BBC staff turned blind eye to Jimmy Savile victims: report Findings: The Smith inquiry suggests up to 1000 people were abused by Jimmy Savile. London: BBC staff turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse by star presenter Jimmy Savile of up to 1000 girls and boys in the corporation's changing rooms and studios. An internal inquiry by former judge Janet Smith found Savile's behaviour had been recognised by executives at the world's biggest public broadcaster, but they took no action to stop him, according to the Observer newspaper on Sunday. A police investigation concluded last year that the television and radio presenter, who died in 2011 aged 84, was a predatory sex offender who abused children as young as eight over more than 50 years. It identified 450 victims, but the Smith inquiry suggests up to 1000 people were abused by Savile while he was working for the BBC, the Observer reported. Peter Saunders, chief executive of Britain's National Association for People Abused in Childhood, which had been consulted by Ms Smith's inquiry, said many people at the BBC admitted knowing about Savile's behaviour. "The other thing I have found extraordinary, and very sad, is the number of people I have spoken to connected to the BBC - and that is a lot of people - who said: 'Oh yes, we all knew about him'," Mr Saunders told the newspaper. The Smith inquiry report is likely to throw the publicly-funded BBC into fresh turmoil when it is presented next month. The Savile revelations sparked a crisis at the corporation about how Savile was able to carry out his attacks and why the BBC failure to report the claims against him when they were first raised in the weeks after his death. Director-general George Entwistle resigned after the scandal and was replaced by former BBC editorial executive Tony Hall. Savile was one of the biggest TV stars in Britain in the 1970s and '80s, and used his fame as a presenter of the BBC chart show Top of the Pops and children's program Jim'll Fix It to rape and assault his victims. A police report last year found that officers had failed to follow up evidence against Savile dating back as far as 1964. The publicity over Savile prompted a number of women to complain of abuse by other television stars from the same era, a number of whom are now facing criminal charges.