London: A BBC news presenter allegedly paid thousands of dollars to a teenager in exchange of nude photographs. The teenager used that money to purchase drugs, leading to cocaine addiction, reported The Sun.
A male news presenter paid the youngster $45,000 in 2020, when the youth was 17.
Neither the presenter nor the youth has been identified thus far.
However, several well-known BBC presenters clarified that it wasn’t them after speculations started on social media.
The victim’s mother said that she had complained to the BBC about the issue in May.
However, the victim’s family got increasingly more frustrated as the presenter remained on-air even a month after the complaint.
The broadcaster then took the presenter off-air, though there is no clarity on whether the person has been suspended.
“We treat any allegation very seriously and we have processes in place to proactively deal with them… If, at any point, new information comes to light or is provided — including via newspapers — this will be acted upon appropriately, in line with internal processes,” BBC said in a statement.
The mother revealed how her child turned from a ‘happy-go-lucky’ individual to a ‘ghost-like crack addict’ within three years of the incident.
British politicians called on the publicly-funded national broadcaster to investigate the claims.
