Police ready arrests in BBC sex abuse case

The number of people saying they were sexually abused by British TV host Jimmy Savile jumped to 300 from 200, Scotland Yard said as it prepared to make arrests. Police have spoken with 130 potential victims, and 114 of them alleged criminal behavior ranging from "inappropriate touching" to rape, Cmdr. Peter Spindler, who's heading the London Metropolitan Police Service investigation, told reporters. Of the 300 complainants, all but 2 were female, he said. "We have to believe what they are saying because they are all saying the same thing independently," Spindler said. Savile -- who died Oct. 29, 2011, at age 84 -- was "undoubtedly" one of the most prolific sex offenders in recent British history who was "hiding in plain sight," Spindler said. Savile, a bachelor, spent 20 years hosting the BBC-TV's long-running "Top of the Pops" music chart show before teenage audiences and another 20 years presenting "Jim'll Fix It," in which he helped the wishes of viewers, mainly children, come true. He also did charitable work that raised millions and brought him in contact with children in hospitals, as well as institutions for people who are emotionally and psychologically disturbed -- work police increasingly say appears to have been ways for him to pursue his sexual prey. Queen Elizabeth knighted him for his "charitable services" in 1990. British Prime Minister David Cameron said Savile's honors might be rescinded. Investigators found no evidence of a "pedophile ring" tied to Savile, as some British newspapers suggested, Spindler said, but a number of "living people" are under investigation. He called the alleged offenders "opportunist individuals." The BBC cited "sources close to Scotland Yard" as saying police were investigating some "figures of high standing" who might have "assisted Savile, helped organize abuse, cover it up or taken part in assaults themselves." The investigation, code-named Operation Yewtree, hadn't led to any arrests by late Thursday, but officers were "preparing an arrest strategy," Spindler told reporters. A Savile great-niece, Caroline Robinson, accused Savile of sexually abusing her when she was 12. "When I was reading about the victims in the paper, it was like reading a mirror image of what I went through," Robinson, now 49, told BBC Radio 5 Live. "When I was 12 ... he asked me to sit on his knee and he said, 'What can Jimmy do for you?' and I said, 'Can I see the Bay City Rollers?' who were my favorite group at the time." She told the network Savile got sexually excited as she sat on his knee, and he put his hands in her underwear. She said she ended up running upstairs in tears but never told her parents what had happened.