Jimmy Savile investigation: former BBC driver charged with sex offences Jimmy Savile investigation: a former BBC driver has been charged under Operation Yewtree. Photograph: Gary Calton for the Observer Josh Halliday A former driver for celebrities has been charged with five offences of sexual assault dating back to the 1980s, becoming the first suspect to face charges under the Operation Yewtree investigation into Jimmy Savile and others. David Smith, who drove BBC personalities including Savile in the 1980s, is accused of committing buggery with a boy aged under 16 years old in July 1984.He has also been charged with two counts of indecent assault and two offences of gross indecency on a boy under the age of 14, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Wednesday. Each of these incidents relate to one alleged victim and are said to have taken place between 1 June and 21 July 1984. Smith, 66, will appear at Westminster magistrates court to face the charges on 8 May. He was arrested on 10 December last year. Alison Saunders, the chief crown prosecutor for the CPS, said: "The CPS has carefully considered the evidence gathered as part of Operation Yewtree in relation to David Smith, who was employed as a driver at the time of the allegations. The CPS received a file of evidence on 21 December 2012. Further enquiries were necessary and the result of those enquiries was received by the CPS on 18 March. We have concluded, in accordance with the code for crown prosecutors, that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction, and that it is in the public interest for David Smith to be charged with five offences. Eleven men, including the comedians Freddie Starr and Jim Davidson, have been arrested and bailed since Operation Yewtree was launched last October. Others held include the singer Gary Glitter, publicist Max Clifford and DJ Dave Lee Travis. Davidson, Clifford, Starr and Travis have denied allegations of sexual offences. An 82-year-old man from Berkshire was arrested last week under Operation Yewtree, after being interviewed under caution by police detectives on 29 November. He has been bailed to a date in May pending further police enquiries. Each of the arrests fall under the Operation Yewtree strand termed "others," meaning that the offences are not alleged to involve Savile. The Metropolitan police is investigating a flood of historic complaints of sexual abuse from alleged victims who came forward following ITV1's Exposure documentary on Savile in October. A joint report by Scotland Yard and the NSPCC released in January recorded 214 criminal offences spanning six decades against Savile. Almost 600 people contacted Operation Yewtree with information between October and January, including 450 relating to Savile. The failure to cut short Savile's abuse when he was alive prompted several inquiries into police failures. A damning report released by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in March revealed that Savile could have been stopped in the 1960s but police mishandled evidence and dismissed victims. "The findings in this report are of deep concern, and clearly there were mistakes in how the police handled the allegations made against Savile during his lifetime," said Drusilla Sharpling of HMIC last month.