Presenter photo claims are clear crisis for BBC

The BBC is coming under growing pressure after one of its top presenters was accused of paying a teenager for sexually explicit photographs, beginning when they were 17.

The allegations, first reported by the Sun, are that the unnamed star paid tens of thousands of pounds to the young person over three years.

As the star faces serious questions about their conduct, so does the organisation itself.

This is a very clear crisis for the BBC. There are already accusations that since May, when it's claimed the family first complained, it hadn't handled the investigation into the unnamed presenter properly.

Who carried it out? How did they try and contact the family who complained?

What steps did they take to question the presenter and to investigate further?

Who in the BBC knew about the accusations?

Now we still don't know whether the presenter has or hasn't been formally suspended. The BBC press office won't tell us. All we know is that he won't be on air in the near future.

If the BBC don't name him is that fair to the other BBC presenters who have found themselves in the middle of a social media frenzy being wrongly and unfairly accused?

The BBC put out a statement defending its response to the complaint on Friday evening, but since then there has been nothing new.

But BBC News programmes and its website, and most Sunday newspapers, are leading on this story. So that doesn't seem like a strategy that can hold.

The pressure will be on the BBC to show they are taking action.

MPs are now scrutinising and suggesting the response hasn't been handled properly. So the political heat is on and will only increase - the Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer has spoken to Director General Tim Davie.

For him, this represents another high-profile crisis to grapple with this year alone.

In March, he was embroiled in an impartiality row with Gary Lineker and in April, Richard Sharp resigned as BBC chairman after a report into his appointment found he had "failed to disclose potential perceived conflicts of interest", including his involvement in the facilitation of an £800,000 loan for then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Now in July, Mr Davie has to get a grip on another scandal that has the potential to severely dent the Corporation's reputation.