Health investigators claimed on Thursday that the late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile sexually abused corpses in a hospital where he was a volunteer.

He had performed the sex acts on hundreds of dead bodies, mostly of young people over 60 years from 1951 until 2011 when he died at the age of 84. Savile was one of the famous celebrities in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s, reports ABC.

He was even knighted by Queen Elizabeth and honoured by a pope for his voluntary work at hospitals.

The investigation covered 28 hospitals where Savile used his fame and charitable deeds to gain unsupervised access to hospitals where he also committed the dastardly acts on live patients, both male and female, between the ages five and 75. He did the heinous deed in wards, corridors and offices.

In violating the body of the dead, Savile performed the abuse in the Leeds General Infirmary mortuary in northern Ireland by using his role as volunteer porter.

Sue Proctor, leader of the probe team at Leeds, described the allegations about the BBC presenter's behaviour with corpse as "incredibly harrowing and disturbing."

She said that Savile reportedly recounted his deeds to a student nurse from a different hospital, but Proctor admitted there is no way to verify if the narration is true or made up.

However, Proctor pointed out, "We do know his interest in the dead was pretty unwholesome and that the controls around access to the mortuary up to the early 1980s were not robust."

Besides sexually abusing the dead bodies, Savile also reportedly wore rings made from the glass eyes of the corps, two witnesses told the investigators.

BBC bosses were cleared of covering up allegations against their presenter in 2012, while UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt apologised to Savile's victims, admitting the government "let them down so badly."

Savile was a Radio 1 DJ and presented BBC's Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It. He died in October 2011, a year before allegations of his sexual abuse of children was broadcast through an ITV documentary.

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