‘BBC launches investigation into sexual harassment of a teen by a famous presenter’ – what’s going on now?

Author	Ekaterina Dudakova
Category	People
Date	July 14 2023
Reading Time	2 min.

‘BBC launches investigation into sexual harassment of a teen by a famous presenter’ – what’s going on now?

The Sun recently published a report about a BBC “famous to millions of people” presenter who is accused by the family of a minor of sexual harassment, namely paying up to £35,000 for explicit photographs. Today, BBC General Director Tim Davey was interviewed by BBC Channel 4, explaining the situation’s development so far.

The London Cult has collected all the most important moments of this story from the last 24 hours:

The Sun published an article in which, according to the teen’s family, money from an unnamed BBC presenter “sponsored the teen’s drug addiction” and “ruined their lives”. The family claims the host first requested the photos when the minor was 17 in 2020 and continued paying for them for several years.
On Sunday, the BBC took the presenter off the air because of the allegations but did not name him.
Initially, the story circulated on social media, where users speculated about the identity of the host. Several BBC presenters, including Rylan Clark, Gary Lineker, Nikki Campbell and Jeremy Vine, made tweets denying they had anything to do with the situation.
A spokesman for the BBC stated that the company “takes 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.”
BBC then released an interview with a ‘young person’s lawyer’ which called the statements of the teen’s family “rubbish”, “totally wrong” and that “there was no truth in it”. According to the BBC, the lawyer accuses The Sun of disseminating knowingly false information. In response, the newspaper stated that they “have seen evidence that supports their concerns” and it is now “for the BBC to properly investigate.”

In an interview with BBC Channel 4 today, BBC CEO Tim Davey confirmed that the situation is “definitely damaging to the company” and that many details cannot be released while police investigate. He also expressed concern that the BBC will have to learn from this situation and see if the company is responding to “red flags quickly enough”. Davey has not been in contact with the host, and his identity is yet to be confirmed.

The Metropolitan Police have asked the BBC to suspend its investigation into the situation while police officers look for grounds to open a criminal investigation. There is no official police investigation happening currently.