New research by the NSPCC indicates that the number of abuses by the late Sir Jimmy Savile was at least 500, with most victims being aged 13-15 and the youngest allegedly two.

The research, commissioned for a recent BBC Panorama programme, Savile: The Abuse of Power, shows that the disc jockey generated 16 complaints to Thames Valley Police over his abuse of the psychologically vulnerable at Broadmoor Hospital, where he had unprecedented access to patients, and where some awe-struck civil servants referred to him as “doctor”.

The late Cardinal Basil Hume, when the Archbishop of Westminster, put doctor Savile up for membership of the historical and exclusive London Athenaeum club, and he was accepted in 1984 when the Cardinal’s spokesman noted: “He is a great admirer of what Jimmy has done for young people”.