The BBC has said it did not put allegations made by the family of a young person to a presenter accused of paying them thousands of pounds for sexually explicit photos until seven weeks after they were first raised.
The BBC has since suspended the unnamed male presenter.
A timeline released by the corporation says that the family first attempted to raise a complaint in-person at a BBC building on 18 May, followed that up by contacting the BBC Audience Service the following day.
The BBC say that on 19 May they referred the matter to their Corporate Investigations Team, who decided that while the matter “did not include an allegation of criminality” that it “nonetheless merited further investigation”.
They say it was then they first attempted to contact the complainant, via email, but they received no response. No further contact was attempted until 6 June, when the BBC attempted to call the complainant on the phone, but say “this call did not connect”.
Again, no further attempt was made to contact the complainant, until The Sun newspaper contacted the BBC on 6 July, and it was on this day that the Director General, Tim Davie, and the presenter in question were first made aware of the allegations.
They say the decision was made “that the presenter would not be on air” while the matter was being considered.
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The BBC say they then contacted the complainant on 7 July, and on the same day contacted the police. The corporation says it has since paused its investigation at the request of officers.
The unnamed male presenter has been accused of paying the youth more than £35,000 for explicit pictures.
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According to The Sun, which broke the story last week, the presenter first requested images in 2020 when the youth was 17 and made a series of payments over the years.
The youth is now understood to be 20.
They reportedly used the money to fund an addiction to crack cocaine that “destroyed” their life.
It was also alleged the presenter stripped to his underwear during a video call.
However, on Monday, the BBC reported a statement from the young person’s lawyer, saying their mother’s claims were “rubbish” and “totally wrong”.
The letter said nothing unlawful or inappropriate took place.
The Sun responded: “We’ve seen evidence to support the concerns of two parents. It’s now for the BBC to properly investigate.”
The family said they made a complaint to the BBC on 19 May but approached The Sun after becoming frustrated the star was still on air a month later.
This is confirmed by the BBC’s own timeline, which says “On 18 May, the complainant (a family member) attended a BBC building, where they sought to make a complaint about the behaviour of a BBC presenter”.
Then it says: “On 19 May, the complainant contacted BBC Audience Services; the details of this contact were referred to the BBC’s Corporate Investigations Team.”
The timeline adds: “On 19 May, the BBC’s Corporate Investigations Team emailed the complainant stating how seriously the BBC takes the issue and seeking additional information to verify the claims being made; there was no response to this contact.
“On 19 May, checks were also made to verify the identity of the complainant. This is a standard procedure to confirm that the complainant is the person they say they are.
“On 6 June, having received no response to the email referenced above, a phone call was made to the mobile number provided by the complainant by the BBC’s Corporate Investigations Team; this call did not connect.
“Following these attempts to make contact with the complainant, the Corporate Investigations Team were due to return to the matter in the coming weeks. No additional attempts to contact the complainant were made after 6 June, however the case remained open throughout.”
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While The Sun has not revealed the presenter’s name, it said he’s paid a six-figure salary and is currently off-air.
It has led to many well-known BBC presenters – including Rylan Clark, Jeremy Vine and Nicky Campbell – all making clear on social media they have nothing to do with the case.
The Sun said that after the allegations were published the presenter phoned the young person and asked them “what have you done?”
In a statement on Sunday, the BBC confirmed it first received a complaint about the presenter in May.
It said it was taking the allegations “very seriously” and had suspended the presenter after receiving new allegations of a different nature in addition to their own enquiries.
The BBC met the Metropolitan Police on Monday after contacting the force last week. There is currently no criminal investigation under way.
