Jeremy Vine says unnamed BBC presenter ‘needs to come forward now’
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V and radio star Jeremy Vine has stated the unnamed presenter on the coronary heart of the BBC furore “needs to come forward” including that “the longer he leaves it the worse it will be for him”.
Vine and Piers Morgan are among the many high-profile figures who’ve referred to as for the unnamed BBC presenter to go public, with numerous different BBC stars together with Gary Lineker, Nicky Campbell, Rylan Clark and Vine all being pressured to publicly deny they’re the individual in query.
Speaking on his Channel 5 present, Vine – who additionally hosts a day present on BBC Radio 2 – stated: “It’s his decision but he needs to come forward now, I think.
“I know his survival instinct has kicked in and I know he saw what happened to Phillip Schofield, but my God look at the damage to the BBC, look at the damage to his friends, to those falsely accused – and the longer he leaves it the worse it will be for him.”
Vine stated he thought “very carefully” earlier than posting a tweet on Tuesday evening urging the unnamed presenter to disclose himself, including: “I know the individual concerned. I am very worried about his state of mind and what this is doing to him.
“I haven’t spoken to him but I gather from somebody who has that he is described as angry and keen to play it long.
“Now to me that means that he wants to be anonymous for as long as possible, hoping that he can one day walk back into the building.”
Ahead of the published of his present, Good Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid stated: “Now we have a very high-profile presenter, Jeremy Vine, putting pressure on the unnamed presenter to come forward, which I think is a strange move for another presenter.”
Vine stated the unnamed BBC presenter “will have to answer” the allegations in opposition to him, suggesting the person won’t be able to “remain anonymous for ever” whereas persevering with to work for the broadcaster.
He added: “What’s happening is all this stuff is aggregating with no response.
“Now, he must have a defence, he must have one. Maybe he’s going to say it’s all a misunderstanding? Well I assume it.”
The 58-year-old, who stated he has not spoken with the presenter, additionally stated: “I had a situation: I was going to see Bruce Springsteen at the weekend and my wife said, ‘are you going to be safe there?’
“That’s how serious this thing is, and she gave me a baseball cap and said, ‘you better wear this’.”
He additionally defended the BBC, saying the company has “behaved with extraordinary decency” and he understands that if it sacks the presenter, it might not be capable of “name” him.
On whether or not the individual thinks they’re above being held to account for his or her alleged actions, Vine stated: “It may be more complicated than that, they may be in some sort of terrible crisis, unable to judge what’s right and what’s wrong any more, I don’t know.”
On The Sun’s entrance web page on Wednesday, the newspaper reported a 23-year-old individual has claimed the BBC presenter broke lockdown guidelines to satisfy them throughout the pandemic in February 2021.
The paper additionally reported an extra declare from one other individual saying the presenter “started a chat with a teen follower from his Instagram account — using love hearts and kisses in his messages”.
According to The Sun, the person was 17 when the presenter contacted them “out of the blue”.
Separately, BBC News reported on Tuesday that an individual of their early 20s has alleged that they had been despatched threatening messages by the unnamed man.
BBC News stated it had contacted the presenter through his lawyer, however had obtained no response to the allegations.
On July 9, the BBC issued an replace to workers and the media and confirmed it had suspended the unnamed presenter following the primary allegation printed in The Sun which stated the presenter had paid a teen tens of 1000’s of kilos for sexually specific photos.
But the younger individual on the centre of the controversy later stated through legal professionals, in a letter to the BBC, that nothing inappropriate or illegal occurred with the unnamed presenter.
BBC News stated it doesn’t know the id of the younger individual and has not spoken to them immediately, however that the letter was despatched by a multinational regulation agency.
Their mom instructed The Sun they stand by the claims and a spokesperson for The Sun stated it’s “now for the BBC to properly investigate”.
A police drive has confirmed to the PA news company that “no criminality was identified” following a report in April by the household.
The drive has since met with representatives of the Metropolitan Police and the BBC and a spokesperson stated “further inquiries are ongoing to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence”.
On Tuesday the company’s director-general Tim Davie stated he has ordered a evaluation to “assess how some complaints are red flagged up the organisation” because the BBC’s annual report was unveiled.
He stated the BBC is coping with a “complex and difficult situation” after the “serious allegations”.
The company has been requested to pause its inner investigation into the allegations “while the police scope future work” following a gathering with the Metropolitan Police.
A spokesperson for the drive stated it continues to make an “assessment to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed” and “there remains no police investigation at this time”.
The company additionally launched a timeline which revealed that the BBC had made two makes an attempt to contact the household earlier than The Sun’s entrance web page story on Saturday.
No further makes an attempt to contact the complainant had been made after June 6, the company stated, till not too long ago when supplies had been handed over to the BBC’s Corporate Investigations Team (CIT).
An announcement from the BBC on Tuesday stated: “The events of recent days have shown how complex and challenging these kinds of cases can be and how vital it is that they are handled with the utmost diligence and care.
“There will, of course, be lessons to be learned following this exercise.”