Jimmy Savile victims compensation scheme approved by Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal has approved a scheme to compensate victims who say they were sexually abused by Jimmy Savile.

The decision came after the Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust appealed a decision by the High Court to sanction the scheme.

It had been claimed the compensation pot would be liable to fraudulent claims and should be closely scrutinised.

Trustees of the charity, which was set up in 1985 to provide funds to combat poverty and sickness, lodged a complaint at the High Court as they believed the compensation scheme would line the pockets of lawyers and not the victims.

However, Appeal judges today dismissed the challenge in a move that could see a flood of claims being made.

The charity had been in line to bequeath most of Savile's £3.3m estate after the issue of compensation had been resolved.

But after ITV aired the damning Savile documentary "Exposure: The Other Side to Jimmy Savile", Natwest Bank, the executor of the disgraced entertainer's will, received a deluge of letters from a number of potential claimants seeking compensation from the estate.

So numerous were the complaints, it was feared the former BBC presenter's estate would be exhausted.

In February, trustees went to the High Court to attempt to block a compensation scheme put together by the law firm Slater & Gordon, which represents more than 175 of those victims.

They also wanted to to have NatWest removed as the will's executor.

"The current scheme gives the claimants' lawyers an automatic right to claim fees of about £14,000 per claimant, irrespective of the amount the claimant receives," a trustee statement said.

"This could mean a claimant receives only a fraction of the amount paid to the lawyers."

Savile, who died aged 84 in 2011, is thought to be Britain's most prolific sex offender, with reports claiming he abused up to 1,000 victims.