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Jimmy Savile was revealed today as Britain’s worst sex offender as the full shocking scale of his abuse over six decades was disclosed.

The late entertainer’s reign of terror spanned 54 years, with the latest crime allegedly committed just four years ago. His 450 victims included a boy of eight and a dying child abused at Great Ormond Street Hospital, it emerged for the first time.

The allegation was made by a patient aged 11 or 12, who told relatives before dying about being touched inappropriately by Savile.

A 30-page report released by the Metropolitan Police and the NSPCC reveals the BBC Jim’ll Fix It star assaulted about 450 victims, mostly young girls under 16, at the height of his fame.

The authors described Savile as “cunning” and said that through his celebrity status he was able to “hide in plain sight” while abusing children and adults over six decades.

Commander Peter Spindler, head of Scotland Yard’s Specialist Crime Investigations, said: “Savile’s footprint was vast, predatory and opportunistic. He cannot face justice today but we hope this report gives some comfort to his hundreds of victims. They have been listened to and taken seriously.”

Peter Watt, NSPCC director of child protection advice and awareness, co-authored the report with Detective Superintendent David Gray, Operation Yewtree’s senior investigating officer.

He said: “Jimmy Savile was one of the most prolific sex offenders the NSPCC has ever dealt with.” He added that Savile “cunningly” built his life around trying to gain access to children and “hid in plain sight behind a veil of eccentricity”. Mr Gray said: “I have personally read hundreds of victims’ accounts and the sheer scale and severity of his offending is appalling.”

The report was unveiled as Britain’s chief prosecutor apologised for the failure to prosecute Savile while he was alive. Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said there were failures by police in Sussex and Surrey and also by the principal lawyer in dealing with the allegations.

He issued a personal apology for the CPS mistakes and announced a series of changes to improve the investigation of allegations by child victims. Mr Starmer said he wanted the case to be “a watershed moment”.

He added: “In my view, these cases do not simply reflect errors of judgment by individual officers or prosecutors on the facts before them.

“If that were the case, they would, in many respects, be easier to deal with. These were errors of judgment by experienced and committed police officers and a prosecuting lawyer acting in good faith and attempting to apply the correct principles.

“That makes the findings of the report more profound and calls for a more robust response.”

Since Operation Yewtree launched on October 5 last year about 617 people have come forward with allegations relating to Savile and others. Of these, about 450 relate to sexual abuse allegedly carried out by the late DJ.

Detectives are looking at three strands within their inquiry: claims against Savile, those against him and others, and those against others.

So far a total of nine people, including celebrities Gary Glitter, Freddie Starr and Dave Lee Travis, have been arrested and one formally questioned on suspicion of sexual offences, as part of the overall inquiry.

The three-month investigation, which is still ongoing and has so far cost £450,000, is now looking at whether Savile was part of an “informal network” of paedophiles.

The report states: “The volume of the allegations that have been made, most of them dating back many years, has made this an unusual and complex inquiry. On the whole, victims are not known to each other and taken together their accounts paint a compelling picture of widespread sexual abuse by a predatory sex offender.”

The report, Giving Victims A Voice, reveals that Savile allegedly committed a number of offences on BBC premises, where he worked between 1965 and 2006, and at the final recording of Top Of The Pops.

That alleged offence was a sexual assault against a young female child.

The final offence was said to have been committed in 2009 against a 43-year-old woman and the earliest in 1955 in Manchester. Some 214 crimes were recorded across 28 police force areas, including 34 of rape or penetration, the report adds.

The former presenter and Radio 1 DJ died aged 84 in October 2011, a year before the allegations emerged in an ITV documentary.

Police said Savile offended at 13 hospitals, including Great Ormond Street in London, and one offence was recorded at Wheatfield’s Hospice in Leeds in 1977. He also allegedly carried out acts of sexual abuse at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Leeds General Infirmary and Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital.

His youngest victim was an eight-year-old boy, who suffered a sexual assault at his hands, and the oldest was 47.

Savile has also been linked to abuse at the Jersey children’s home Haut de la Garenne and the Duncroft Approved School in Surrey.

Mr Gray said: “Savile used every single moment of every working day thinking about opportunities to abuse.”

He added: “Savile only picked on the most vulnerable, the least likely to speak out against him.”

Asked to explain what motivated the DJ to carry out such abuses, he said: “Savile was programmed to act in that way.” He also said he used Jim’ll Fix It as a vehicle to gain access to victims.