Children's charities Barnardo's and Action for Children have released reports saying there is "no evidence" that TV star Jimmy Savile was given unsupervised access to children in their care.
The statements were released to coincide with the publication of an independent investigation into “matters relating to Jimmy Savile at schools and children’s homes” by the Department for Education (DoE).
A third charity, Henshaws Society for Blind People, also found no evidence.
Fourteen separate organisations will publish simultaneous reports with the results of their own investigations into “sightings of Savile and allegations against him”, according to the Department of Education.
Ten of those publications will be produced by local authorities, three by the charities named, and one by an independent school.
'Cooperated fully'
Barnardo’s said it had "cooperated fully with the investigation" and conducted "archival" research about Duncroft school. "providing further more detailed records from the files of former residents and staff".
In a statement released yesterday to accompany the Barnardo's report, the charity's chief executive Javed Khan said: "Whilst the investigation found that Savile was one of a number of celebrities who hosted or was present at events attended by Barnardo’s children over the years; no evidence was found to support the claim that Jimmy Savile was given unsupervised access to children at a Barnardo’s run children’s home in Redbridge."
Khan said: "Barnardo's takes any allegation of historical abuse from adults who were once children in our care extremely seriously.
“We have conducted a thorough internal investigation into anonymous information relating to the late Jimmy Savile presented to us via the Department for Education.
“Over the years increasingly stringent measures have been developed and put in place, both within and outside the organisation, to ensure we are doing everything we can to protect children from being targeted in this way.”
'No evidence of wrongdoing'
A statement by the charity Action for Children yesterday also said it found no evidence of wrongdoing.
“In line with the Department for Education’s call for reports, Action for Children conducted an investigation which found that Jimmy Savile visited Penhurst School on one occasion in the 1970s, to open a fete. There is no evidence that he frequently visited the school, that he had contact with individual children or that anything untoward happened on the single occasion he is known to have visited," the charity said.
The children's charity also said it conducted "copious records search" and "contacted over 100 former staff members and students" for its internal investigation, finally determining that "there was evidence of good practice at the school in terms of keeping children safe".
Action for Children’s head of safeguarding Deanna Neilson said: “Action for Children continues to develop practice every day, both through innovation and drawing on lessons learned, to protect children. We must never be complacent – children’s lives depend on it.”
A statement released by a third charity mentioned in the Department of Education’s report, Henshaws Society for Blind People, said: “The society staff and board of trustees have cooperated fully in undertaking a thorough investigation.
“The society can confirm that the investigation identified that organised educational visits were made to the TV studios during that period. However, there are no references to specific named celebrities, television or radio programmes in the records archive. Furthermore there are no records reporting concerns following any educational visits.
“We at Henshaws wish to express our sympathy for the victims associated with the lines of enquiry within Operation Yewtree. We have not been asked to pursue any further lines of enquiry following our comprehensive review of our archive of historic records.”
