BBC presenter row: Young person's family stand by allegations

The family of the young person at the centre of the BBC presenter row have said they stand by their account of what happened.

Their allegations, reported first in the Sun newspaper, claim the presenter had allegedly paid a teenager for explicit photos.

But a lawyer representing the young person, now 20, later called the allegation "rubbish".

Questions have also been raised about the consistency of the parents' claims.

A new interview given by the mother and step-father to the Sun appears to conflict with their previous account of how their complaint was handled by the BBC.

The step-father is quoted in a new article as saying allegations were put to the BBC "for an hour", but in a report on Monday, it was stated: "The family say no-one from the corporation rang them for a proper interview after the initial complaint."

The step-father also said the BBC lied about only being freshly informed last week about the full scope of the allegations.

He is quoted as saying he previously told the BBC the young person was 20 and the contact had been happening for three years. However, he also says he told the BBC he had contacted the police and was told nothing illegal had taken place.

The BBC has not yet clarified what allegations were made in May and what new information it received last week. BBC director-general Tim Davie is set to face questions about the row in a scheduled media appearance on Tuesday.

The lawyer for the young person said they had sent a denial to the Sun about the allegations made by their mother before the newspaper published the story on Friday.

The Sun said it had seen evidence to back the mother's claims.

But in a letter sent on Monday to the BBC, the lawyer said the young person had sent a message to the paper on Friday saying the statement made by their mother was "totally wrong and there was no truth to it".

Nonetheless, the lawyer added, the Sun newspaper proceeded to publish "their inappropriate article".

"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 wrote.

The young person's lawyer said press reporting amounted to an invasion of privacy, and criticised both the Sun and the BBC for not contacting their client.

"Nobody from the Sun newspaper appears to have made any attempt to contact our client prior to the publication of the allegations on Friday 6 July," the lawyer writes.

The lawyer also claimed in the letter that the mother and the young person were estranged.

In response, 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."

Mr Davie said in an email to BBC staff on Sunday that the corporation took the claims about its presenter "incredibly seriously".

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the allegations "were shocking and concerning".

He told journalists the government has been assured the process being undertaken by the BBC "is rigorous and will be swift".

"Given the concerning nature of the allegations it's right they're investigated swiftly and rigorously and it's important we now let that carry on".

The former editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, has said the original story presented in The Sun was "clearly one in which there was public interest" and the BBC had questions to answer, but had become "much more muddled".

He said it was "curious" the person involved was not approached and that their account was not included, he told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight programme

BBC News does not know the identity of the young person and has not spoken directly to them.

It has not seen any of the Sun's body of evidence or the dossier the Sun reported was handed to the corporation by the family over the weekend.

The BBC said on Sunday that a staff member had been suspended but it did not identify him.

The corporation said it was working as fast as possible "to establish the facts in order to properly inform appropriate next steps".

If the presenter obtained sexually explicit images of the young person when they were under 18 years old, that is a matter for investigation as a possible criminal offence. The age of consent is 16, but a person under the age of 18 is not an adult. The law says they cannot consent to taking part in "indecent photographs".

The Metropolitan Police is "assessing" information from the BBC over the allegations made against the presenter but has said there is currently no investigation. Detectives held a virtual meeting with BBC representatives on Monday.

Media lawyer Mark Stephens told BBC Breakfast the investigation has a "long way to go" yet, and "it does appear that even the police don't think that there was an obvious criminal offence having been committed".

"Of course that reduces any public interest in naming the presenter," he said.

In its report on Friday, the Sun claimed that a BBC presenter had paid the individual tens of thousands of pounds for the images, starting when the young person was 17.

The paper also claimed the BBC presenter had made what it called two "panicked calls" to the young person - who is now 20 - after the original story came out.

With stories like this one, BBC News journalists treat the BBC in the same way as any other organisation the news service reports on.

And like with any other organisation, BBC News has to ask BBC management or BBC services for responses and contact the BBC press office for official statements.

Occasionally BBC journalists approach senior managers for unplanned interviews - known as "doorsteps" in the news business.

They sometimes also get offered interviews with management - like this one with Mr Davie over the Gary Lineker row.

And when this happens, they know they will be scrutinised within and outside the BBC over how well they hold their boss to account.

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