A BBC presenter has been suspended for paying a minor for sexually explicit photos. The broadcaster itself is criticized for its slow approach to the matter.
The British public broadcaster is under fire, not for the first time this year. According to the British tabloid The Sun a presenter of the broadcaster has been paying for three years for sexually explicit photos and video traffic with a child, who was seventeen at the start of the facts. In total, he would be about 41,000 euros.
The victim’s mother filed a complaint in May. According to her, her child paid for a crack addiction with that money. In three years, the teen went from a “happy, carefree youngster” to a “ghostly cocaine addict,” she says.
Because the broadcaster did not immediately respond and the perpetrator remained on the screen, the mother went to the tabloid. She wouldn’t have asked for money for that. “All I want is for this man to stop paying my child for sexually explicit photos, and for him to stop funding my child’s drug addiction.”
Suspended
The broadcaster responded yesterday by stating that an internal investigation into the facts, within the correct procedures, is indeed ongoing and that there is cooperation with the police. After new facts ‘of a different kind’ became known last Thursday, the presenter was suspended. He will not be seen on television for the next few days.
Undoubtedly, the broadcaster has been criticized since Friday by several politicians, including Priti Patel. There was also an emergency meeting with Culture Minister Lucy Frazer. Meanwhile, several well-known BBC faces, harassed on social media, have announced via Twitter that it is not them.
For Director General Tim Davie, this is the third storm this year. He previously had to withdraw a resignation from football commentator Gary Lineker after massive protests, and chairman Richard Sharp resigned after suspicions of a conflict of interest. Patel tweeted yesterday that the broadcaster is in danger of becoming a “faceless and insane organisation”.
2023-07-09 16:31:00
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