BBC's George Entwistle says Jimmy Savile pedophile scandal is growing LONDON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- The head of the BBC told British lawmakers a scandal involving a now-dead TV host accused of being a predatory sex offender now involved several other staffers. "Between eight and 10" current and former BBC staff members and contributors face allegations of child sexual abuse, Director General George Entwistle told a Parliament committee. The BBC later said the exact figure was nine, but could not specify how many of those people still worked for the public-service broadcaster, The Daily Telegraph reported. The figure includes iconic TV host and accused serial child molester Jimmy Savile, Entwistle said. Savile, who died Oct. 29, 2011, at age 84, spent 20 years hosting the BBC TV's long-running "Top of the Pops" music chart show before a teenage audience and another 20 years presenting "Jim'll Fix It," in which he helped the wishes of viewers, mainly children, come true. London's Metropolitan Police Service, often known as Scotland Yard, launched a criminal investigation Friday into allegations of child sexual abuse by Savile and other people over four decades. Police said they were pursuing more than 400 separate lines of inquiry, based on evidence of 200 witnesses. They described the alleged abuse as being "on an unprecedented scale" and said the number of potential victims was "staggering." Entwistle told the House of Commons' Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee an internal investigation into why the BBC's "Newsnight" current affairs program shelved an expose of Savile's alleged pedophilia wouldn't be ready for another six weeks. He blamed "Newsnight" editor Peter Rippon for canceling the report. Rippon stepped down from the program Monday. Entwistle also blamed the BBC culture. "The culture and practices of the BBC seemed to allow Jimmy Savile to do what he did," Entwistle said, drawing a parallel to the case of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, sentenced Oct. 9 to 30-60 years in prison for sexually abusing young boys. "Mr. Savile has prosecuted his activities -- his disgusting activities -- in a matter that was very successfully and skillfully concealed, and experts in pedophile behavior have pointed out that's often the case," Entwistle told the lawmakers. "In the case of the United States, of Jerry Sandusky ... these people build very long-range plans to put them in contact with their targets," he said. These things are institutionally, it seems, very difficult to deal with. A number of BBC employees told the BBC's competing "Panorama" news documentary program in a broadcast that aired Monday Savile's appetite for underage girls was well known at the network. Lawmakers urged Entwistle -- who joined the BBC in 1989 and became its director general Sept. 17 -- to "get a grip" on the network, the Telegraph said. They also accused him of a "lamentable lack of knowledge" about what was going at his company, the newspaper said.