BBC presenter allegations: What is ‘household name’ accused of - is it illegal, could he go to jail?

It’s been a turbulent few days for the BBC, following the suspension of one of its presenters over allegations of potential wrongdoing.

The BBC has not yet named the presenter they have suspended. That has lead to massive speculation and forced some of the broadcaster’s top talent, among them Gary Lineker, Nicky Campbell, Jeremy Vine, and Rylan Clark, to distance themselves from the allegations.

BBC Director-General Tim Davie appeared on Radio 4 today, where he said that the scandal was clearly damaging for the broadcaster, but maintained that he was balancing duty of care, privacy and the seriousness of the allegation.

Social media has erupted with speculation over the identity of the suspended presenter, but as yet he remains unnamed, and the accusations against him have not been proven.

What is the BBC presenter accused of?

It’s important to note that, as far as we know, the unnamed BBC presenter who was suspended last week, has not been charged with any crime.

Complaints were made against a BBC presenter on 18 May 2023, and on 6 July the The Sun contacted the BBC with more allegations that it was determined had come from the same family.

The crux of the allegation is that a BBC presenter paid a young person in excess of £35,000 over a period of three years for explicit photos of them. It is also alleged that the young person was 17 years old when this first happened and is now 20. 

Further claims made by the mother of the 20 year old are that she (the mother) saw a screenshot of the presenter wearing only his boxers, sitting on a sofa in his home.

The mother alleges that the presenter made phone calls to her child during which he told them to stop calling him. The mother has also claimed that the money paid was used by her child to fund their addiction to crack cocaine.

A second young person has claimed they felt threatened by messages they received from the presenter, the BBC has reported. The second person - in their early 20s - reportedly met the presenter on a dating app before their conversations moved to other platforms.

The presenter then revealed his identity and asked the young person not to tell anyone. When the young person later posted online alluding to having had contact with a BBC presenter, they claimed the presenter concerned then sent a number of “threatening messages”. The BBC said it had verified the messages came from the presenter's phone, although neither he nor his solicitors responded to requests for comment.

Is the BBC presenter accused of a crime?

Again, the presenter has not been charged with anything - in a meeting with the BBC on 10 July, the Met Police asked the broadcaster to pause its investigation whilst the force establishes whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed.

If the allegations are true - and we have seen no evidence so far that that is the case - then the presenter could have committed a crime.

Although the age of consent for sexual intercourse in the UK is 16, but it is illegal to send an explicit image of yourself or someone else to another person if you are younger than 18.

If the presenter solicited explicit images of the young person, and if they were under 18 years of age at the time that these images were sent, then the presenter could have committed a crime by being in possession of child sexual abuse images.

This is a serious crime which carries a minimum sentence of six months in prison, and a maximum sentence of five years.

Additionally, the person who sent the images may have also committed a crime, as they would be producing and distributing indecent images of children, even if they are the person featured in the images - an arrest in these circumstances would be unlikely.

If the photos were exchanged after the person who sent them turned 18, then it may be the case that no crime was committed. In such circumstances, if both adults consented to the exchange of photographs, then it is unlikely to have constituted an illegal act.

However, in the context of the allegations against the presenter - even if the majority of photos were sent when the young person was aged 18 and over, if just one explicit photo was sent when the person was younger than 18, a crime will have been committed.

In terms of the second allegation, the person - who was over 18 - said felt “threatened” by the messages and “remain scared”. This could potentially be classed under the malicious communications act, if it was construed as a message "which is indecent or grossly offensive or a threat". However as the messages have not been made public it is hard to judge.