BBC presenter scandal: Culture secretary to hold talks with corporation over explicit photo claims
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer is to hold talks with the BBC director-general Tim Davie on Sunday over “deeply concerning” allegations about one of its presenters.
The unnamed star is alleged to have paid a teenager more than £35,000 for sexually explicit images.
The presenter allegedly first requested images from the youth in 2020 when they were aged 17 and has made a series of payments over the years, according to The Sun.
In a statement ahead of the meeting, a Department of Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson said: “These allegations are deeply concerning.
Culture secretary Lucy Frazer
“As a public service broadcaster in receipt of public funding, senior officials have stressed to the BBC that the allegations must be investigated urgently and sensitively, with the department kept informed.
“The culture secretary will be speaking to Tim Davie later today.”
BBC Director-General Tim Davie
In new allegations published in The Sun on Sunday, the young person’s mother said she was “shocked” when her child showed her a screenshot of the video chat, in which the well-known presenter was sitting in his boxer shorts on a sofa at his home.
She said the man appeared to be “leaning forward, getting ready for my child to perform for him.”
“My child told me, ‘I have shown things’ and this was a picture from some kind of video call,” she added.
The newspaper did not say when the alleged incident happened.
The mother also said that earlier this year she was shocked when she overheard the presenter “on the phone saying to my child: ‘I told you not to f***ing ring me’.”
No one involved has been named, but The Sun said the presenter has not been suspended. It is understood he is still being paid his six-figure salary in full.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
What we know about claims against BBC star
The newspaper said the family made a complaint on 19 May but came forward to The Sun after becoming frustrated that the man was still on air a month later.
The mother said her child told her they had also received a payment of £1,000 via PayPal in June which suggested that the “BBC hadn’t spoken to this man” in the weeks after the initial complaint.
The presenter is now off-air and the BBC has reportedly launched an investigation, although the corporation has not confirmed this.
Read more:
Everything we know about claims a BBC presenter paid teen for explicit photos
BBC stars deny being the presenter accused of paying teenager for sexually explicit photos
BBC presenter scandal is sleazy and depressing – but at the heart of this a family is suffering
Several political figures have been critical of the BBC’s handling of the allegations, with Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves telling Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme that the allegations were “deeply concerning”.
“The idea that some presenters think they act with impunity and they can get away with these sorts of things – it does call into question the ethics, the investigations, how long these things take,” she said.
“And the BBC, but also other broadcasters, do need to get a grip because we seem to lurch from one scandal to another, and more needs to be done.”
Entertainment
‘Love you bro’: Zayn Malik’s tribute to Liam Payne at first show since former bandmate’s death
Entertainment
Joy star James Norton on the ‘postcode lottery’ of IVF – and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first ‘test-tube baby’
Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.
In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.
The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.
In the UK, statistics show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade
Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.
“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.
“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”
Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. All pics: Netflix/ Kerry Brown
Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.
But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.
Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.
The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.
Norton portrays scientist Bob Edwards, while McKenzie plays embryologist Jean Purdy
While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.
“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.
“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”
In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough
“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”
Read more:
Boy George on the price of fame
The fan club president who joined the band
In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.
“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”
Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports8 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway