Lawyers get £2.5m from Jimmy Savile estate... but victims share just £1million

THE victims of Jimmy Savile will receive less than half as much in compensation as the amount paid to lawyers acting for his estate.

The legal bill in the battle over the late entertainer’s wealth has reached £2.5million, dwarfing the £1million that will be paid to the sex abuser’s victims, according to new court documents revealed at the High Court last Thursday.

It follows a four-year fight involving the Savile Trust, the charity to which Savile left most of his money, the estate’s executors, and lawyers representing his victims. The estate has now run out of cash after Osborne Clarke, the law firm for the estate executor NatWest, submitted a bill for £1.8million.

Savile’s 74 victims have been awarded £1,033,000, with the average payout around £13,000.

The legal bill was condemned by child abuse survivors’ representatives, who said judges should take a stand against lawyers’ charges.

Peter Saunders, of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: ‘Arguably the only people who really win in these situations are the lawyers – they take the lion’s share of the money in estates such as Savile’s.’

Labour MP John Mann, who has campaigned on VIP child sex abuse, added: ‘It is an absurdly large amount for the lawyers.

‘Yet again it is lawyers who are the big beneficiaries. Judges should be refusing these amounts of costs.’

An Osborne Clarke spokesman said: ‘The £1.8 million figure is inaccurate taken out of context, and does not represent only Osborne Clarke fees. Osborne Clarke fees are only a proportion of the overall figure.’

Dominic Lawson – Page 16