ARE there no depths of depravity to which Jimmy Savile did not sink? Yesterday’s revelations were universally greeted with revulsion – how could a human being become so depraved in so many different ways?

And how could so many blind eyes be turned to what he was up to?

Although Savile is now dead and therefore untouchable, the inquiry has given a voice to his victims. It has shown them that they deserved far better from the NHS. That is positive and makes the inquiry worthwhile.

Yet before we launch off into another independent inquiry, as some people are already calling for, we must remember that Savile was acting in a very different time zone.

Our country has changed hugely since the 1960s and 1970s when the bulk of his abuse happened. We now have laws and procedures, like checking criminal records, that are much, much tighter, and society’s attitudes to children and women have changed enormously – the touching and squeezing that so many of Savile’s victims have reported would not be tolerated now.

However, we are still in thrall to celebrity, and it is deeply concerning that as recently as 2003 in Leeds, one NHS worker was told by a consultant not to be “silly” when she complained.

Perhaps this is the key. While it is right to expect the NHS, the BBC and the care homes to demonstrate how they have changed, society as a whole should look at itself and ask if it has changed enough. How many workplaces are there today in which a woman’s concerns would be dismissed without investigation by senior managers as “silly”?

It was this attitude that allowed Savile to commit his appalling offences with impunity, and we must continue to confront it.

Turning a blind eye is unforgivable, although no one can have expected to see the unimaginable depths to which this man sunk.