A BBC newscaster accused of paying an underage girl for explicit pictures was suspended Sunday.
The male presenter was not named by the network or by British tabloids, which initially reported the allegations and described the newscaster as “a familiar face who is known to millions.”
The BBC star and the teenage girl began communicating in 2020, when the girl was just 17 years old, according to the girl’s mother.
Over the course of three years, the man paid the girl more than $40,000 for explicit pictures and suggestive videos, the mother said. She said her daughter used the money to fund a crack cocaine habit that “could kill my child.”
The age of consent is 16 in the U.K., but it remains a crime to make or possess indecent images of anyone under 18. The girl’s mother filed a complaint with the BBC in May, but the network allegedly took no action, so she reached out to the press.
In a statement released Sunday, the BBC admitted it “first became aware of a complaint in May.” However, the public broadcaster said it only learned more about the case on Thursday and took the accused pervert off the air.
“In addition to our own enquiries we have also been in touch with external authorities, in line with our protocols,” the network said.
As the allegations spread on social media over the weekend, various BBC stars denied their involvement, including Rylan Clark, Jeremy Vine, Nicky Campbell and Gary Lineker.
“Hate to disappoint the haters but it’s not me,” wrote Lineker, whose own suspension and reinstatement controversy roiled the BBC in March after Lineker publicly criticized the British government’s immigration policy. The BBC briefly suspended the former soccer star for his comments, then reinstated him after massive pushback across the British media landscape.