Savile is a suspect in 199 crimes, including 31 allegations of rape, London's Metropolitan Police said.

An eighth suspect was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of sexual offenses in connection with a police inquiry into claims against Savile and others, dubbed Operation Yewtree.

The man, who is in his 70s and from London, has not been named.

The furor over the BBC's handling of the original Newsnight investigation was compounded by its decision to broadcast a Newsnight probe last month into claims of abuse at children's homes in Wales.

That program led to a former senior Conservative politician, Lord McAlpine, being falsely named on Twitter as a child abuser. The BBC apologized and has paid compensation. Other individuals who repeated the libel via Twitter still face legal action.

An internal review of that Newsnight investigation, led by Ken MacQuarrie, reported back last month. It concluded that the program's production was marked by a series of "unacceptable" failures.

The BBC Trust responded separately to the MacQuarrie review Wednesday with a series of damning conclusions.

It said the "broadcast allegations were not based on sound evidence and had not been thoroughly tested," leading the audience to be misled in a "serious failure of BBC journalism."

The resulting false identification of Lord McAlpine was "a grave breach which had been costly to all concerned," the Trust said.

"This was a high-risk report which required rigorous supervision and did not receive it."

A second major inquiry set up to look into the culture and practices of the BBC during the decades Savile worked there is ongoing.

The BBC has also set up a review of its policies and procedures relating to sexual harassment, in light of allegations about past misconduct. It is headed by senior human rights lawyer Dinah Rose.