BBC director general George Entwistle today said he would like to “apologise on behalf of the organisation” in the wake of the allegations of sexual abuse against former DJ Sir Jimmy Savile.
He also confirmed the BBC would conduct an inquiry following a police investigation.
He spoke out a day after British prime minister David Cameron called for allegations of sexual abuse against the late celebrity to be fully investigated.
Mr Cameron said that the claims from a number of women which have emerged over recent weeks that they were abused by Savile as teenagers were “truly shocking”.
And he said that the allegations should be looked into by the BBC - which employed Savile at the time - and, if necessary, by the police.
Mr Entwistle said there needed to be a “comprehensive examination” of what went on, following the police investigation.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “These are awful allegations that have been made and they are criminal allegations and the first thing I want to say is that the women involved here have gone through something awful, something I deeply regret they should have to go through and I would like to apologise on behalf of the organisation to each and every one of them for what they’ve had to endure here.”
He added: “When the police have finished everything they have to do and when they give me an assurance that there is no danger of us in any way compromising or contaminating an investigation, I will take it further and ensure that any outstanding questions are answered properly.”
Mr Entwistle said any investigation needed to be done in “two phases”, and the BBC would “take a look properly” after the police inquiry.
He said: “At the heart of what went on are a series of criminal allegations about the behaviour of Sir Jimmy Savile, Now, the way to deal with those is to make sure that the police, who are the only properly constituted authority for dealing with criminal investigations, are allowed to make the examinations and inquiries they need to make.
“So . . . it is critically important that we start by putting the BBC at the disposal of the police in this regard.”
Any BBC investigation, he added, would examine the “broad question of what was going and whether anybody around Jimmy Savile knew what was going on”.
PA