BBC Presenter Accused of Soliciting Minor for Nude Pictures

The BBC suspended one of its male presenters yesterday after he was accused of spending £35,000 ($44k) buying explicit images from a young boy who spent the money on crack cocaine.  Their interactions allegedly began when the boy was 17 years old, meaning the BBC star may have been commissioning child sexual abuse images, a serious criminal offense.

 The boy's mother told the Sun newspaper her child, now 20, had shown her an online bank statement that had multiple deposits from the BBC presenter: “There were huge sums, hundreds, or thousands of pounds at a time. One time he had sent £5,000 in one lump. The money had been in exchange for sexually explicit photographs of my child.”

The mother said the BBC star requested “performances” from her child, who would “get their bits out” for him before spending the money on drugs. “I blame this BBC man for destroying my child’s life,” she said. “Taking my child’s innocence and handing over the money for crack cocaine that could kill my child.”

The BBC has confirmed the mother’s claim that an initial complaint was made in mid-May and it began investigating. However, the presenter remained on air until this week.  The boy's mother  told the Sun newspaper she saw the BBC presenter “stripped to his underpants for a video call” with her child. She said she went to the press as she felt the BBC was not acting on her allegations: “My child said they had run out of money and then suddenly had this cash. It’s obvious to me the BBC hadn’t spoken to this man between our complaint on May 19 and in June, as they thought he was too important.  We never wanted an investigation. We just wanted the BBC to tell him to stop."

Due to the BBC's lack of timely action, social media has been flooded with false allegations against other prominent highly-paid male BBC presenters. Gary Lineker, Jeremy Vine and Nicky Campbell are among the BBC presenters who have issued statements distancing themselves from the allegations.

In the past year alone there have been allegations of a failure to deal with allegations of sexual assault against the former presenter Tim Westwood, and the resignation of the BBC chair Richard Sharp over his failure to disclose his links to the former prime minister Boris Johnson.  Questions are also being asked why the BBC waited to suspend the presenter until the Sun broke the story, whether he received any special treatment, and whether the BBC’s internal investigation was up to scratch.