BBC to meet police over presenter allegations
The BBC has suspended a male member of staff after allegations in The Sun that an unnamed presenter paid a teenager £35,000 for sexually explicit images over a three-year period, starting when the young person was allegedly 17 years old. The BBC, which is due to meet the Metropolitan Police later “to discuss the issue”, said it had been investigating a complaint since May and that new allegations of a “different nature” were put to it last Thursday. The scandal comes ahead of the publication of the corporation’s annual report, when Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, is due to face the media. Davie yesterday said he was “wholly condemning” internet speculation about the identity of the staff member, after a number of presenters were forced to deny they were the subject of the accusations. Gary Lineker said: “Hate to disappoint the haters but it’s not me.”
Photograph Tejas Sandhu/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images