Sex predator Jimmy Savile could have been stopped from carrying out his depraved abuse decades earlier, an inquiry has found.
A report into a catalogue of sex attacks by the disgraced presenter at Stoke Mandeville Hospital revealed staff knew of 10 allegations against him but failed to act.
And investigators said if a formal complaint against Savile back in 1977 over the rape and abuse of an 11-year-old girl had been properly handled, the celebrity DJ probably would have been caught at the time.
The report was among a series published into the abuse carried out by Savile at hospitals across the country, where he preyed on children as young as five and seriously ill patients.
There were even claims Savile had sex with dead bodies in the mortuary at Stoke Mandeville, in a chilling echo of previous allegations against him at Leeds General Infirmary.
While the inquiry found no proof of this, it found evidence Savile had unsupervised access to the morgue.
So far more than 170 people have made abuse claims against Savile, covering a period from 1954 to just before his death in 2011.
And it has been warned many aspects of the Savile scandal could be repeated in the future.
One wide-ranging report taking in all the NHS investigations found the access given to Savile to dozens of hospitals gave him the "opportunity to commit sexual abuses on a grand scale for nearly 50 years."
And its author, Kate Lampard, told Sky News: "There are still risks and weaknesses in the arrangements in hospitals for keeping people safe."
His status was "enhanced by the endorsement and encouragement he received from politicians, senior civil servants and NHS managers".
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has apologised to the victims, and also criticised government ministers at the time who he said failed to ask "hard questions" about Savile.
He told MPs: Never again must the power of money or celebrity blind us to repeated clear signals that some extremely vulnerable people were being abused.
"People were either too dazzled or too intimidated by the nation's favourite celebrity to confront the evil predator we now know he was."
He said there should have been a stronger incentive on staff to report abuse claims, and highlighted a consultation on proposals to introduce a mandatory duty on NHS workers to act.
The Stoke Mandeville report revealed Savile abused at least 60 people connected with the hospital over more than 20 years, including patients, staff and visitors.
The offences ranged from groping and molesting through to rape.
His victims there included children as young as eight and vulnerable patients.
Those staff who complained about Savile's behaviour, were "severely reprimanded".
Dr Androulla Johnstone, who wrote the Stoke Mandeville report, told a press conference Savile was an "opportunistic predator who on occasion could also show a high degree of premeditation" when planning attacks.
She said: "The individuals to whom these incidents were reported failed in their duty to protect.
"Consequentially, no intelligence about Savile's behaviour was gathered over the years and no action was taken.
"Whilst witnesses told us it was an open secret within the hospital that Savile was a lecher and general nuisance, none stated that they knew about his sexual abuse activities."
Lawyer Liz Dux, who represents many of the Stoke Mandeville victims, said it "beggars belief" the report found no evidence of senior staff being aware of the abuse.
But Dr Johnstone rejected claims of a "cover-up" by staff, and said Savile's behaviour went unchallenged due to a "general disbelief".
Savile, who received a knighthood in 1990, died in 2011 and so never faced justice for his crimes.
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