stoke Mandeville hospital where he raised millions of pounds to build a spinal injuries unit, and an office at Leeds General infirmary.

Although conducted by the health trusts concerned, the hospital reports have been overseen by barrister Kate Lampard and some are expected to include criticism of staff and officials who failed to act on allegations of abuse.

But according to Liz Dux, a lawyer for Slater and Gordon representing 176 victims of Savile, the reports will not lead to prosecutions.

"What is so disturbing is that those who were complicit in the abuse, those who failed to act upon the reports that were being given to them by children, cannot be prosecuted today.

"We have to ensure that the Government introduces a law of mandatory reporting whereby those in regulatory authorities such as hospitals who are aware of reports of abuse are under a duty now to pass those reports on to the authorities."

Terry Pratt, a night porter at Leeds General Infirmary in the early 1990s, told Sky News Savile could do what he wanted and staff felt unable to challenge him.

"You can see what would have happened if we'd have reported him, we'd have got sacked," he said.

The report into his abuse at Stoke Mandeville Hospital has been delayed to allow new evidence to be gathered, with the hospital saying last week that investigators wanted to question further witnesses.