The BBC has been at the centre of claims against one of its presenters. Photo / AP
The BBC has been at the centre of claims against one of its presenters. Photo / AP
British detectives met with representatives of the BBC on Monday over allegations that a leading presenter paid a teenager for sexually explicit photos. But police said they had not opened a criminal investigation, and a lawyer for the young person denied anything inappropriate had happened.
The UK’s publicly funded national broadcaster has suspended the male star, who has not been named, over allegations he gave a youth £35,000 ($72,400) starting in 2020, when the young person was 17.
Though the age of sexual consent in Britain is 16, it is a crime to make or possess indecent images of anyone under 18.
London’s Metropolitan police said detectives were “assessing the information discussed at the meeting and further inquiries are taking place to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed”.
“There is no investigation at this time,” it said.
The Sun newspaper, which first reported the allegations, said the young person’s mother had complained to the BBC in May but that the presenter had remained on the air. The parents then went to the tabloid with the story.
In a further twist, a lawyer for the young person — who also has not been named — told the BBC “nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place between our client and the BBC personality”. The lawyer said the allegations reported in The Sun were “rubbish”.
The newspaper defended its actions, saying it “reported a story about two very concerned parents who made a complaint to the BBC about the behaviour of a presenter and the welfare of their child”.
“Their complaint was not acted upon by the BBC. We have seen evidence that supports their concerns. It’s now for the BBC to properly investigate,” the newspaper said.
The BBC has been scrambling to stem a growing crisis since the claims were first published by The Sun over the weekend. It said in a statement on Sunday that it “first became aware of a complaint in May”, but “new allegations were put to us on Thursday of a different nature”.
The broadcaster said “the BBC takes any allegations seriously and we have robust internal processes in place to proactively deal with such allegations”. It said the corporation had also been in touch with “external authorities”, but did not specify whether they were the police.
“This is a complex and fast-moving set of circumstances and the BBC is working as quickly as possible to establish the facts in order to properly inform appropriate next steps,” the BBC said.
“We can also confirm a male member of staff has been suspended.”
The presenter’s name has not been disclosed because of British privacy laws. But that has not stopped fevered speculation on social media about the man’s identity.
The BBC scandal is the latest to hit British television. Photo / 123rf
Radio host Nicky Campbell said it had been “a distressing weekend, I can’t deny it, for me and others falsely named”.
“Today I am having further conversations with the police in terms of malicious communication and with lawyers in terms of defamation,” Campbell said on his radio programme.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman, Max Blain, said the allegations were “concerning”, but the government had been “assured that the BBC is investigating this matter quickly”.
“The first thing to do is establish the facts and ensure they are set out at the appropriate time,” he said.
Phillip Schofield was at the centre of a scandal at ITV. Photo / BBC
The situation comes weeks after commercial UK broadcaster ITV faced its own scandal when Phillip Schofield, a long-time host on the channel’s popular morning show, quit in May, admitting he had lied about an affair with a much younger colleague.
ITV executives were summoned to Parliament to answer questions about whether the broadcaster had a “toxic” work culture and had covered up misconduct by stars.
The BBC faces greater scrutiny than other broadcasters because of its status as a national institution funded through an annual license fee of £159 pounds ($329) paid by all households with a television.
It has been hit by several scandals involving its stars over the years, most notoriously when long-time children’s TV host Jimmy Savile was exposed after his death in 2011 as a paedophile who abused children and teens over several decades.
