LONDON — Former BBC star Jimmy Savile was one of Britain’s "most prolific" sex offenders, committing at least 214 sex crimes against victims aged as young as 8, police said Friday.

Investigators released a report cataloging more than 50 years of rapes and indecent assaults. It accused the late television and radio host of using his celebrity status to gain access to vulnerable children in hospitals, nightclubs and even a hospice for the terminally ill.

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Almost all the allegations have been made since Savile’s death in 2011, even though the offences date back as far as 1955.

The revelations have triggered a scandal in Britain and prompted a string of public inquiries into how some allegations were not properly investigated while Savile was alive.

"It is now clear that Savile was hiding in plain sight and using his celebrity status and fundraising activity to gain uncontrolled access to vulnerable people across six decades," the police-led report said. "For a variety of reasons the vast majority of his victims did not feel they could speak out and it’s apparent that some of the small number who did had their accounts dismissed by those in authority including parents and carers."

Savile, who raised an estimated $55 million for charity, achieved fame on BBC shows including "Top of the Pops" and "Jim'll Fix It." In 1990, he was given a knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth and received a Papal Knighthood at the Vatican.

The offences span 28 police forces across the U.K. and the scale of his abuse is so vast that the report included a map and an index of the alleged locations.

The number of people Savile victimized "simply beggars belief," Peter Watt, co-author of the report [PDF link] and director of children’s charity NSPCC told ITV News.

"He is without doubt one of the most prolific sex offenders we have ever come across and every number represents a victim that will never get justice now he is dead. But with this report we can at least show his victims that they have been taken seriously and their suffering has been recognized."

In total, more than 450 have people have come forward to police with allegations of abuse involving Savile. Most but not all victims have been interviewed and to date 214 criminal offences have been formally recorded. They included 34 rapes or serious sexual assaults, according to the report. The last incident recorded occurred in 2009. His victims ranged in age from 8 to 47.

The report concluded:

“The details provided by the victims of his abuse paint the picture of a mainly opportunistic individual who used his celebrity status as a powerful tool to coerce or control them, preying on the vulnerable or star-struck for his sexual gratification. Sadly, this type of behavior is not uncommon in any society - sexual abuse, whether in street gangs, though trafficking or within families and institutions, often involves the use of powerful coercion, intimidation and manipulation to exploit the vulnerable."

In a separate development, Britain’s most senior prosecutor apologized to some of the women abused by Savile, revealing that police missed three chances to take him to trial while he was alive.

Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, said police had been "unjustifiably cautious" investigation four allegations involving girls as young as 14 who said they were abused by Savile in the 1970s.

He said he hoped the organization’s internal review would prove to be a "watershed" moment in the handling of child abuse cases.

In a statement, he said:

"Many people feel that for sexual offences, where it is 'one person's word against another's' and there is no or little scientific or other evidence to support the allegation, no prosecution should be brought. But this is to ignore the reality of many sexual offences which, by their nature, do not usually take place in front of witnesses and result in no meaningful scientific evidence. Taking a cautious approach to all complainants, on the ground that some might be making a false allegation of a sexual offence, can have the consequence that a prosecution for a true complaint may not take place."

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Updated at 7:36 p.m. ET: LONDON -- A 26-year-old man was arrested Monday for the defacement of a Mark Rothko painting at London's leading contemporary art museum.

The incident took place on Sunday when a visitor to Tate Modern applied "a small area of black paint with a brush to the painting," to a painting titled "Black on Maroon" by the Russian-American artist.

The man arrested signed his name on the painting: Vladimir Umanets. He was placed in custody around 9 p.m. local time.

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Photographs of the damage showed the text "VLADIMIR UMANETS '12, A POTENTIAL PIECE OF YELLOWISM'' scrawled on Rothko's 1958 canvas "Black on Maroon.

'Not art or anti-art'
Using a phone number posted on on the so-called "Yellowism" movement's website, a Reuters journalist spoke to a man answering to the name Vladimir Umanets who said he carried out the attack.

"I'm aware they (the police) will come at some point and arrest me,'' he told Reuters. "It was an artistic statement, but it was more about having the opportunity to speak about galleries and art."

A manifesto posted on the website reads: "Yellowism is not art or anti-art. Examples of Yellowism can look like works of art but are not works of art ... Art is forever developing 'diverse whole'. Yellowism is forever expaning 'homogeneous mass'."

Tim Wright who witnessed the incident described it as "surreal." He posted a picture on Twitter and described how "this guy calmly walked up, took out a marker pen and tagged it."

In another tweet, Wright wrote: "Very bizarre, he sat there for a while then just went for it and made a quick exit."

Amy Griffin, an art restorer at London's Simon Gillespie Studio, said she was optimistic that the painting could be repaired.

"The exact material the graffiti was done in will determine how quickly it can be removed," she said. "If it is water soluble this may be done quickly but if it has stained the original paint the conservation may take longer and some retouching might be needed."

Griffin said that while the painting wasn't on the market, the value would only be affected if the new black paint couldn't be removed.

"Removing graffiti or accidental damage to paintings done with pens, paint or even old restoration is a daily part of a conservator's job and the Tate conservation department is one of the best in the world," she said.

The damaged painting is part of Rothko's Seagram series. Originally commissioned for the Four Seasons' restaurant in New York, the artist changed his mind about the project and gave the works to galleries, including Tate Modern.

Much of Rothko's work is characterized by canvases with large rectangular blocks of color.

The last major piece by the artist to be sold was his "Orange, Red, Yellow". It  fetched $87 million at an auction in New York earlier this year.

The Tate Modern is no stranger to action by so-called artists. In 2000, two Chinese performance artists tried to relieve themselves in one of the gallery's most famous sculptures: a urinal by Marcel Duchamp.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed to NBC News that they were investigating the incident but said Monday that no arrests had been made.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Story updated 1:15 p.m. ET: The local authority, Camden Council, said it was confident Reid "had made an error in good faith" when he appointed his wife, but said the matter was being investigated by Britain's Office for Judicial Complaints.

Story published 11:30 a.m. ET: The coroner who oversaw the inquest into the death of singer Amy Winehouse has resigned after her qualifications were questioned, officials in Britain said on Wednesday.

Suzanne Greenaway ruled in October that the 27-year-old soul singer had died from accidental alcohol poisoning.

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However, she resigned after authorities learned she had not been a registered U.K. lawyer for five years as required. It means the verdict in Winehouse's case and 11 others carried out by Greenaway could be subject to a High Court challenge.

Winehouse's relatives said they were still absorbing the implications of the news.

Greenaway had been appointed an assistant deputy coroner in London by her husband, Coroner Andrew Reid. She had practiced law for a decade in her native Australia.

Reid said Wednesday he was "confident that all of the inquests handled were done so correctly" — but offered to hold inquests over again if the families of the deceased wanted it. Greenaway had been in the job since 2009.

Winehouse's family said it had not yet decided what to do.

In a statement, the family said it was "taking advice on the implications of this and will decide if any further discussion with the authorities is needed."

The Sun newspaper, which broke the story, said the dozens of verdicts given by Greenaway would only be overturned if they were challenged in Britain's High Court.

A security guard found Winehouse dead in bed on July 23 at her home in the Camden district of north London. The singer, known for her distinctive beehive hairdos and multiple Grammy-winning album "Back to Black," had battled drug and alcohol addiction for years.

The inquest heard evidence from a pathologist, Winehouse's doctor, the security guard who found her and a detective who described seeing three empty vodka bottles in her bedroom. It appears unlikely that a second inquest would produce a different conclusion about how she died. 
 
The full statement issued by Reid on Wednesday was reported in north London newspaper, the Camden New Journal. It read: "I appointed my wife as an assistant deputy coroner as I believed at the time that her experience as a solicitor and barrister in Australia satisfied the requirements of the post. In November of last year it became apparent that I had made an error in the appointment process and I accepted her resignation.

"While I am confident that all of the inquests handled were done so correctly, I apologise if this matter causes distress to the families and friends of the deceased. I will be writing to the families affected to personally apologise and offer for their cases to reheard if requested."

Although the singer was adored by fans worldwide for her unique voice and style, praise for her singing was often eclipsed by lurid headlines about her destructive relationships and erratic behavior. Winehouse herself turned to her tumultuous life and personal demons for material, resulting in hit songs such as "Rehab" and "Love Is a Losing Game."

Msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson in London and The Associated Press contributed to this report.