But lawyers representing some of Savile’s victims branded the £6.5 million report an “expensive whitewash” after Dame Janet found that senior figures at the BBC did not know about the abuse.
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A separate investigation by former Court of Appeal judge Dame Linda Dobbs found that another BBC star and sports presenter Stuart Hall, 86, plied his 21 victims with alcohol over the years; he was jailed in 2013 for multiple charges of indecent assault.
The report into abuse by Jimmy Savile in Britain says there is no evidence any senior member of the BBC was aware of his conduct.
According to the Associated Press, 117 employees admitted to hearing rumors that Jimmy Savile had abused people on the premises; 72 victims, both male and female, have been identified, the youngest 8-years-old.
“It is tragic that a culture existed at the BBC in which Savile became too powerful to confront, so allowing him to use his celebrity status to abuse at will, leaving a trail of devastation in his wake”.
“It follows I have found no evidence that the BBC as a corporate body was aware of Savile’s conduct”.
Dame Janet’s independent review, which was launched in 2012, found Savile carried out sex attacks in “virtually every one of the BBC premises in which he worked”.
Since then, hundreds of complaints of sexual assault have been made against Savile. BBC director-general Lord Tony Hall has apologized to the victims.
Smith said the site’s story had led to the identification of people she had agreed should remain anonymous and that its publication was “entirely unjustified”.
There was another BBC casualty this week, apparently as a result of the latest investigation: Disc jockey Tony Blackburn said he had been fired as a result of testimony he gave.
Girls who raised concerns were treated as a “nuisance”. He had heard rumours that Savile had sex with under-age girls and spotted him leaving the Top Of The Pops studio with a young girl.
She warned there was a particular fear of whistleblowing at the corporation and “I was told that an atmosphere of fear still exists today in the BBC”.
She added: “As I have said, there was a culture of not complaining about anything”.
“There was a feeling of reverence for them and a fear that, if a star were crossed, he or she might leave the BBC”, she added.
Theroux did speak to an executive producer at the BBC, David Mortimer, who told the inquiry he remembered “becoming aware of the serious nature of the information and discussing how the information should be dealt with”.
Reportedly costing £10m, it interviewed 375 witnesses about Savile and 100 about Hall.
When he was asked about what Blackburn said in a news conference, Lord Hall said: “Let me say we’ve parted company”.
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He hosted some of the BBC’s best known television programmes including music chart show Top Of The Pops, as well as broadcasting on BBC radio.
