A FINE art student has chosen to depict the face of Jimmy Savile as part of her degree show.

Oxford Brookes University student Vicki Soar said she made the decision to paint an acrylic portrait of disgraced Savile after the scandal over his past broke last year.

And her interpretation has been on display at an exhibition, open to the public, at the Headington campus.

The 22-year-old, who lives in Cowley Road, said: “When I started off I was looking at figures such as Hitler and Osama Bin Laden, and then the Jimmy Savile scandal broke.

“The public’s perception of him turned all of a sudden from being this lovable rogue to an evil paedophile almost overnight.

“Everyone was automatically saying he looked exactly like a paedophile.

“It definitely brought up the debate again about what he did and whether he was guilty – people were very interested in it.”

The third-year student said she became fascinated by the idea of people’s facial structures reflecting their characters.

“There were people who said I made it for children because it was in a painting-by-numbers style, but that wasn’t my intention. I decided Jimmy Savile’s face was shocking enough. I started it in January and looking at his face for that many hours got a bit depressing.”

Miss Soar also painted two portraits of the Oxford University Somerville College graduate Margaret Thatcher – one as the strong-willed political Iron Lady and the other as a mother leading the country.

Her work will be exhibited at the Free Range Graduate show in Brick Lane, London, from May 29 until July 15.

In 1995 a large painting of murderer Myra Hindley’s police mugshot by Marcus Harvey became famous and caused shockwaves beyond the art world.

The black and white painting was made using the casts of babies’ hands.