Former BBC DJ said he was aware of claims in the eighties
'The expression I came to associate with Savile's sexual partners was "under-age subnormals", says colleague of the Jim'll Fix It presenter
In 1990 interview Savile dismissed claims he was a necrophiliac after saying he took pleasure in taking dead people to a hospital mortuary
By Larisa Brown
PUBLISHED: 16:25, 23 October 2012 | UPDATED: 16:52, 23 October 2012
A former BBC colleague of Jimmy Savile claims the predatory paedophile was a necrophiliac.
It is one of the most extraordinary allegations to have come out in the wake of the scandal.
The claim was made on Radio 5 Live today by Paul Gambaccini, who started working as a DJ on Radio 1 in 1973.
Paul Gambaccini made the claims
Jimmy Savile said he was not attracted to dead people
Paul Gambaccini, left, made the astonishing claims about Savile, right, on Radio 5 Live today
Mr Gambaccini, 63, said he was aware of the necrophilia claims in the eighties.
He questioned why newspapers had not acted when he said a reporter had boasted that his colleagues were aware of a story linking Savile to 'necrophilia'.
His comments astounded presenter Nicky Campbell who tried to stop the conversation by warning the allegations were not in the public domain.
Paul Gambaccini
Ms Campbell said: 'That particularly lurid accusation that you have just brought to people's attention is one that has not been in the public domain.'
Mr Gambaccini agreed and asked 'why not?'. And he asked: 'Who vetted the knighthood? Coco the clown?
He had worked with Savile at Radio 1 where he had first heard stories about his abuse of under-age girls.
He said the BBC was not the only organisation at fault for failing to expose Savile, saying the press was equally to blame.
He claimed a reporter was heard talking at a wedding 10 years ago about Savile being a necrophiliac.
He said that he used a 'politically incorrect' term to categorise the people to whom Savile devoted his attentions.
He said: 'The expression I came to associate with Savile's sexual partners was either one used by production assistants or one I made up to summarise their reports ... "under-age subnormals".
'He targeted the institutionalised, the hospitalised - and this was known. Why did Jimmy go to hospitals? That's where the patients were.' Paul Gambaccini said the BBC was not the only organisation at fault for failing to expose Savile, saying the press was equally to blame.
Paul Gambaccini said the BBC was not the only organisation at fault for failing to expose Savile, saying the press was equally to blame.
Mr Gambaccini continued to say today that Savile's alleged abuse was taking place at a time when staff failed to get to grips with the concept of paedophilia.
'It was considered so far beyond the pale that people didn't believe it happened,' he said during the 5 Live Breakfast Show.
He said the entire society was taken in by Savile - 'including the Prime Minister who invited him to Chequers; including the royal family, photographed with him, he got a knighthood in this country, he got a papal knighthood.
'This is not just the BBC this is history, this is a man who conned an entire society,' Gambaccini added.
It also emerged earlier this month that Savile denied claims he was sexually attracted to corpses in an interview in 1990, after he admitted taking pleasure in taking the deceased to Stoke Mandeville Hospital mortuary.
The hospital, where Savile worked as a volunteer and had his own room, said that it has never received claims that Savile 'inappropriately interacted' with corpses.
A spokesman said: 'We are not launching an investigation into claims that Savile was a necrophiliac. We have never received any complaints as to that nature.'
'During our time, to the best of our knowledge, Jimmy was not given free access around our clinical areas and whenever he attended the hospital he would give advance notice and usually be in attendance with his fundraising team.'
In the 1990 interview with Q magazine, The Sun reported Savile was given the job of taking the dead to the mortuary.
Savile, who died last year at 84, said: 'One of my jobs is to take away the deceased. You can look after somebody, be alone with somebody, who has lived a whole lifetime, and I’m just saying goodbye and looking after him.
'That is a privilege and an honour. Some people get hold of the fact that Jim likes looking after cadavers and say, "Aha, Jim’s a necrophiliac!’ I’m not a necrophiliac".'
I keep thinking of how much of Saturday prime time family viewing telly was filled up with people like this, who we were trained to admire.