The BBC is meeting the Metropolitan Police today amid claims that an unnamed presenter paid a teenager tens of thousands of pounds for sexually explicit images.
The corporation confirmed a male member of staff has been suspended, and it was reported that the presenter at the centre of the allegations made ‘panicked’ calls to the young person last week.
A newspaper claimed the presenter allegedly asked ‘What have you done?’, adding that he allegedly asked them to ring their mother to get her to ‘stop the investigation’.
According to BBC News, the corporation will meet the Metropolitan Police later ‘to discuss the matter’.
The BBC has said it had been investigating a complaint since May, when it was first made aware, and that new allegations of a ‘different nature’ were brought to it on Thursday.
As well as being in touch with the police, the corporation is carrying out its own inquiries and talking to the young person’s family.
BBC director-general Tim Davie is due to face the media tomorrow for a scheduled briefing following the release of the corporation’s annual report, but the growing crisis involving the unnamed presenter will dominate the event.
Former BBC executive Tim Luckhurst has shared his thoughts on how long it took for the corporation to suspend the accused presenter.
He told TalkTV: ‘I think it knew enough in May to think that it needed to investigate, but it wasn’t able to find everything that it needed to find out as quickly as perhaps it would’ve liked to.’
On how long the investigation would last, he said: ‘Well that depends on whether or not those who have the facts are willing to share the information, or whether you have a difficult relationship with those who possess that information.
‘It also depends on whether or not they interrogated the presenter, or whether they had enough information to interrogate the presenter at that stage, or what they were told.
‘It is absolutely clear that there wasn’t full or candid sharing of information at that stage.’
