In the end, the Sun in 2008 published a picture of Savile at Haut de la Garenne with a group of young children. “Sir Jimmy had no idea of the horrors at the orphanage,” the copy read, but it was obvious to me at the time what the Sun wanted to reveal but was unable to publish.

Even the mild version of the story and the follow-ups that were published by the Sun caused Savile’s lawyers to write to the publication. “We act for Sir James Savile and have been consulted in relation to the above articles,” the letter read. “As your publication will know our client has tirelessly campaigned for underprivileged and sick children. His charity work over many years has raised huge sums which have benefited many projects and hospitals … Linking our client to events at the home has caused untold embarrassment and upset.”

During the interview with cops in 2009, which has been made public this week following a Freedom of Information request, he also bragged about his determination to take his accusers to court and made reference to a payout he received from newspaper bosses when they attempted to unmask him years earlier.

He told police, "I had them and it cost them like £200,000 because they were out of order... I'm known in the trade as Litigiousness because... I'm willing to pull people into court straight away, no messing, thank you... people get quite nervous actually because for somebody that don't want to go to court, I love it."