According to The Sun, a BBC broadcaster at the core of allegations that he paid a teenager for explicit images allegedly appeared in his underwear during a video conversation.
According to the publication, the unidentified BBC celebrity has been charged with paying a kid more than £35,000 in exchange for sexually explicit photos.
The person and the teen, who was allegedly 17 when the payments started, were not named.
The young person’s mother claimed to have seen a picture of the presenter “sitting on a sofa in his house in his underwear” on her child’s phone and was informed that it was “a picture from some kind of video call,” according to The Sun.
The Sun said that on May 19, the teen’s relatives protested to the BBC.
Throughout the day on Saturday, the BBC covered the story in its news bulletins.
On the News at Ten presented by Clive Myrie, special correspondent Lucy Manning said: “I think this is very serious for the BBC, let’s make no bones about this.
“The understanding is the presenter isn’t due on air in the near future, but we haven’t been told, and we have asked, we haven’t been told by the BBC whether there has or hasn’t been a formal suspension.
“The BBC will need to answer if the investigation should have happened sooner, if it should have been more thorough, and if it’s fair to other presenters unconnected to this that their names are now sort of in the headlines.”
Ms Manning said she thinks this “really does have the potential to severely dent the BBC’s reputation”.
The presenter has not been suspended, according to The Sun, despite being off air.
A handful of BBC celebrities tweeted on Saturday amid online rumours that they were not the presenter at the focus of The Sun story.
Rylan Clark tweeted: “Not sure why my name’s floating about but re that story in the Sun – that ain’t me babe. I’m currently filming a show in Italy for the BBC, so take my name out ya mouths.”
Not sure why my names floating about but re that story in the sun- that ain’t me babe. I’m Currently filming a show in Italy for the bbc, so take my name out ya mouths pic.twitter.com/6lZo45U6Pe
— R Y L A N (@Rylan) July 8, 2023
Jeremy Vine tweeted: “Just to say I’m very much looking forward to hosting my radio show on Monday — whoever the ‘BBC Presenter’ in the news is, I have the same message for you as Rylan did earlier: it certainly ain’t me.”
Gary Lineker tweeted: “Hate to disappoint the haters but it’s not me.”
Hate to disappoint the haters but it’s not me.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) July 8, 2023
Nicky Campbell made it seem as though he had spoken to the police about being included in the article.
He tweeted a screenshot which featured the Metropolitan Police logo and the words: “Thank you for contacting the Metropolitan Police Service to report your crime.”
In his tweet, he wrote: “I think it’s important to take a stand. There’s just too many of these people on social media. Thanks for your support friends.”
A BBC spokesperson 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.”
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