BY JILL LAWLESS

Associated Press

LONDON

--For decades, Jimmy Savile was a fixture on British television--an eccentric, aggressively jocular host of children's shows and a tireless charity fundraiser. When he died last year at 84--by then knighted as Sir Jimmy--he drew tributes from Prince Charles and thousands of fans.

Now several women have come forward to claim "Sir Jimmy" was also a sexual predator who abused underage girls.

The allegations have set off ripples of shock--but not of surprise. There had, colleagues said, long been rumors. The main question being asked now is: Why did no one do anything?

"Maybe it was just the fact that Jimmy knew everybody," said. Esther Rantzen, a former BBC journalist and founder of the ChildLine child-protection charity. "We made him into the Jimmy Savile who was untouchable, who nobody could criticize."

Child protection advocates say the case fits a pattern seen in the response to the child-molesting Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and in the English town of Rochdale, where a gang of men groomed vulnerable young girls for sex.