Investigation into the Association of Jimmy Savile with Stoke Mandeville Hospital A Report for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Report Authors: Dr Androulla Johnstone: Chief Executive Health and Social Care Advisory Service and Independent Lead Investigator Mrs Christine Dent: Associate Health and Social Care Advisory Service

Investigation into the Association of Jimmy Savile with Stoke Mandeville Hospital

Investigation into the Association of Jimmy Savile with Stoke Mandeville Hospital A Report for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Report Authors: Dr Androulla Johnstone: Chief Executive Health and Social Care Advisory Service and Independent Lead Investigator Mrs Christine Dent: Associate Health and Social Care Advisory Service

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… as time has gone on I’ve put it to the back of my mind and anyway thought it was only me. The more that I’ve learned, the more unconscious thoughts come out and I’ve started to feel should I have spoken out? Should I have done this? I feel quite guilty. Before I didn’t feel it; I was embarrassed and I felt ashamed and all these other things but I didn’t feel responsible for other people. Somehow or other over this whole process I began to feel a little bit responsible for what had happened to other people. Victim 26

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I just hope anything I say helps somebody somewhere down the line. Victim 40

I have nothing to gain one way or the other except I do not like injustice. Victim 32

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…it’s a great hospital. It is wonderful in terms of rehab and approach to spinal cord injury; world class still I believe. That was part of the issue if you like with the whole Jimmy Savile thing because you knew how difficult it was to get in there even then, and you just didn’t want to really rock the boat. It didn’t take long to realise how integrated, for want of a better word, he was with everything. He was omnipresent. Victim 51

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That’s what’s so sad, there are so many messed up lives – although people have built up lives, you have children, you make a life, it ruins everything, your relationships with another human being – the things you are supposed to have. Victim 20

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I did not know what had happened. I did not understand what had happened. I knew it felt wrong and I felt dirty and I went to clean myself and, I just wanted to wash myself again and again… I did not understand what he had done… I could not even explain to myself what had happened. Victim 46

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Foreword

Foreword 1.

When allegations about Savile’s abuse of children being cared for in the NHS came to the attention of the country in October 2012 we were asked to investigate his association with Stoke Mandeville hospital. There are three key questions arising from the Terms of Reference that the Investigation was asked to address, 1 What happened? 2 How was it allowed to happen? And, 3 Could it happen again?

What happened? 2.

Between 1969 and 1992 Savile sexually abused 60 individuals connected with Stoke Mandeville Hospital. These victims ranged in age from 8 to 40 years. The victims were patients, staff, visitors, volunteers and charity fundraisers. The sexual abuse ranged from inappropriate touching to rape. Savile was an opportunistic predator who could also on occasions show a high degree of premeditation when planning attacks on his victims. Between 1972 and 1985 nine informal verbal reports were made about the abuse by his victims and in addition one formal complaint was made. The Investigation found that none of the informal complaints were either taken seriously or escalated to senior management. The one formal complaint was dropped by the complainant’s father due to her serious ill health. Consequently no intelligence about Savile’s behaviour was gathered over the years and no action was taken.

How