It emerged in late 2012 that Jimmy Savile, an English media personality who had died the previous year, sexually abused hundreds of people throughout his life. Savile had been well known in the United Kingdom for his eccentric image and was generally respected for his charitable work. The scandal was a major factor leading to the establishment of the wider-ranging Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which was announced by then-Home Secretary Theresa May in July 2014. In February 2015 the inquiry was reconfigured as a statutory inquiry to be chaired by Justice Lowell Goddard.