BBC faces elevated strain after recent allegations about presenter
T
he BBC is dealing with elevated strain after recent claims emerged about an unnamed presenter who has been dealing with allegations over funds for sexually express photographs.
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 fulfill them through the pandemic in February 2021.
Separately, BBC News reported on Tuesday that an individual of their early 20s has alleged that they have been despatched threatening messages by the unnamed man.
They seem like separate to an adolescent who The Sun claims was paid round £35,000 over three years, from the age of 17, for sexually express photos by the presenter, who has been suspended by the BBC.
Jeremy Vine, who has publicly acknowledged he isn’t the presenter in query, mentioned on Twitter he’s starting to consider the unnamed man “should now come forward publicly” as a result of the brand new allegations “will result in yet more vitriol being thrown at perfectly innocent colleagues”.
Before the recent claims, director-general of the BBC Tim Davie ordered a evaluation to “assess how some complaints are red flagged up the organisation”.
He mentioned the BBC is coping with a “complex and difficult situation” after the “serious allegations”.
The Sun’s new report claims messages seen by the paper recommend the presenter travelled from London to a special county to fulfill the 23-year-old at their flat in February 2021, when strict coronavirus lockdown guidelines have been in place together with a keep at dwelling order and mixing solely between family bubbles.
The younger individual, who claims to have met the presenter on a relationship web site, mentioned the person additionally gave them greater than £600 in three funds, which the newspaper mentioned messages additionally recommend.
They informed the Sun: “The BBC were briefing the nation on the rules — when their star who was part of the institution was quite happy to break them.”
The Sun mentioned it had approached the BBC and the presenter for remark and would hand over proof to the BBC’s investigation workforce.
The younger individual on the centre of the specific picture controversy mentioned on Monday by way of a lawyer that nothing inappropriate or illegal occurred with the unnamed presenter, in keeping with the BBC.
BBC News mentioned it doesn’t know the identification of the younger individual and has not spoken to them immediately, however that the letter was despatched by a multinational legislation agency.
Their mom informed The Sun they stand by the claims and a spokesperson for the Sun mentioned it’s “now for the BBC to properly investigate”.
An unnamed police pressure confirmed it was contacted by the mother and father of {the teenager} in April, BBC News has reported, and initially “no criminality was identified”.
However, the pressure has since had talks with the Metropolitan Police and the BBC and “further inquiries are ongoing”.
The company has additionally been requested to pause its inside investigation into the allegations “while the police scope future work” following a gathering with the Metropolitan Police.
A spokesperson for the pressure mentioned 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”.
A press release from the BBC mentioned: “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.”
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 have been made after June 6, the company mentioned.
The BBC additionally mentioned the BBC’s Corporate Investigations Team (CIT) contacted the complainant once more who has despatched some supplies associated to the grievance.
Mr Davie was first knowledgeable of the allegations when the Sun mentioned it might be publishing the story.
He informed a press convention concerning the BBC’s annual report this was as a result of there was no response to the makes an attempt to make contact and investigators couldn’t confirm the claims.
On Tuesday, BBC News reported an individual of their early 20s – who the broadcaster mentioned isn’t linked to the individual within the first report by the Sun – allegedly obtained threatening messages from the presenter.
According to the broadcaster, the presenter met the younger individual on a relationship app, not in individual and requested the younger individual to not inform anybody.
The presenter then allegedly despatched quite a few “threatening messages”, which the BBC says it has seen and confirmed got here from a cellphone quantity belonging to the unnamed man.
The BBC mentioned the younger individual felt “threatened” by the messages and “remains scared”.
BBC News mentioned it had contacted the presenter by way of his lawyer, however had obtained no response to the allegations.
A BBC spokesperson mentioned the company had nothing additional so as to add, following the brand new allegations from each the BBC and The Sun.