BBC suspends host accused of paying a teen $45K for sexually explicit photos
LONDON – The BBC has suspended one of its top hosts over allegations of sexual misconduct.
The male host — whose identity has not been made public — is accused of paying a teenager £35,000 (nearly $45,000) for sexually explicit photos over a three-year period. The exchanges allegedly began when the person was 17.
A British tabloid newspaper, The Sun, broke the story Friday with an interview with the alleged victim's mother. She told the paper her teen used the money to fund a drug habit.
"I blame this BBC man for destroying my child's life," the unidentified mother was quoted as saying. "Taking my child's innocence and handing over the money for crack cocaine that could kill my child."
This is only the latest scandal to tarnish the storied British broadcaster, which is funded domestically by TV license fees. Its chairman resigned earlier this year in a conflict of interest row over a financial favor he did for the prime minister who'd appointed him. For decades, the BBC failed to investigate one of its entertainers, Jimmy Savile, who was later found to have committed sex crimes.
On Sunday, the BBC said it had suspended an unnamed male member of staff. The network says it first became aware of a complaint about him back in May, and had been investigating – before "new allegations" of a "different nature" were made Thursday. At that point, the BBC notified "external authorities," it said.
Police say they held a virtual meeting Monday morning with BBC officials and are "assessing the information discussed at the meeting" – but that no formal investigation is yet underway.
"Further enquiries are taking place to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed," police said in a statement carried by local media.
UK politicians have called for a swift, sensitive and thorough investigation. The country's culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, called the allegations "deeply concerning" and said she had spoken to the BBC's director-general about them.
Since breaking the story last week, The Sun says this unnamed BBC host has made at least two panicked phone calls to his alleged victim, asking "What have you done? He also reportedly asked them to halt the investigation and to call their mother and urge her to stop talking to media.
Speculation has been rife over who the unnamed BBC presenter is. Other top BBC personalities have flooded social media with statements saying it's not them.
The Sun's former editor Kelvin MacKenzie told the BBC's World at One radio program that the newspaper decided to withhold the BBC presenter's name because the UK media landscape has "changed dramatically" in recent years, in terms of privacy.
"In the good old days there would have been absolutely no doubt that the name would have been there," Mackenzi said. "And any pictures associated with the story would have been published." [Copyright 2023 NPR]
