Elijah Wood claims Hollywood is gripped by a Jimmy Savile style sex abuse scandal

'There are a lot of vipers in this industry, people who only have their own interests in mind,' Wood says

The Lord of the Rings actor said his mother protected him from abuse when he arrived in Hollywood at the age of eight (Getty Images)

Elijah Wood claims Hollywood is in the grip of a child sexual abuse scandal similar to that of Jimmy Savile in the UK.

The 35-year-old said paedophiles were shielded by powerful figures in the film industry and claimed that the abuse was organised.

He said his mother protected him from abuse when he arrived in Hollywood at the age of eight and he didn’t attend the type of parties where such incidents occurred.

“You all grew up with Savile – Jesus, it must have been devastating,” he told The Sunday Times. “Clearly something major was going on in Hollywood. It was all organised”.

“There are a lot of vipers in this industry, people who only have their own interests in mind,” he added. “There is a darkness in the underbelly – if you can imagine it, it’s probably happened.”

Wood said abuse prevails because victims are unable to speak as loudly as those in power. “That’s the tragedy of attempting to reveal what is happening to innocent people,” he said. “They can be squashed but their lives have been irreparably damaged.”

Anne Henry, the co-founder of Bizparents, an organisation set up to help young actors, claimed Hollywood was currently sheltering “100 active abusers” and a “tsunami” of claims was emerging.

These claims have not been substantiated.