LONDON (AP) ― Patients in hospital beds; star-struck teenagers in a TV show audience; pupils at a school for troubled girls; a 10-year-old autograph hunter.
All fell victim to the late British entertainer Jimmy Savile, police said, describing him Friday as a sexual predator who used his fame to find victims and deliberately targeted individuals who would not speak out against him.
A three-month police investigation yielded a staggering litany of sexual crimes: 214 offenses, including 34 rapes, over more than half a century, the majority of the victims under 18. Police say they expect the number of offenses to rise as more allegations are investigated.
The catalog of abuse provides the fullest accounting yet of the allegations against Savile, a cigar-chomping, platinum-haired TV and radio personality who died in October 2011 at age 84.