By Chi Chi Izundu and Ruth Evans
UK Perception
Image source, SOPA Pictures / Getty Pictures
An just inquiry led by a barrister is to be launched by the BBC into what it knew about the conduct of aged Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood.
The corporation previously acknowledged six complaints about bullying and sexual misconduct, which the DJ denies.
Fair director Sir Nicholas Serota acknowledged sleek allegations continue to emerge.
He acknowledged there could also were cases when the corporation must peaceable recognize performed more to analyze the complaints.
The just inquiry is expected to remaining six months and the BBC wants to consist of Westwood’s diverse employers, MTV and World – proprietor of Capital Xtra, which the DJ joined after leaving the BBC.
Led by Gemma White QC, who previously investigated bullying within the Condominium of Commons, this could perhaps additionally look whether concerns about Westwood’s behaviour were a part in his departure from the BBC in 2013.
The BBC acknowledged it could well movement any relevant knowledge to the Metropolitan Police.
On Thursday, the Met acknowledged it used to be investigating a man over four alleged sexual offences in 1982, 1985, 2010 and 2016.
After receiving the outcomes of an internal overview, Sir Nicholas acknowledged: “Novel allegations and complications are rising as time passes and more of us are ready to achieve help forward. That’s the reason the work must continue.”
He added: “In light of the BBC’s internal overview, I deem that there could also were cases within the past when the BBC must peaceable recognize further explored complications that were being raised.”
Director customary Tim Davie at the starting place acknowledged in April the BBC had “no proof of complaints” about Westwood – a presenter for 19 years on Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra – after BBC Recordsdata and the Guardian revealed allegations of predatory sexual behaviour.
Nevertheless after BBC Recordsdata challenged the corporation’s response to a Freedom of Recordsdata (FOI) ask made in November 2021, it later acknowledged the six complaints – one among which used to be serious enough to were referred to the police.
The BBC acknowledged the director customary’s initial response had space out the living as he understood it at the time, and sooner than the internal document Mr Davie acknowledged he wished to “be sure the whole lot is flushed out” and “any cases are checked out”.
“Limitations within most recent BBC systems” which did no longer quilt all archived knowledge intended the allegations were no longer revealed within the starting place, the internal overview came upon.
The overview examined allegations reported after 2012, within the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, and came upon two claims of sexual misconduct and two complaints about Westwood’s behaviour within the office.
Amongst these used to be an allegation that in 2007 Westwood made sexual remarks to a 15-yr-old girl at a non-BBC tournament. The incident used to be referred to police, but in 2013 they acknowledged they would eliminate no further action.
After BBC Recordsdata and the Guardian printed allegations by seven ladies folk in April, the BBC acknowledged it obtained further allegations, in conjunction with a claim of sexual assault at a BBC tournament within the mid-2000s and two allegations of sexual assault from the mid-1980s sooner than Westwood’s time at the broadcaster.
Yet every other girl described “a consensual sexual discover” with Westwood within the mid-2000s which “she now considers to were contaminated”.
The sleek just inquiry would be the first the BBC has launched since 2021’s investigation by Lord Dyson into the manner Martin Bashir obtained his interview with Princess Diana in 1995.
Image caption, Tim Westwood in 2007
Westwood, who hosted the UK’s first nationally broadcast hip-hop existing from 1994 unless leaving the BBC in 2013, used to be accused by seven ladies folk of abusing his living within the song industry to exploit them within the April investigation by BBC Recordsdata and the Guardian.
About a of the ladies folk labored within the industry and feared repercussions from difficult this kind of smartly-known resolve over the incidents, which they acknowledged took living between 1992 and 2017.
Now 64, the DJ has strongly denied the allegations. In a assertion in April, Westwood’s spokesperson acknowledged there had never been any complaints against him of contaminated behaviour as described within the ladies folk’s claims, and no investigation by the police, his employer or “any diverse authority”.
Following the initial revelations, an additional 10 ladies folk came forward to BBC Recordsdata and the Guardian with allegations of unexpected and unwanted sexual touching, sexual misconduct and – in a single case – sex with a 14-yr-old.
An 18th girl has additionally spoken to BBC Recordsdata, alleging unexpected and unwanted sexual touching and sexual misconduct by Westwood when she believed she used to be meeting him to focus on work expertise at Radio 1Xtra.
She alleges that Westwood instead drove her to a flat in west London, the place he had sex with her. The DJ, who additionally introduced the MTV existing Pimp My Lope UK from 2005 to 2007, told her that the property used to be the place he filmed for the existing.
A spokesperson for MTV acknowledged the channel used to be no longer attentive to any complaints having been made at the time of the existing or since, but it without a doubt used to be conducting an internal overview for “further reassurance”. “We eliminate this very critically,” MTV acknowledged in a assertion.
Westwood has been approached for observation.
The DJ joined Capital Xtra in 2013 after leaving the BBC, but stepped down from the existing “unless further scrutinize” in April when the allegations against him were printed.
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