Claims that Jimmy Savile may have sexually interfered with dead bodies are some of the most shocking revelations yet about the disgraced broadcaster. Investigators at Leeds General Infirmary were told that Savile admitted performing sex acts on the dead in the hospital mortuary.
And a patient at Barnet General, in London, overheard nurses discussing how they had seen Savile have sex with a dead body at another hospital. The Leeds investigators described how a woman told them how Savile made the claims to her when she was training as a nurse at Broadmoor in the 1970s.
The report said: "This witness went on to tell us that Savile claimed that when it was quiet at night at the Infirmary, he visited the mortuary and interfered with the bodies of deceased patients at the infirmary, including claiming to have performed sex acts on the bodies."
This witness was quoted in the report saying: "He went on to relate how they set the bodies - he kept saying 'they', so he, he couldn't have been on his own with this - how they set the bodies - that what happens when before you - well, rigor mortis sets in, you can move the body into different, sort of, stances or formations. And, apparently, he (Savile), he was saying that they used to put the bodies together, male and female, and he also said that they took photographs and also that he got involved in some of the photographs.
"I mean, I - I was a little bit upset because I had no concept, in those days, of - while I'd heard of necrophilia, because of a virtue of - several of the Broadmoor patients would've been diagnosed with that, but I didn't fully understand what it meant, and part, part way through I just wandered off...
"Well - he (Savile) used the phrase that you don't - it's not so common nowadays, he talked about gamaroosh... It means oral sex... Well, that he (Savile), he'd go down on them and gamaroosh and muck about in that way." The report said: "We have no way of proving Savile's claim that he interfered with the bodies of deceased patients in the mortuary in this way. However, we sought the opinion of an expert, to establish if the acts claimed were theoretically possible."
A former patient at Barnet General said that nurses in 1983 told her Savile "liked to have sex with dead bodies". Today's report said: "She described having a conversation with the nurses in which they allegedly said they spied on JS when they worked at another hospital and observed him having sex with a dead body.
"The witness confirmed that this was not something that happened at BGH and she thought that it had happened at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, but could not be certain of that." The Leeds investigators found that Savile had an interest in the dead, was friendly with the chief mortician at the hospital and, in his role as a voluntary porter, would have had easy access to the mortuary due to lax security.
The DJ even bragged that large rings he wore were "made from the glass eyes of dead bodies at the mortuary". The report said: "We established that Savile visited the mortuary in his role as a volunteer porter, and that he visited it socially to meet his friend, who was the chief mortician until the mid-1990s.
"However, we also heard more macabre accounts of Savile speaking and possibly acting unacceptably in relation to the mortuary. Two witnesses told us that Savile claimed to have had jewellery made from glass eyes taken from bodies in the mortuary at the infirmary. Whether these claims were made merely to shock his listeners, they again indicate and reinforce the notion of Savile's fascination with the bodies of the deceased."
One witness told the investigators: "I looked at his hands and he had these gross, big silver rings with bulbous things and I sort of went, 'Yes, mm,' always be polite to your superstar, 'Yes, Jim.' "And he said, 'D'you know what they are? They are glass eyes from dead bodies in Leeds Mortuary where I work and I love working there, and I wheel the dead bodies around at night and I love that.' "
Another former worker quoted in the report said: "I do remember seeing this ring he had on that looked like an eyeball and - and I must've mentioned it to him and he said 'It's made from the eyeball of a dead friend'." Today's report discussed how Savile had openly talked about his interest in the dead in media interviews over the years.
He told one interviewer about spending five days with the dead body of his mother. The investigators said: "In light of the claims about the glass eye jewellery and Savile's interference with the bodies of the deceased, it is evident his interest in the mortuary was not within accepted boundaries."