BBC male staffer suspended after being accused of paying teenager for explicit photos

The BBC has suspended one of its main male presenters after reports emerged that he had allegedly asked a teenager for sexually explicit photos.

The allegations were first reported in a UK tabloid. Sun on Friday. The teen’s mother claimed her son used the alleged £35,000 (about $44,934) received from presenter to finance an addiction to crack cocaine.

“All I want is for this man to stop paying my son for sex photos and to stop financing my son’s drug habit,” she told the publication, adding that the requests for photos began when her son was 17. years.

The staff member has yet to be publicly named, but presenters jeremy vine, rylan-clark and gary linecar turned to their respective Twitter accounts to say that it is not them. nicky campbell he also tweeted that he reported an account that claimed he was the host who requested the photos.

The BBC issued a statement on Sunday, saying it “takes any allegations seriously and we have robust internal processes in place to proactively deal with such allegations.”

He explained that the station had first learned of a complaint in May, but the host remained on the air. Since new accusations of a different nature were shared on Thursday, the broadcast has since been contact the police.

Read the full statement below.

The BBC takes any allegations very seriously and we have robust internal processes in place to proactively address such allegations.

This is a complex and fast-moving set of circumstances and the BBC is working as quickly as possible to establish the facts in order to properly report the appropriate next steps.

It is important that these matters are handled fairly and carefully.

We have made it clear that if, at any time, new information comes to light or is provided to us, appropriate action will be taken and active follow-up will take place.

The BBC first learned of a complaint in May. On Thursday, new complaints of a different nature were presented to us and, in addition to our own inquiries, we have also been in contact with external authorities, in accordance with our protocols.

We can also confirm that a male staff member has been furloughed.

We hope to be in a position to provide a further update in the coming days as the process continues. The BBC Board will continue to keep up to date.”