An unnamed male BBC presenter at the centre of a sex scandal is facing allegations involving four young people.
The Sun newspaper originally published claims on Saturday that the top star paid a vulnerable youngster more than £35,000 for sexually explicit images.
The youth was said to have been 17 when the payments began.
Since then, a lawyer for the young person said this was “rubbish” and insisted nothing inappropriate or unlawful had happened.
In the days since, three other young people have come forward to the press and BBC itself to make allegations about the suspended presenter, said to be a household name.
Jeremy Vine has said the unnamed presenter at the heart of the BBC furore “needs to come forward” adding that “the longer he leaves it the worse it will be for him”.
TV and radio star Vine and Piers Morgan are among the high-profile figures who have called for the star to go public, with a number of other BBC stars including Gary Lineker, Nicky Campbell, Rylan Clark and Vine all being forced to publicly deny they are the person in question.
Metropolitan Police detectives have begun assessing the claims and have asked the BBC to pause its internal inquiry, though the force said it has yet to decide whether there is any evidence to warrant a criminal investigation.
1) Teenager “used presenter’s cash to fund drug addiction”
On Saturday, The Sun published an anonymous interview with the mother and stepfather of an apparently vulnerable youth who had been exchanging messages with an unnamed BBC presenter.
BBC radio host Jeremy Vine has urged the BBC presenter at the heart of an ongoing scandal to name himself.
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) July 12, 2023
On #BBCBreakfast BBC News correspondent Lizo Mzimba had more details about new allegationshttps://t.co/WPcedJFvbE pic.twitter.com/X6pSESTL9G
The parents alleged that their child was 17 when the relationship started and had been sent £35,000 over a three-year period for explicit images.
Their mother told The Sun she saw a picture of the presenter on her child’s phone “sitting on a sofa in his house in his underwear” which she said she was told was “a picture from some kind of video call”.
It later emerged a family member of the young person attended a BBC building on May 18 where they sought to make a complaint about the behaviour of the presenter but allegedly became frustrated that the star remained on air.
But on Monday, a lawyer acting on the young person’s behalf denied this, saying the young person told The Sun before the newspaper published the story that there was “no truth to it”.
An unnamed police force has confirmed it was contacted by the parents of the teenager in April, BBC News has reported.
The force said that “no criminality was identified” initially, however it has since met with the Metropolitan Police and the BBC, it was alleged.
2) Young person “felt threatened and scared by abusive messages”
BBC News reported a second individual, understood to be in their 20s, claimed that they had made contact with the unnamed presenter through a dating app before their conversations moved to other platforms.
At the time they did not know who the star was. But he then revealed his identity and asked the young person not to tell anyone, BBC News reported.
According to reports, the young person said they felt pressured to meet up with him but never did.
They later posted online alluding to having had contact with the presenter and hinted they might name him.
The BBC man then allegedly sent a number of “threatening messages”, which the corporation says it has “seen and verified” they came from a phone number belonging to the presenter.
BBC News said the young person felt “threatened” by the messages and “remains scared”.
Its journalists contacted the presenter via his lawyer, but had received no response to the allegations.
3) Presenter “broke lockdown rules to meet youth and paid cash”
On Wednesday, The Sun further reported a third young person had come forward to claim the BBC presenter allegedly broke lockdown rules to meet them during the pandemic in February 2021.
It was claimed that a 23-year-old travelled across London to another county to meet them at their flat in February 2021 after first meeting on a dating site the previous year.
It was also claimed that on the day of the alleged hour-long meeting, during which the unnamed presenter and the 23-year-old “just chatted”, the presenter sent a gift of £250 to a PayPal account.
The Sun claims two other payments of £200 and £250 were made afterwards.
4) Presenter “sent creepy Instagram messages” to teenager
A fourth young person claims they were contacted on Instagram by the unnamed presenter, who sent love hearts and ‘x’ kisses, it is claimed in The Sun.
The unnamed fourth person, who said they were 17 at the time, branded the messages “creepy”, “looking back now”.
They said they were “taken aback” by the sending of a love heart emoji, although it was unclear that the BBC man knew their age at the time.
