Chronology of the BBC presenter scandal in the form of four claims against a famous name

The BBC is facing increased pressure after new claims emerged about an unnamed presenter who faced allegations of being paid for sexually explicit images.

On the front page of The Sun on Wednesday, the newspaper reported that the 23-year-old said the BBC presenter broke lockdown rules to comply with the February 2021 pandemic.

Separately, BBC News reported on Tuesday that a man in his 20s claimed an unnamed man had been sending them threatening messages.

They look separate for the young man, who The Sun claims was paid around £35,000 over three years, starting at the age of 17, to portray a leading sexist character who was rejected by the BBC.

Below we show a timeline of the story’s development over the past week.

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May 19

The family of the young man, who was 17 when the presenter allegedly started the payments in 2020, complained to the BBC and were disappointed the presenter stayed on air. They reportedly asked the broadcaster to stop the man “sending cash”.

July 6

The BBC said it had become aware of new allegations against the presenter.

The statement said: “On Thursday, new allegations of a different nature were brought to our attention and in addition to our own enquiries, we also contacted external authorities in accordance with our protocols.”

July 7

The Sun is publishing an exclusive report that a BBC presenter has been accused of paying £35,000 for sexually explicit content. The young man’s legal representative told the Sun that evening there was “no truth to that”.

The BBC responded to the article with a statement saying: “We take any allegations very seriously and have processes in place to deal with them proactively.”

July 8

BBC presenters have decided to publicly clear their names – including Gary Lineker, Jeremy Vine, Rylan Clarke and Nicky Campbell.

July 9

The BBC said in a statement that it had suspended the male presenter from all duties and had referred the allegations to the Metropolitan Police. The Sun reported that after publishing the exclusive, the presenter allegedly called the young man twice and asked him to call his mother to “stop the investigation”.

July 10

The Metropolitan Police said they were investigating further to see if any crime had been committed after the BBC met with detectives in the early hours of the morning.

The force asked the BBC to suspend its investigation into the allegations while it considered future work. The young man’s lawyer called the claims in the “inappropriate article” “nonsense”.

In the letter, reported by BBC News At Six, the young man said through a lawyer: “For the avoidance of doubt, nothing inappropriate or illegal occurred between our client and the BBC personality and the allegations in the Sun newspaper are ‘rubbish’.” “.

July 11

The BBC said a second person felt threatened by messages they allegedly received from the presenter. According to the BBC, the man, aged in his 20s, met the presenter on a dating app before their conversations moved to other platforms.

The presenter then revealed his identity and asked the young man not to tell anyone. The young man later posted online hinting that he had been in contact with the BBC presenter and hinting that they might name him.

The presenter then sent a series of “threatening messages”, which the BBC said it had seen and confirmed came from a phone number belonging to the presenter. The BBC said the young man felt “threatened” by the messages and “remains terrified”.

BBC News said it had contacted the presenter through his lawyer but had not heard back about the allegations.

Separately, The sun reported on Tuesday that the 17-year-old claimed they were following the star on Instagram when he messaged them using love hearts and kisses.

The teenager told the newspaper: “Looking back it seems awful because he was texting me when I was still at school.

“At the time I had no reason to think it was anything more than that.”

The Sun said it was handing over its dossier to BBC investigators.

July 12

The sunA new report claims reports seen by the newspaper suggest the presenter traveled from London to another county to meet the 23-year-old at their flat in February 2021 while strict coronavirus lockdown rules, including stay-at-home orders, were in place. and mixing only between household bubbles.

The young man, who claims he met the presenter on a dating website, said the man also gave them more than £600 in three payments, which the newspaper said was also evidence of the reports.

They told The sun: “The BBC informed the nation of the rules – when their star, who was part of the establishment, was happy to break them.”The sun said they had approached the BBC and the presenter for comment and would pass the evidence on to the BBC’s investigative team.