The TalkTV presenter has been outspoken about the BBC (Picture: Reuters/Rex/BBC)
Piers Morgan has criticised the BBC for its ‘extensive’ coverage of Phillip Schofield’s exit from ITV, as the controversy over an unnamed presenter at the broadcaster continues.
More bombshell revelations have emerged regarding the unidentified individual at the centre of the controversy, with a second young person telling the broadcaster that they felt threatened by the presenter.
Follow the latest news on the BBC presenter scandal on Metro.co.uk’s live blog.
It’s been reported that the person, who is in the early 20s, was initially contacted anonymously by the male presenter on a dating app, before the BBC star revealed their identity, and allegedly went on to send ‘threatening messages’.
It was recently alleged that the suspended male presenter paid a different young person, now 20, more than £35,000 from when they were 17 years old for sexually explicit images.
While the young person’s lawyer said that the claims were ‘rubbish’, their parents said that they stood by the allegations that they’d had published in The Sun.
On Tuesday July 11, BBC director-general Tim Davie admitted that he hadn’t yet spoken to the accused presenter, saying on Radio 4’s World At One programme: ‘Personally, no. He has been spoken to by a senior manager.’
More information regarding the allegations are coming to light (Piicture: Twitter/@piersmorgan)
On Tuesday afternoon, The Sun published an article on Twitter with a tweet that read: ‘BBC boss admits star wasn’t spoken to for seven weeks after “serious” claim made.’
In response, TalkTV presenter Morgan quote-tweeted the post and wrote: ‘And this was all while the same BBC was reporting extensively on the Schofield scandal at ITV.
Schofield quit his position at This Morning amid speculation of a ‘fallout’ with his co-star and friend Holly Willoughby.
He later admitted that he had lied about having an affair with a younger male runner on the show, and keeping the relationship secret from his family, friends and colleagues, including Willoughby.
On Tuesday, BBC boss Davie was asked about a complaint that was made in May this year about the unnamed presenter working for the broadcaster before the claims that were recently published by The Sun.
The BBC boss has been questioned over the handling of the controversy (Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images)
He stated in response: ‘The process is that we did receive a call as you can see in the timeline on May 19 that was taken by Audience Services Team who then make a summary of the call and put it to our highly experienced Corporate Investigations team.
‘On the basis of the information they had at that point, it did not include an allegation of criminality, but nonetheless was very serious and they wanted to follow it up, and you can see the attempts to follow it up on the timeline. It was serious but the key was their assessment was it did not include an allegation of criminality.’
He continued: ‘When The Sun made new allegations on July 6 they were different to the matters considered by BBC Corporate Investigations and those new allegations clearly related to potential criminal activity, criminality, that in a nutshell is the difference.’
On Monday night’s Piers Morgan Uncensored, the TV personality questioned the ‘trust’ that people may have in the BBC amid the allegations coming to light.
‘Whatever the truth about these allegations, and we do need to get to the truth very quickly, BBC leaders have managed to put another nail In the coffin of our trust in the BBC,’ he said to the camera.
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The TalkTV presenter has been outspoken about the BBC.
