Good morning.
Whatever else we can say about the BBC presenter allegations – and at the moment, there’s a great deal that remains unknown – it is clear that the story is a lot more complicated than initial reports suggested.
Since Saturday, when the Sun first published allegations that a “household name” had paid thousands of pounds to a 17-year-old in return for sexual photos, the story has dominated headlines, convulsed social media and even drawn in the prime minister, who yesterday called the allegations “very serious and concerning”.
Four days later, the intense scrutiny on the story has merely thrown up more questions.
Did a TV star solicit sexual images of a child, as the Sun reported? Did the BBC brush aside complaints about the presenter’s behaviour from a concerned family member? Or is the Sun’s initial report, as the young person said on Monday through their lawyer, “rubbish”?
Yesterday, the BBC released a full timeline in a bid to address some of the intense criticism it has faced. Their account fills out some of the picture – but still leaves a lot unanswered.
Meanwhile, this morning the presenter is facing a range of new accusations from three other young people he is alleged to have met on dating sites – including a claim from one person that the BBC man broke Covid lockdown rules to meet up with them, and others that he sent threatening or “creepy” messages.
It has led one BBC colleague, Jeremy Vine, to call on the presenter to name himself to stop “yet more vitriol being thrown at perfectly innocent colleagues of his”, and to save the BBC, which Vine said was “on its knees”.
For today’s newsletter, we round up what has happened so far, what the BBC had to say – and what questions remain.
Five big stories
BBC | The BBC annual report has revealed that Gary Lineker is still the corporation’s highest paid presenter. It comes after a year in which he was suspended for criticising the language used by ministers when discussing the government’s asylum policy. Lineker was paid £1.35m, the same amount as last year.
Scotland | A decision by a private company to scrap Glasgow’s only night bus service has prompted an outcry from poverty campaigners, environmentalists and women’s safety advocates, as well as uniting pub and club bosses and politicians in condemnation.
Ukraine war | A former Russian submarine commander accused by Ukraine of deadly strikes on its territory has been shot dead while jogging in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar. Reports said Stanislav Rzhitsky, 42, might have been tracked on the Strava running app, as he regularly followed the same route.
Politics | Jeremy Hunt has told ministers there will be no extra money to give millions of public sector workers an average 6% pay rise, potentially leaving departments facing a difficult choice between raising salaries or cutting frontline services.
US | Leslie Van Houten, who was sentenced to life for participating in the infamous murders by the Charles Manson cult when she was 19, walked free from a California prison on Tuesday after 53 years behind bars.
In depth: ‘A very difficult and complex situation’
The BBC director general, Tim Davie (pictured above), is no stranger to crisis management, but at first glance the latest bomb to land on his desk has the potential to be as damaging as any he has had to handle so far.
A household name is accused of behaviour that lawyers say could amount to soliciting child pornography, an offence that could lead to imprisonment. When the young person’s family complained to the broadcaster, their mother suggested to the Sun that the BBC did not take the allegations seriously enough.
It has led to heated criticism of the broadcaster and, inevitably, wild social media speculation – meaning a torrid few days for fellow presenters subjected to highly defamatory false accusations (“a distressing weekend”, as BBC 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell put it).
On Monday, the situation was turned on its head when the young person concerned flatly denied the Sun’s original story, saying “nothing illegal or inappropriate” had taken place.
And this morning the presenter is facing new allegations. One young person in their early 20s told the BBC on Tuesday they had felt threatened by the male presenter after he approached them anonymously on a dating app. They didn’t meet up, but when the young person threatened to name him publicly, the presenter allegedly sent “abusive, expletive-filled” messages, the person claimed.
In a separate case, the Sun has published allegations from another person that the star, whom they had met on a dating app, broke the third national lockdown in February 2021 to visit them at their flat and gave them money. And a fourth person told the paper the presenter had started a “creepy” Instagram chat with them while they were 17. Both the BBC and the Sun said they had approached the presenter for comment.
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What the BBC says
Whatever the truth of the initial allegations, there is no question, as Davie said yesterday, that this is “a very difficult and complex situation”.
The corporation is juggling serious allegations of misconduct and potential criminality, the duty of care it owes its employees, the law on privacy, and the legitimate public interest, Davie said – a game of four-dimensional chess that limited what the Beeb could say at this stage.
According to the broadcaster, it was first alerted to the allegations when a family member walked into an unspecified BBC building on 18 May. The person in question made a complaint the following day, which was immediately referred to the internal corporate investigations team, which scrutinises such complaints.
For context, Davie told reporters the BBC receives many such complaints – about 250 in a six-month period – and the specialist team tries to verify them before they are escalated.
The BBC has not confirmed what the initial accusations were, though it has said they were “different” to those alleged by the young person’s mother in the Sun. Crucially, however, the BBC said that the allegations it received “did not include an allegation of criminality, but nonetheless merited further investigation”. As a result, the police were not informed.
The family member was emailed on 19 May and there was a single attempt to phone them on 6 June; “this call did not connect”. It was not until 6 July, last Thursday, when the Sun first alerted the BBC of the allegations it was planning to publish, that Davie himself was alerted, and the presenter was spoken to by a senior manager.
Did the presenter deny the allegations, Davie was asked on The World at One? “I’m not going to get into the specific conversations with the presenter,” he replied.
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What questions are there for the BBC?
Despite facing questions since the story broke over whether he should resign, Davie said he believed he had handled the matter “calmly and judiciously” while the BBC had “[made] the right calls”.
However, he acknowledged that there may be lessons to be learned over the internal handling of the complaint – specifically whether an email and a single attempt at a phone call, 18 days later, amounted to enough effort to verify the claims.
As a result, he said, he had asked the BBC’s group chief operating officer to look into its internal protocols and report to the BBC board.
The young person’s family, meanwhile, have stood by their account, according to the tabloid. The alleged victim’s stepfather told the Sun that the BBC were “liars”, because he had told the broadcaster that the alleged payments had been going on since the young person was 17.
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What other questions are there?
The BBC has now paused its internal investigation into the star at the request of the Metropolitan police – who are looking to “scope future work”, Davie said. This careful phrasing, and the fact the Met have not yet launched a formal investigation, mean it is unclear whether they believe any criminal offence has taken place in relation to the first allegation about photographs.
Any potential disciplinary procedure would necessarily come second to that, and could potentially include scrutiny of the new claims.
There may yet be trouble ahead, meanwhile, for some of the many people on social media who wrongly named innocent presenters as being connected with the story. Campbell said he had alerted police, and Jeremy Vine, another who was wrongly named, said he had passed at least one tweet to lawyers.
But as many, including the former Sun editor David Yelland, have argued, the Sun may also have questions to answer. The young person at the heart of the story said on Monday that they had told the tabloid, before publication, that there was no truth in it, and they deny that anything “inappropriate or unlawful” took place; the Sun’s report didn’t include any denial. “If the claims of this young person’s lawyer are true, they indicate that the Sun failed to follow even the most basic journalistic standards in pursuit of this story,” the campaign group Hacked Off said in a statement.
Clearly this story has some way to run yet.
What else we’ve been reading
US presidential elections are hard to follow at the best of times. This time round things are even more convoluted, as it seems that half of the Republican party have thrown their hats in the ring. Osita Nwanevu examines why. Nimo
“It connects me to people and times that would otherwise feel lost,” writes Annie Midori Atherton in an ode to sentimental clutter, for the Atlantic (£). What a welcome read for people like me who have nostalgia-inducing objects – including those from people no longer alive – stored on two continents.
Craille Maguire Gillies, production editor, newslettersLarry Elliott’s analysis on why interest rates are likely to continue rising despite a slowing labour market is a helpful and concise examination of what on earth is going on with the economy. Nimo
“Is this what modern life has come to?” So asks an aghast Zoe Williams of a new soft play centre for grown-ups in north London, which she identifies as a symptom of our “galloping infantilisation”. Craille
Hay fever is often viewed as an irritating but fairly benign nuisance. But for some people the symptoms can be truly disruptive, writes Diyora Shadijanova, who spoke to the unlucky few who can barely function when their seasonal allergies are at their worst. Nimo
Sport
Tennis | In her second quarter-final in as many grand slam tournaments since returning from maternity leave, wildcard Elina Svitolina shocked Centre Court by beating top seed Iga Świątek 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2 in the women’s quarter-finals at Wimbledon. On the other side of the draw, Ons Jabeur set up a “revenge” match against Elena Rybakina after cruising past Petra Kvitova. Novak Djokovic beat Andrey Rublev 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 and heads into a semi-final against Jannik Sinner who defeated Roman Safiullin 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.
Athletics | Caster Semenya’s human rights were violated in the handling of her case by the Swiss legal system, according to the European court of human rights. The runner has been unable to compete since 2019 following the introduction of limits on testosterone levels for female athletes by World Athletics which would have forced her to use medication because of a condition that means her body naturally produces higher levels of testosterone.
Tour de France | Pello Bilbao of Bahrain Victorious won stage 10 to Issoire after outsprinting Georg Zimmermann, racing for Intermarché-Circus-Wanty. The 33-year-old from Guernica was the fastest finisher from the remnants of a breakaway that eventually snuffed out the hopes of the lone attacker, Krists Neilands of Israel-Premier Tech, in the closing moments of the stage. It was Bilbao’s first stage win on Le Tour.
The front pages
The Guardian print edition leads this morning with “No extra cash for pay in the public sector, warns Hunt”. The Daily Mail has an exclusive: “‘Chinese spy’ at the heart of parliament” – it says a man posing as a tourist got into a confidential Commons briefing by Hong Kong dissidents. The splash in the Financial Times is “Microsoft bears down on Activision as judge rebuffs regulator’s challenge”. The Sun has “Shock new developments … BBC star broke lockdown to meet another young stranger” and the Daily Express says “BBC star ‘sent menacing messages’ to second youngster” while the Daily Mirror’s version is “Second youth’s claim: BBC star ‘sent threats and abuse’”. “Dating app user ‘was sent abuse by BBC star’” – that’s the Times while the Daily Telegraph has “BBC sex scandal presenter faces new allegation”. The Metro’s headline for these developments is “BBC star facing fresh claims” under the banner “Second young person bombshell”, and the i’s effort is “BBC presenter accused of sending ‘abusive messages’ to second person”.
Today in Focus
Putin v Prigozhin: is Wagner too valuable to crush?
When Wagner forces turned their guns against Russian forces it led to panic in Moscow. But after the coup was aborted and its leader accused of treachery, it was business as usual for the group’s lucrative Africa operations. Pjotr Sauer and Jason Burke report
Cartoon of the day | Steve Bell
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Jason Arday grew up on a council estate in south London with his parents and three brothers. His childhood was generally happy, surrounded by supportive family — but it was also characterised by the fact that he couldn’t speak, read or write for much of that time. Arday was diagnosed with autism and global developmental delay when he was three, and until he was 11 he communicated through sign language. After thousands of hours of speech therapy, Arday began to speak and by 18 he could read and write.
Despite tough diagnoses growing up, Arday knew he was destined to do something, he says, and in the following decade and a half he had achieved a plethora of accomplishments. He had been a professor at Glasgow and Durham universities; published three books mainly on race and education; and run 30 marathons in 35 days, raising more than £1m for charity. Now, 37 years old, Arday is the youngest Black professor at Cambridge University, joining its faculty of education in March.
His achievements are not just for him, however. Arday has made a point of trying to bring as many people, particularly Black women, along with him and to boost their careers too. “The things that have always had meaning to me are the things I do that serve the greater good, the selfless acts,” he says. “With humility, faith, hope and love, anything is possible.”
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