Savile friend 'sad' over sex claims (From Salisbury Journal)
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Savile friend 'sad' over sex claims
10:39am Friday 12th October 2012 in National Entertainment News © Press Association 2013
Police are investigating allegations against Jimmy Savile
An old friend of Jimmy Savile who worked with him to raise funds for Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the 1970s has said she was saddened by allegations of sexual abuse against him but never saw him do anything "inappropriate".
Sylvia Nicol told Daybreak: "I am very sad, I don't like it, it takes away 40 years of very happy, very good memories. Knowledge of all the good Jimmy did, because from the time he came to Stoke Mandeville I only saw him do good."
But Caroline Moore has claimed she was assaulted by Savile at the age of 13 while being treated for spinal injuries at the Buckinghamshire hospital in 1971. Nurses at the hospital are also understood to have dreaded Savile's visits because of his behaviour and would tell children to stay in bed and pretend to be asleep when he came round.
Police believe Savile could have abused as many as 25 victims over a period of 40 years, and have so far formally recorded a number of criminal allegations against him including rape and indecent assault.
Greater Manchester, Lancashire, North Yorkshire and Tayside are the latest forces to say allegations have been made.
June Thornton, a patient at Leeds General Infirmary in 1972, said she saw Savile abuse someone she thought was a brain-damaged girl.
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Stoke Mandeville, and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said they were helping police with their investigations.
The raft of allegations against Savile has been branded a "cesspit" by BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten who pledged to hold an independent inquiry as swiftly as possible after the police investigation.
It emerged last night that BBC director-general George Entwistle has asked a senior colleague to answer journalists' questions on the dropping of a documentary about Savile.
Ken MacQuarrie, director of BBC Scotland, will speak to Newsnight journalists about the aborted broadcast after several of them wrote to Mr Entwistle to ask why the film was not aired.
