A Church of England minister criticised in the Jimmy Savile report released yesterday has said he is "really sorry" if his inaction caused further suffering.

Jimmy Savile molested 72 victims at the BBC over almost 52 years, most recently in 2006 when he was brought back to host the last ever Top of the Pops.

Canon Colin Semper worked with Savile in the 1970s on Speakeasy, a BBC radio discussion programme for teenagers which ran in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was later promoted to Head of Religious Programmes for BBC radio.

Dame Janet Smith, the author of the report, explicitly praised Canon Semper's honesty in the evidence he gave her, writing that the failure to stop Savile had evidently plagued him.

Despite this, she said that he should have reported his suspcisions about Savile.

"I accept that Canon Semper did not 'know' that Savile had sex with under-age girls in the sense of ever seeing it happen, but he clearly did 'think' that Savile had casual sex with a lot of girls, some of whom might have been under age," the report said.

"Canon Semper did not make any report to his managers. I have concluded that he ought to have discussed his concerns with a manager."

Canon Semper told Sky News he did "have suspicions because he (Savile) talked quite needlessly sometimes about young women" but "never saw him walk down the road with a girl from the crowd of girls who were around but it may well have happened".

"I didn't actually see it. It probably did happen. So what was said [by Dame Janet] is probably the absolute truth."

He said: "I want to say I am sorry that if I had any responsibility for what has happened over subsequent time then I am just really sorry."

Savile's abuse dates back to 1959, when he raped a 13-year-old girl, and continued throughout his time at the BBC, "in the corridors, canteens, staircases and dressing rooms of every BBC premises", the report said.

The research has revealed that BBC missed five opportunities to report the "untouchable" Savile, who died in 2011 aged 84, during the five decades of his abuse.

Savile targeted 21 girls under the age of 15, the youngest of whom was eight. He also preyed on young boys, including an eight-year-old.