261 U.K. celebrities investigated over abuse

LONDON • Some 261 celebrities and politicians, including sports, TV and music stars, are being investigated for alleged child sex abuse, British police have revealed.

They are among more than 1,400 men suspected by police of being sex predators, as the home secretary warned it is only the “tip of the iceberg.”

The rogues gallery includes 135 TV, film and radio stars, 43 musicians and seven sports figures as well as 76 politicians, the officer in charge of the issue has disclosed.

Hundreds of schools, religious institutions, children’s homes and sports clubs are also implicated.

Chief Const. Simon Bailey said reports of child sex abuse were increasing on a daily basis, and he expected police to receive about 116,000 allegations before the end of this year. The surge is partly a result of the Jimmy Savile scandal in 2012, and Bailey warned victims will run “in to the thousands.” Savile, a celebrated DJ, media celebrity and the longtime host of BBC’s Top of the Pops, was accused of child sex abuse but never charged before his death in 2011. Subsequent investigation led police to believe he may have been one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders, with as many as 450 alleged victims, including adults and children.

The sex-abuse figures released this week reveal for the first time the massive scale of inquiries into historic and current abuse cases.

Speaking separately, Theresa May, the home secretary, told officers that the picture was the “tip of the iceberg.”

Bailey, the head of Norfolk Police and lead on child sex abuse for the National Police Chiefs Council, said the scale of child abuse was “stark.”