Victims of Jimmy Savile have called for a single judge-led inquiry into how the former DJ was able to evade justice for so long.
Alan Collins, the lawyer representing around 60 people who reported being abused by Savile, said he feared an opportunity could be “missed” by all the other investigations into Savile.
He said there should be one inquiry led by a High Court judge with “considerable” experience in criminal law who would have access to all the work undertaken by the other investigations.
“We have a number of inquiries under way at the moment – there must be at least a dozen – we have got the BBC being investigated, the NHS, various hospitals, and we have the police and Crown Prosecution Service,” he said.
“It is about how and why – how was Savile was able to abuse so many children and young people over so many decades?”
Allegations about Savile, who died in 2011, began to emerge following a TV expose in October 2012 in which several women said they were abused by him when they were teenagers.
Two separate reports published almost exactly a year ago said Savile was “a prolific, predatory sex offender” who could have been prosecuted for offences against at least three victims while he was alive.
The disgraced TV presenter used his celebrity status to “hide in plain sight”, with 214 criminal offences recorded against him across 28 police forces, a report by Scotland Yard and the NSPCC found.
It also revealed that Savile abused his victims at 14 medical sites including hospitals, mental health units and even a hospice.
The BBC has said its independent inquiry, led by Dame Janet Smith, into what the BBC knew about Savile, is due to publish its findings this month. The NHS is also holding several investigations. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced in November a further 19 hospitals were now carrying out inquiries into links with Savile.
Mr Collins said in the 1980s there was a debate within government over whether Savile should be knighted.
“The prime minister Margaret Thatcher, was quite keen for Savile to be knighted because of his charitable work.
“The civil service was advising her ‘hold back’ because they were concerned by media reports in the early 1980s about Savile’s lifestyle and, in particular, claims apparently made by him about his private life but also about being able to ‘fix’ things in a not necessarily very pleasant way.
“Those concerns were there and it begs the question why – in the 80s there were these concerns – Savile was allowed to work in NHS hospitals and appear on BBC programmes geared to a young audience.”