On July 8th (local time), The Sun published a shocking story of an unnamed BBC presenter who allegedly paid a teen 35,000 Euros over a period of three years for sexually explicit images. The mother of the victim has levelled the allegations at the BBC presenter. Following the reports, BBC has initiated a probe into the conduct of the “famous” presenter, who has been taken off-air following the report published in The Sun.
The family complained to the BBC on 19th May, and an investigation by the corporation was launched headed by a cyber-crime expert. However, the presenter stayed on air and was allegedly sending money until the family approached The Sun. The young person’s mother told The Sun, “All I want is for this man to stop paying my child for sexual pictures and stop him funding my child’s drug habit.”
As per the Sun’s report, when the mother found out about the alleged exchange of money for sexually explicit images, she begged BBC to make the famous presented stop sending cash to her child. She further added that the young victim used the money to feed his “spiralling” crack cocaine habit. She said, “I blame this BBC man for destroying my child’s life — taking my child’s innocence and handing over the money for crack cocaine that could kill my child.”
BBC presenter kept paying for weeks after the initial complaint
The BBC presenter allegedly sent 1,000 Pounds to her child’s account in June via PayPal. The mother said, “My child said they had run out of money and then suddenly had this cash. It’s obvious to me the BBC hadn’t spoken to this man between our complaint on 19th May and in June as they thought he was too important. We never wanted an investigation. We just wanted the BBC to tell him to stop. Initially, the security boss gave us a number that didn’t exist.”
Narrating one of the encounters between her child and the BBC presenter, she said, “Earlier this year, I heard him on the phone saying to my child, ‘I told you not to f***ing ring me’. It was shocking as I’d see how he would act on the telly, and then he would say stuff like that.”
According to the mother, the exchange of photographs started in 2020 when the young person was only 17 years old. Shockingly, the BBC presenter never tried to hide his identity and often sent pictures of himself at work. After the family confronted the young person, they were shown an account statement containing several deposits from the BBC presenter, out of which one was 5,000 Pounds. “One time, he had sent £5,000 in one lump. The money had been exchanged for sexually explicit photographs of my child,” she added.
The mother said her child was happy-go-lucky but changed to a ghost-like crack addict after the money started pouring in.
The mother saw a picture of the presenter having a video chat preparing for a “show” while in his underwear. She said, “I loved watching him on the TV. So I was shocked to see a picture of him sitting in his underwear on a sofa in his house. I immediately recognised him. He was leaning forward, getting ready for my child to perform for him. My child told me, ‘I have shown things’, and this was a picture from some kind of video call.”
The BBC presenter, drawing a 6-figure salary, was suspended pending investigation. Several BBC presenters came forward to claim it was not them.
BBC said an internal probe is underway
In a statement, BBC said, “We treat any allegations very seriously, and we have processes in place to proactively deal with them. As part of that, if we receive information that requires further investigation or examination, we will take steps to do this. That includes actively attempting to speak to those who have contacted us in order to seek further detail and understanding of the situation. If we get no reply to our attempts or receive no further contact, that can limit our ability to progress things, but it does not mean our enquiries stop. If, at any point, new information comes to light or is provided – including via newspapers – this will be acted upon appropriately, in line with internal processes.”
Police yet to get involved
The internal probe by BBC into the matter is underway. In a statement, former Chief Crown Prosecutor Nazir Afzal, who led the prosecution in the Rochdale grooming gang case, said, “The police should have been engaged as soon as they worked out whether the complaint was genuine. Where are we now — the middle of July? Six, seven weeks on. They should have advised the police that this is a matter that they should be investigating, and that should have been done weeks ago. There’s no justification for the police not becoming involved as early as possible.” The police are yet to get involved in a full-fledged probe into the matter.
