A top BBC presenter has been suspended amid allegations he paid a teenager tens of thousands of pounds for explicit images.
The corporation announced the suspension in a statement on Sunday afternoon UK time, but did not name the individual at the heart of the allegations.
The BBC is also in dialogue with the Metropolitan Police about the issue. Deadline understands that the BBC was in touch with police before The Sun published allegations about the unnamed star on Friday.
The British tabloid newspaper reported that the high-profile star paid a teenager more than £35,000 ($45,000) in return for explicit pictures. The exchanges allegedly date back to 2020 when the teenager was aged 17.
It is illegal in the UK “to make, distribute, possess or show any indecent images of anyone aged under 18, even if the content was created with the consent of that young person.”
The BBC has faced serious questions in recent hours about why it did not take action against the mystery presenter sooner.
The mother of the teenager involved told The Sun that she complained to the BBC on May 19, but the presenter continued to host high-profile output until last week.
In its statement, the corporation appeared to address this, saying that the allegations carried by The Sun were of a “different nature” to those reported in May.
In a statement, the BBC said: “The BBC takes any allegations seriously and we have robust internal processes in place to proactively deal with 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 inform appropriate next steps.
“It is important that these matters are handled fairly and with care. We have been clear that if – at any point – new information comes to light or is provided to us, this will be acted upon appropriately and actively followed up.
“The BBC first became aware of a complaint in May. New allegations were put to us on Thursday of a different nature and in addition to our own enquiries we have also been in touch with external authorities, in line with our protocols.
“We can also confirm a male member of staff has been suspended. We expect to be in a position to provide a further update in the coming days as the process continues. The BBC Board will continue to be kept up to date.”
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Jake Kanter
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