Late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile is a suspect in 199 crimes, including 31 rape allegations, police said yesterday, adding the scale of his alleged crimes was “unprecedented” in Britain.

Ten weeks after Scotland Yard began investigating claims that Savile was a paedophile, the London force confirmed that 589 people had come forward with information, of which 450 related to Savile, mainly alleging sex abuse.

Some 80 per cent of the victims were children or young people, police said, while 82 per cent who claimed they had been abused were female.

“These levels of reporting of sexual abuse against a single individual are unprecedented in the UK,” Scotland Yard said.

The investigation into Savile, one of the BBC’s top television and radio presenters, who died last year aged 84, was prompted by claims by five women on a television documentary on October 4.

It has spawned 12 inquiries or reviews both into Savile himself – by the BBC and other authorities – and unrelated sexual offences, such as abuse at a Welsh children’s care home and child abuse by late lawmaker Cyril Smith.

Ten people have been arrested so far, including convicted paedophile and former glam rocker Gary Glitter and comedian Freddie Starr.

Radio presenter Dave Lee Travis and public relations guru Max Clifford have also been held, but not for child sex offences. All those arrested protest their innocence.