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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Rachael Burford

Met Police ‘assessing information’ after virtual BBC meeting over presenter explicit photo claims

Police officers held a virtual meeting with BBC chiefs on Monday over allegations that a top TV presenter paid a teenager for sexually explicit photographs.

The household name allegedly spent more than £35,000 on images over three years and has now been suspended by the broadcaster.

No formal police investigation has been launched by Scotland Yard.

A Met statement said: “Detectives from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command met with representatives from the BBC on the morning of Monday, 10 July. The meeting took place virtually.

“They are assessing the information discussed at the meeting and further enquiries are taking place to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed.

“There is no investigation at this time.”

The BBC has been investigating since it was made aware of the allegations in May, but faced questions from MPs about why it took so long to take the male employee off air.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk said he would have expected the BBC to suspend the star when the “serious” claims were first made, but added it was important not to speculate until the facts of the case had been established.

“I think once allegations of this seriousness and concern are raised and the BBC are aware of them, yes, I would expect them to move to suspension,” he told the Today programme.

“But I don’t know the precise facts. I think it’s quite important that we don’t speculate out of fairness for all parties.”

The BBC said new complaints of a “different nature” were brought to the broadcaster on Thursday, and, as well as being in touch with the police, it had been carrying out its own inquiries.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said “prompt action” was “absolutely vital” in cases of serious allegations, such as those made against the unnamed presenter.

“We don’t know the facts yet, a lot of it is speculative,” she told ITV. “In a case of serious allegations such as these, prompt action is, of course, absolutely vital for safeguarding purposes, for justice purposes, but also for propriety purposes.”

It comes as the Sun reported that the presenter made “panicked” calls to the young person, who was reportedly 17 when they allegedly began being paid to send the images. The newspaper said the presenter asked, “What have you done?”, adding that it is claimed he asked them to ring their mother to get her to “stop the investigation”.

UK law states anyone under the age of 18 cannot legally consent to sending explicit photos of themselves.

BBC director-general Tim Davie is due to face the media on Tuesday for a scheduled briefing following the release of its annual report. But the scandal is now set to dominate the event.

Mr Davie has said he is “wholly condemning the unsubstantiated rumours being made on the internet about some of our presenting talent” after a host of famous BBC faces were forced to publicly state they were not the individual in question.

A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC first became aware of a complaint in May.

“New allegations were put to us on Thursday of a different nature and, in addition to our own inquiries, we have also been in touch with external authorities, in line with our protocols.

“We can also confirm a male member of staff has been suspended.”

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