BBC presenter row: BBC ‘pauses’ its inquiry into suspended star as police investigate

The teenager at the centre of the BBC controversy has said nothing inappropriate or unlawful happened with the unnamed male presenter and that the allegations were “rubbish”, their lawyer has said in a letter to the BBC.

“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 writes in the letter, the BBC reports.

The BBC has said it has paused its investigations into the allegations about its presenter after a meeting with the Metropolitan Police chiefs on Sunday.

The corporation said it had been asked to put the matter on hold while Scotland Yard “scope” future work on the matter.

BBC director-general Tim Davie told reporters that the broadcaster had “not been given a timescale” by police for their inquiries.

Mr Davie also said that if any further information came to light in the meantime, it would be passed onto the police.

The BBC director-general is due to appear at noon to deliver the corporation’s annual report, which usually details their highest-paying presenters.

Tim Davie will face questions from journalists for the first time since the BBC suspended an unnamed male presenter who has been accused of paying a teenager for explicit photos

Rishi Sunak has declined to comment on reports some MPs could be considering naming under the protection of parliamentary privilege the BBC presenter accused of paying for explicit images.

On his trip to the Nato summit in Lithuania, the Prime Minister said: “We have an existing set of laws that govern free speech and privacy.

“I think it’s important that the BBC conducts this investigation quickly and rigorously given the concerning and serious nature of the allegations.”

He said the Government “is confident the BBC is investigating this both rigorously and rapidly” and that this is “the right course of action”.

Rishi Sunak has said he was “shocked” at the allegations against a top BBC presenter.

The prime minister said he had not been told who the claims were about, and said the government had been assured that the issue was being handled swiftly by the BBC.

The young person at the centre of the controversy said nothing inappropriate or unlawful happened with the unnamed presenter, however their mother reportedly stands by the claims made in The Sun newspaper, which reported he paid a young person tens of thousands of pounds for explicit images.

On his way to the NATO summit in Lithuania, Mr Sunak said: “They were shocking and concerning allegations, of course they were”.

Asked if he had been told the name of the star at the centre of the claims, he said: “No”.

Mr Sunak said the culture secretary Lucy Frazer has talked with the director general of the BBC on Sunday for reassurance that the process is “rigorous and will be swift”. He added it was important to let that process “carry on”.

Former culture secretary David Mellor called on the government to urge the Sun and the BBC to name the presenter accused of paying a teenager for sexual images.

Mr Mellor said the BBC should “breathe out” and identify the unnamed employee, allowing him to defend himself publicly as so many people already know who he is.

Mr Mellor told Times Radio: “It’s now got to the point where it’s quite damaging that so many people know but a lot of people don’t. Information should be open to all. And I think that the BBC should just breathe out.”

He said the BBC should “of course” name the presenter. And Mr Mellor said: “The government has got to maintain the credibility of a state publicly funded broadcasting organisation, it should say to them, as it should say to The Sun, publish and be damned. Let’s have it out there. Why hasn’t The Sun published any of this?

“The public has a right to know this has dragged on for long enough. They’ve made a perfectly legitimate effort to protect a senior and valued employee, but it’s gone beyond that.”

A high-profile BBC presenter has been accused of paying a teenager more than £35,000 for explicit pictures.

Once the allegations went public, the now-suspended star said, “what have you done?” in an effort to try and “stop the investigation”, it has been claimed.

It came afterThe Sun reported last week how the star allegedly appeared in his underwear in a video call and began paying the person for explicit content when the complainant was 17.

Oliver Pritchard-Jones has more.

The family of the teenager reportedly complained to the BBC in May but the broadcaster said that “new allegations were put to us on Thursday of a different nature”, according to the Sun.

Media lawyer Mark Stephens has shed some light on the privacy issues surrounding this case.

In an interview with BBC Breakfast, he said: “The presenter is entitled to privacy.”

Stephens says that the judge said from that case onwards “if someone was a suspect but there was no investigation, no charge, then they had a reasonable expectation of privacy”.

He adds that the “rationale for that is quite sensible” because no-one has all the facts at that early stage.