The BBC director-general Tim Davie is set to face the media questions about the BBC presenter row in a scheduled appearance on Tuesday.
The suspension of the unnamed presenter is likely to dominate the briefing on the BBC’s annual performance and is set to reveal how much its biggest stars are paid.
Reports have been made that the unnamed presenter had allegedly paid a teenager for sexually explicit photos.
A lawyer representing the young person later said the claim – made by their parents – was “rubbish”.
The lawyer said the young person had sent a denial to the Sun Newspaper about the allegations made by their mother before the newspaper published the story on Friday. This is a result of the mother’s claims, The Sun Newspaper says.
The lawyer said the young person had sent a message to the paper on Friday which was sent on Monday to BBC said the statement made by the mother was totally wrong and had no truth to it.
The lawyer wrote:
“For the avoidance of doubt, nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place between our client and the BBC personality and the allegations reported in the Sun newspaper are rubbish”.
The lawyer
The lawyer added:
“Nobody from the Sun newspaper appears to have made any attempt to contact our client prior to the publication of the allegations on Friday 7 July”.
The lawyer
The lawyer also claimed in the letter that the mother and the young person were estranged.
In response, the Sun said:
“We have reported a story about two very concerned parents who made a complaint to the BBC about the behavior of a presenter and the welfare of their child.
“Their complaint was not acted upon by the BBC. We have seen evidence that supports their concerns. It’s now for the BBC to properly investigate”.
The Sun Newspaper
Parents’ allegations still hold
On Monday evening after BBC News disclosed the contents of the young person’s legal letter, The Sun published a new story.
The mother and stepfather who made the claims said they stood by their allegations.
The family alleged:
“No one from the BBC rang them for a proper interview after the initial complaint”.
Family’s statement
But in a new interview with the Sun, the young person’s step-father is quoted as saying allegations were originally put to the BBC “for an hour”.
The director-general, Mr. Davie said in an email to BBC staff on Sunday that the corporation took the claims about its presenter “incredibly seriously”.
The former editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, said the original story presented in The Sun was “clearly one in which there was public interest” and that the BBC had questions to answer.
He told that as the story developed, it had become much more confusing.
Rusbridger added:
“It’s curious that the child themselves wasn’t approached, or if it’s true that they contacted The Sun, that their version of events wasn’t included”.
Alan Rusbridger
The corporation said it was working as fast as possible “to establish the facts in order to properly inform appropriate next steps”, although, they do not know the identity of the young person and haven’t spoken directly to them.
The Sun claimed in its report on Friday that a BBC, presenter starting when the young person was 17, had paid the individual tens of thousands of pounds for the images.
The paper also claimed the BBC presenter had made what it called two “panicked calls” to the young person – who is now 20 – after the original story came out.
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