A BBC presenter who is at the centre of allegations that he paid a teenager for explicit images that allegedly appeared in his underwear on a video call, The Sun reported.
According to the newspaper, the unnamed BBC star has been accused of paying a teenager more than £35,000 (€40,000) in exchange for sexual images, reports Breaking News.
Neither the person nor the teenager, who is believed to have been 17 when the payments began, have been identified.
The young man’s mother told The Sun that she saw a photo of the presenter on her son’s phone of him “sitting on a sofa in his house in his underwear” and she said she was told it was “a picture from some kind of video call”, reports Breaking News.
On the News at Ten presented by Clive Myrie, special correspondent Lucy Manning said: “I think this is very serious for the BBC, let’s make no bones about this. The understanding is the presenter isn’t due on air in the near future, but we haven’t been told, and we have asked, we haven’t been told by the BBC whether there has or hasn’t been a formal suspension. The BBC will need to answer if the investigation should have happened sooner, if it should have been more thorough, and if it’s fair to other presenters unconnected to this that their names are now sort of in the headlines,” reports Breaking News.
On Saturday, amid speculation on social media, several BBC stars tweeted that they were not the presenter at the center of The Sun’s story.
Rylan Clark tweeted: “Not sure why my name’s floating about but re that story in the Sun – that ain’t me babe. I’m currently filming a show in Italy for the BBC, so take my name out ya mouths,” reports Breaking News.
Jeremy Vine tweeted: “Just to say I’m very much looking forward to hosting my radio show on Monday — whoever the ‘BBC Presenter’ in the news is, I have the same message for you as Rylan did earlier: it certainly ain’t me,” reports Breaking News.
Gary Lineker tweeted: “Hate to disappoint the haters but it’s not me,” reports Breaking News.
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