Broadcaster Janet Street-Porter has revealed she was aware of rumours about Sir Jimmy Savile's alleged abuse of underage girls when she worked at the BBC during the late 1980s.
The journalist also said there was a culture of inappropriate behaviour behind the scenes of the "male dominated" entertainment industry, adding that nothing would have been done even if the allegations about the late Top of the Pops host were raised.
Street-Porter, who joined the BBC as an executive in 1987, said: "I was aware of the rumours about Jimmy Savile, I was also aware of rumours about other people. There was a culture, and it was a generational thing, in areas of light entertainment behaviour was tolerated."
The former Fleet Street editor added: "I feel that the reason these women never came forward before was nobody would have believed them because Jimmy Savile raised so much money for charity and he used the money that he raised for charity as a bargaining power to buy silence from national newspapers.
"If ever there was a time when someone might have blown the whistle on him, he would threaten those newspapers and those reporters that that charity money would not go to those hospitals."
Street-Porter also said that even if she had raised the rumours with senior BBC executives nobody would have taken any notice.
Speaking on BBC's Question Time she added: "A lot of people in the BBC knew what was going on.
"I heard the rumours but I was working in an environment that was totally male. Do you really think that if I said to someone at the BBC higher up than me this was going on - they wouldn't gave taken any notice of me whatsoever."
Street-Porter, who started working in commercial television as a presenter in 1975, said she had been aware of "things going on in dressing rooms" across the industry.
"There was definitely a culture where there was inappropriate sexual behaviour, not necessarily with underage boys and girls, but there was a culture in light entertainment that made me feel uncomfortable."
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