Claims about BBC presenter are rubbish, says young person at centre of scandal

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The young person at the centre of a scandal over a suspended BBC presenter has issued a statement in which he claimed the key allegations are “rubbish”.

A prominent male BBC presenter was suspended at the weekend after the young person’s mother went to the Sun newspaper with claims the presenter spent ?35,000 over three years buying explicit images from her child, who is now 20. She alleged the presenter first began talking to her child when they were 17.

The young person’s lawyer has now issued a statement denying their mother’s claims: “For the avoidance of doubt, nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place between our client and the BBC personality and the allegations reported in the Sun newspaper are rubbish.”

The lawyer told BBC News they provided a similar statement to the Sun on Friday via WhatsApp telling the tabloid there was “no truth to it”. The tabloid went ahead and published its story, which threw the BBC into a fresh crisis.

A spokesperson for the Sun said: “We have 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. Their complaint was not acted upon by the BBC. We have seen evidence that supports their concerns. It’s now for the BBC to properly investigate.”

If the young person sent any explicit pictures when they were 17 then this could count as images of child sexual abuse, a serious criminal offence. But if the explicit photos were exchanged only after the young person turned 18 then it is possible that no law was broken. The age at which individuals can share explicit photographs is higher than the age at which they can legally have sex.

On Monday, detectives from the Metropolitan police’s specialist crime command had a virtual meeting with BBC representatives to discuss the allegations.

The Met does not consider the threshold for a criminal investigation has yet been reached. In a statement it made it clear the force would carry out further work, but falling short of a formal criminal investigation that would give officers powers of arrest and search.

A police spokesperson said: “They are assessing the information discussed at the meeting and further inquiries are taking place to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed. There is no investigation at this time.”

The statement suggests the police are still at the “scoping” stage of the inquiry, where they do not commit to a particular course of action, but it leaves open the option of launching a full investigation.

Detectives are trying to work out what, if any, criminal offence may have been committed by the suspended presenter. The young person was allegedly 17 years old when they began talking to the BBC employee, later exchanging explicit pictures and video calls.