Suspended BBC presenter sent threatening messages to second young person, broadcaster claims

The crisis engulfing the BBC deepened on Tuesday after new allegations of abusive behaviour by a top presenter already accused of paying money for explicit pictures of a young person.

The BBC reported that a second person had come forward with an account of what they felt was threatening behaviour by the same, unnamed, presenter after they communicated on a dating app.

The individual, then in their early 20s, told the BBC they had received abusive, expletive-filled messages when they later hinted online that they might name the presenter.

The BBC said it had seen the messages and they had come from a phone number belonging to the presenter.

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The allegations will add to pressure on BBC bosses to reveal the identity of the presenter, who was taken off air last week following accusations he paid tens of thousands of pounds for photographs of a young person, allegedly aged 17 when contact was first made.

Earlier on Tuesday, the corporation said it had suspended its internal investigation into those allegations while the police decided whether to pursue a criminal case.

In his first public appearance since the crisis broke over the weekend, BBC director general Tim Davie said on Tuesday there were “clearly going to be [lessons]” after ordering a review of how and when complaints were “red flagged” at the broadcaster.

He also defended the BBC, however, which failed to flag the case to senior management or talk to the presenter until last Thursday – seven weeks after the initial complaint.

[ Allegations concerning BBC presenter and photos ‘rubbish’, says young person’s lawyer ]

[ BBC says male staff member suspended after allegations about presenter ]

The Metropolitan Police are still considering whether to launch an investigation into the allegations, which the Sun newspaper first published on Friday evening.

Mr Davie said that “as a result of this, the BBC has been asked to pause its own investigations into the allegations while [the police] scope future work”, adding he believed the broadcaster was navigating a “complex and difficult situation...responsibly and judiciously”.

The Met did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Interim BBC chairwoman Dame Elan Closs Stephens, who took over after Richard Sharp stood down last month over a scandal involving a loan to former prime minister Boris Johnson, said on Tuesday the board was satisfied that Mr Davie had acted “swiftly but with appropriate duty of care”.

The BBC’s handling of the latest crisis has sparked both anger in the corporation’s newsroom, with some demanding greater transparency, and attacks by politicians over the failure to more fully investigate the original complaint.

On Tuesday, Sarah Montague, presenting the World at One on BBC Radio 4, told Mr Davie that “everyone in this building knows who it is and there are an awful lot of people who are having to go on air to say that it’s not them”. BBC presenters such as Gary Lineker have felt forced to deny being involved.

Mr Davie said the scandal was “clearly damaging to the BBC – it’s not a good situation”.

Conservative MP Damian Collins, speaking on Radio 4 after Mr Davie, said the BBC should have pressed harder to investigate the original complaint, which was made by the young person’s parents.

The crisis took an unexpected twist on Monday night when Child and Child, a law firm for the young person, contacted the BBC to say the parents’ allegations in The Sun were “rubbish” and nothing inappropriate or unlawful had occurred.

The Sun said it had reported “a story about two very concerned parents who made a complaint to the BBC about the behaviour of a presenter and the welfare of their child”. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023