Four allegations made by young people about BBC presenter at centre of scandal
There are allegations involving four young people against an unnamed BBC presenter at the centre of a sex photo scandal.
Fresh claims have surfaced over the course of Tuesday, with the number of people who have now come forward rising to four.
The Sun originally published claims by a concerned youth’s parents who said a household name had paid their vulnerable child thousands of pounds for explicit pictures.
Since then, a lawyer for the young person said this was ‘rubbish’ and in the days since, three other young people have come forward.
Other BBC journalists involving Jeremy Vine have come forward saying the star should come clean and face the music.
Here is a brief overview of the claims made against the BBC star.
You can see the latest updates in our live blog.
1. ‘Vulnerable’ teenager used BBC presenter’s cash to fund crack cocaine addiction, parents said
On Saturday, July 8, The Sun published an anonymous interview with the mother and stepfather of an apparently vulnerable youth who had been exchanging messages with an unnamed BBC presenter.
They claimed the presenter had paid £35,000 to their child over a three-year period.
Allegations date back to 2020 when the young person was 17 – and they reportedly used the money to fund a crack cocaine habit.
They are now 20 years old and on Monday, their lawyer said ‘nothing inappropriate’ happened and branded the claims as ‘rubbish’.
But their parents said they stood by their account, that the presenter had ‘got into their head’ – and also questioned how their child could afford to hire a lawyer.
2. Young person ‘felt threatened’ by the presenter at centre of scandal
A second person, said to be in their early 20s then came forward with a complaint about the presenter and said they felt threatened by him.
They were allegedly contacted anonymously by the man on a dating app and pressured to meet up – but they never did.
At the time they did not know who he was.
When the person suggested on social media that they might name the presenter, they were sent expletive-filled, abusive messages, according to the BBC.
The broadcaster said it had seen ‘a number of threatening messages’ and had verified they had been sent from a phone number belonging to the presenter.
BBC News said it had contacted the unnamed star via his lawyer but had received no response to these allegations.
The Beeb said it had ‘seen and verified’ the chat.
3. BBC presenter ‘broke Covid lockdown rules’ to meet with separate young person
A third young person came forward to claim in The Sun that the BBC presenter allegedly broke lockdown rules to meet with him.
A 23-year-old claimed the celebrity broke lockdown rules to meet them during the Covid-19 pandemic in February 2021.
It was claimed the 23-year-old travelled across London to another county to meet them at their flat after first meeting on a dating site the previous year.
It was also claimed that on the day of the alleged hour-long meeting, during which the unnamed presenter and the 23-year-old ‘just chatted’, the presenter said a gift of £250 to a PayPal account.
The Sun claims two other payments of £200 and £250 were made afterwards.
The person said: ‘I was quite shocked that he broke the rules to come and meet me because of who he is. I was just a random person online.’
4. Unnamed presenter had conversation ‘initiated on Instagram’ with 17-year-old in October 2018
A fourth young person, who is now 22, claims they were sent messages containing love heart emojis and kisses by the presenter.
The conversation allegedly started on Instagram in October 2018 when they were 17.
The unnamed person branded the messages ‘creepy’, ‘looking back now’.
They said they were ‘taken aback’ by the sending of a love heart emoji.