Former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood has been granted conditional bail during a court appearance to face charges of rape and sexual assault.

The 68-year-old is accused of offences against seven women, including three indecent assaults at the BBC studios in the 1990s.

Westwood, wearing a dark grey shirt, spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address as he appeared in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

The former BBC DJ, who returned to the UK from Nigeria last week, was not required to enter pleas to any of the charges at this stage.

He has attended five police interviews voluntarily since the investigation into the alleged offences began, the court heard.

Westwood has previously denied all allegations of sexual misconduct made against him.

Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring granted bail on the condition that he does not contact prosecution witnesses, and set his next court appearance at Southwark Crown Court for 8 December.

The charges

Westwood is charged with four counts of rape, nine counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault.

These include an allegation of rape against a woman at a hotel in London in 1996, one count of rape from the early 2000s at an address in London, and two counts of rape at an address in London in the 2010s.

He is further accused of four indecent assaults in London in the 1980s, three indecent assaults at the BBC in the 1990s, and two indecent assaults in the early 2000s.

The former DJ is also alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman at a nightclub in Stroud, Gloucestershire, in 2010, and faces a second sexual assault charge against a woman at a music festival in London in the 2010s.

Westwood began his broadcasting career in local radio before joining Capital Radio in the late 1980s.

He moved to the BBC in 1994, working on Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra for almost 20 years.

After leaving the BBC in 2013, he then joined Capital Xtra, hosting a regular Saturday show where he was referred to as “The Big Dawg”, before he left the company in 2022.

The resignation of the BBC’s director general was “regrettable” but he was “right to do so”, the chair of parliament’s culture committee has told Sky News.

Dame Caroline Dinenage said she was not expecting the resignations of Tim Davie and the chief executive of BBC News Deborah Turness, which they announced on Sunday evening.

She told Mornings with Ridge and Frost: “I think it’s really regrettable that Tim Davie had to step down – huge commitment to the BBC and public service broadcasting.

“But I think he was right to do so. I think restoring trust in the corporation has got to come first.”

BBC latest: Outgoing BBC News boss rejects ‘institutional bias’

Dame Caroline, who will chair a culture, media and sport committee meeting on Tuesday where the issue will be discussed, said the BBC was “very slow to react” to a leaked report by Michael Prescott, an independent adviser to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards board.

The dossier, sent to the BBC board and leaked to The Daily Telegraph, accused a Panorama special on Donald Trump, released a week before the 2024 US election, of being “neither balanced nor impartial – it seemed to be taking a distinctly anti-Trump stance”.

He also said the programme had spliced two clips from separate parts of Mr Trump’s speech to his supporters on 6 January 2021, the day of the Capitol Hill riots, to give the “impression that Trump had incited protesters to storm Capital Hill”.

Mr Prescott also raised bias concerns about the BBC’s coverage of trans issues and the war in Gaza.

Dame Caroline accused the BBC of failing to take his report seriously “until it was too late”.

Ms Turness arrived at the BBC’s central London headquarters on Monday morning, where she admitted “mistakes are made” but said there is “no institutional bias”.

She defended the BBC’s journalists, saying “of course” they are not corrupt and they “strive for impartiality”.

Read more:
The BBC controversies faced by Tim Davie during his time in charge
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Dame Caroline said the situation “has to influence the BBC charter decisions”.

The BBC’s Royal Charter outlines the corporation’s mission, public purposes and governance, along with specific obligations and how it is funded.

It is up for renewal in 2027, with the government currently carrying out a review to determine the BBC’s future, including its funding model and mission.

Dame Caroline said the last review, 10 years before, put integrity as the BBC’s top missions.

She added: “I think the charter has to look at how the BBC retains its balance and its integrity, how it retains the trust of the British people and the licence fee payer, because, you know, that’s absolutely fundamental for the future of the BBC.

“But actually it reflects upon us as a nation, because the BBC is such a well known and such a well respected brand around the world.”

BBC chair Samir Shah is expected to apologise in a letter to Dame Caroline’s committee later today.

Michael Prescott’s leaked memo raising concerns over BBC impartiality has brought down two of its top bosses.

US President Donald Trump has swiftly weighed in to brand the corporation “corrupt” and “dishonest”.

With the BBC now in crisis, who is the man who started it all?

Michael Prescott

An ex-journalist, Michael Prescott was an independent adviser to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Board for three years before leaving in June.

Studying at Oxford, he worked for 17 years as a journalist, with a decade spent working at the Sunday Times, initially as chief political correspondent before rising to political editor.

No stranger to showbiz, he has previously advised high-net-worth individuals and Hollywood stars on sensitive disputes and had a regular spot on Michael Parkinson’s weekly Radio 2 show, Parkinson’s Sunday Supplement, giving the newspaper review.

BBC chairman expected to apologise to MPs – follow latest

Mr Prescott has also worked in a series of corporate advisory roles – as corporate affairs director for BT, where he helped launch BT Sport and was part of the telecoms company’s merger with EE.

Ahead of that, he was managing director of corporate communications and public affairs at global PR company Weber Shandwick, where he advised organisations including Virgin Media, Balfour Beatty, British Nuclear Fuels, MasterCard, IKEA, air traffic control body NATS and numerous universities.

He currently holds roles at Hanover Communications, an international communications and PR agency.

Mr Prescott is also a member of the government’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, offering independent advice to the Prime Minister, among others.

What did his memo say?

Mr Prescott has said he wrote a memo in “despair at inaction by the BBC Executive when issues come to light”.

He went on: “On no other occasion in my professional life have I witnessed what I did at the BBC with regard to how management dealt with (or failed to deal with) serious recurrent problems.”

Read more: Tim Davie and Deborah Turness’s resignation letters in full

His memo also raised concerns about other areas of BBC output – including coverage of trans issues, and the war in Gaza.

This memo was later leaked to The Telegraph, leading to the crisis at the top of the BBC, resulting in two resignations.

Who else is involved?

Tim Davie

Ex-BBC boss Tim Davie had earned himself the nickname Teflon Tim due to his staying power through numerous controversies. But now it seems he’s seen one controversy too far.

Previously vice-president for marketing and franchise for drinks giant PepsiCo Europe, he was made CBE in 2018 for services to international trade.

Joining the BBC in 2005, he rose to the top position of director-general in 15 years.

Controversies he previously weathered include former Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker’s 2023 brief suspension, Gregg Wallace’s sacking and Bob Vylan’s 2025 Glastonbury set.

Earlier this year, the breaching of the BBC’s Broadcasting Code over documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone dented the corporation’s reputation further, followed by the edit of Donald Trump’s 6 January 2021 speech in flagship show Panorama – which has offered the decisive blow.

Deborah Turness

A linguist, Deborah Turness studied in Surrey, followed by a postgraduate diploma in journalism in France, at the University of Bordeaux.

She became chief executive of BBC news and current affairs in September 2022, previously working as CEO of ITN.

Before that was president of NBC News International, the global arm of American news network NBC News.

Prior to joining NBC News, she was editor of ITV News, where she was their first female editor and the youngest ever editor of ITV News.

What has Donald Trump got to do with it?

Mr Davie’s and Ms Turness’s resignations come off the back of internal concerns over the edit of a Donald Trump speech in an episode of the BBC’s Panorama programme.

The concerns regard clips spliced together of the US president’s speech on January 6, 2021.

That was the day of the storming of the Capitol building in Washington by Trump supporters who believed the 2020 election had been stolen by Joe Biden.

The edit was part of the documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast by the BBC before last year’s US elections.

Responding to the resignations, Mr Trump posted a lengthy statement on Truth Social.

“The TOP people in the BBC, including TIM DAVIE, the BOSS, are all quitting/FIRED, because they were caught “doctoring” my very good (PERFECT!) speech of January 6th,” he wrote.

“Thank you to The Telegraph for exposing these Corrupt ‘Journalists.’ These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election. On top of everything else, they are from a Foreign Country, one that many consider our Number One Ally. What a terrible thing for Democracy!”