Huw Edwards scandal explained as BBC says sorry to family of teen over complaint
Huw Edwards was suspended from the BBC last July after claims he'd paid a teen for sexually explicit photos.
The BBC has now apologised to the teen's family for the way the complaint was handled and said that safeguards need to be "enhanced" in order to allow complaints to be "escalated and managed" more effectively going forward. They apologised for not escalating the complaint to senior management more quickly.
Leigh Tavaziva, the BBC Group Chief Operating Officer said: "Although our existing processes and systems are, on the whole, working effectively, this review shows that we need to join them up better to ensure no matter how a non-editorial complaint comes into the BBC it is escalated swiftly, when needed, and dealt with by the right people.
"Where the review identifies process improvements we accept those in full, and we are delivering on an action plan with a number of enhancements already in place. The report identifies specific process shortcomings in the presenter case. The initial complaint in this case was not escalated quickly enough to senior management and we have apologised to the complainant for this."
Huw was suspended from the BBC last July (BBC)The BBC was the subject of a media frenzy last year when The Sun claimed that a huge presenter had allegedly paid the teenager more than £35,000 for inappropriate photos over a three-year period. It emerged that a family member had made an in-person complaint about the behaviour of a BBC presenter in May 2023.
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The complainant is said to have contacted the BBC, with the details then referred to the Corporate Investigations team. The Corporate Investigations team later emailed the complainant but received no reply. In July, The Sun informed the BBC press office about the claims and the broadcaster launched an "incident management group" of top executives.
Later that month, the BBC made contact with the police over the allegations and the complainant sent the broadcaster "materials related to the complaint". The presenter was then suspended before the BBC met with the police for the first time.
A young person claimed through a lawyer that the claims were "rubbish". Via a legal letter given to the BBC, the teenager involved in the complaint insisted nothing "unlawful" or "inappropriate" had happened with the presenter. Days later new allegations emerged of the same presenter sending threatening messages to a second young person. The star in question was then accused of breaking Covid lockdown rules to meet a 23-year-old from a dating site and, subsequently, a fourth young person claims the star sent them "creepy" messages on Instagram.
Tim Davie was forced to defend the delay in speaking to the BBC presenter and a day later on July 12 the police say they are "taking no further action". On the same day, Huw Edwards is revealed to be the BBC presenter at the centre of the scandal by his wife.
The 62-year-old newsreader's wife Vicky Flind revealed in a statement that the father-of-five was receiving in-patient care after suffering a "serious episode". She said: "I am doing this primarily out of concern for his mental well-being and to protect our children," before adding that he would remain in hospital "for the foreseeable future". Vicky, who also works in TV, said Huw would respond to the allegations when he had recovered.
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