Jimmy Savile ‘abuse spans six decades’, Highland home may be key to investigation

The head of the Specialist Crime Investigations Peter Spindler confirmed that the police had received information from the public that suggests allegations against Jimmy Savile span six decades with reports starting in 1959 up to and including 2006.

"Having now had the opportunity to review progress one week on I have revised my estimate of the number of likely victims to be about 60. Once again I want to thank those who have come forward and reassure them, and everyone else who contacts us, they will be listened to," Spindler told reporters.

Meanwhile detectives were ready to search Jimmy Savile's Highland home yesterday as 20 more victims told police they were abused by the shamed star.

They believe the house in Glencoe - untouched since the disgraced DJ's death last year - could hold vital leads for their nationwide investigation.

A police source told the Sunday Mail: "We have a list and the house in the Highlands is on it. It is near the top of the list."

The scandal surrounding the former Top of the Pops presenter has mushroomed since ITV screened a documentary in which five women alleged they were abused by the late DJ and broadcaster.

Scotland Yard is pursuing 340 lines of inquiry into the Savile abuse case and so far 12 allegations of sexual offences have been officially recorded.

Metropolitan Police detectives are in contact with 14 other forces as the number of allegations continues to rise.

Police investigated allegations about Savile's behaviour as far back as 1958, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

Savile paid officers to drop a case against him for "interfering with young girls" when he was a nightclub manager in Leeds, his former bodyguard told the newspaper.

The reports come after the Department of Health announced it was to investigate how Savile was allowed to work as a volunteer following allegations that he abused and raped patients at Broadmoor hospital in the 1970s and 1980s.