‘Stop it’: Richard Bacon hits out at Jeremy Vine over BBC presenter scandal

Richard Bacon has told fellow BBC star Jeremy Vine to stop feeding calls for the unnamed presenter at the centre of the current scandal to come forward publicly.

Vine is one of several celebrities –including Nicky Campbell, Gary Lineker and Rylan Clark – who have publicly stated they are not the presenter in question, since the allegations were first made public.

On Tuesday evening, following new allegations, Vine joined Piers Morgan in suggesting the anonymous presenter – who has been suspended by the BBC – should make himself known.

According to The Sun, the presenter allegedly paid £35,000 to a young person they had been in contact with – from the age of 17 – for sexual images.

The young person at the centre of the controversy said on Monday via a lawyer that nothing inappropriate or unlawful happened with the unnamed presenter, according to the BBC.

However, their mother told The Sun they stand by the claims and a spokesperson for The Sun said it is “now for the BBC to properly investigate”.

It is the latest in a string of new developments of a scandal that has raised questions over whether the BBC reacted quickly enough to complaints first raised in May.

Yahoo News breaks down the fresh claims to emerge about the scandal:

Richard Bacon criticises Vine

On Wednesday, Vine, who has publicly stated he is not the presenter in question, said on Twitter he is beginning to believe the unnamed man “should now come forward publicly” because the new allegations “will result in yet more vitriol being thrown at perfectly innocent colleagues”.

“I’m starting to think the BBC Presenter involved in the scandal should now come forward publicly,” Vine wrote on Twitter.

“These new allegations will result in yet more vitriol being thrown at perfectly innocent colleagues of his.

“And the BBC, which I’m sure he loves, is on its knees with this. But it is his decision and his alone.”

Talk TV host Morgan had previously said the unnamed presenter should come forward “for the good of his colleagues, the BBC and himself”.

However, fellow presenter Bacon urged Vine to stop, tweeting: "Stop it. You’re more emotionally intelligent than this. We don’t know the complexities of what his family are going through. Or what dark thoughts are running through his head. Irrespective of what he’s done wrong. You can walk off people wrongly guessing it’s you for 5 minutes."

Speaking on his Channel 5 show on Wedensday, Vine stood by his call, saying: “It’s (the presenter’s) decision but he needs to come forward now, I think. I know his survival instinct has kicked in and I know he saw what happened to Phillip Schofield, but my God, look at the damage to the BBC, look at the damage to his friends, to those falsely accused – and the longer he leaves it the worse it will be for him.”

Vine's comments were also criticised by former BBC presenter Jon Sopel and Susannah Reid, also a former BBC presenter, who said: “Now we have a very high-profile presenter, Jeremy Vine, putting pressure on the unnamed presenter to come forward, which I think is a strange move for another presenter.”

Presenter ‘broke lockdown rules’

The Sun’s new report claims messages seen by the paper suggest the presenter travelled from London to a different county to meet a 23-year-old man at their flat in February 2021, when strict coronavirus lockdown rules were in place – including a stay at home order and mixing only between household bubbles.

The newspaper said it has seen messages which suggest the presenter travelled to see the young person in February 2021, after meeting them on a dating website the previous November.

The 23-year-old told The Sun the presenter travelled from London to a different county to meet them at their flat.

Watch: BBC faces fresh allegation against unnamed presenter from young person

The young person told the newspaper: “He came round for an hour… We just chatted. He was obsessed with me making him a cup of tea.”

They said the presenter also gave them more than £600 in three payments, which the newspaper said messages also suggest.

The 23-year-old also claimed the presenter asked if next week was good to meet on 18 December 2020, when restrictions meant a ban on households mixing indoors.

Read more: 9 key questions BBC boss did not answer about TV presenter scandal

However, the young person claims he made “excuses not to meet him” until two months later.

The Sun said it had approached the BBC and the presenter for comment and would hand over evidence to the BBC’s investigation team.

Star ‘messaged teen on Instagram’

The Sun claims they have seen messages between the presenter and a teenage follower on Instagram in October 2018.

The 22-year-old person – who was 17 at the time – was messaged “out of the blue” by the star, the newspaper said.

In the first message, the presenter is said to have posted a love heart emoji before the pair spoke intermittently.

The young person told The Sun: “I replied to the love-heart emoji he sent and asked how it was going at the BBC.

Read more: Moment BBC boss is grilled over identity of presenter

“He replied saying it was good and he used a kiss [x] at the end of his message.

“I did think it was a little strange that he used a kiss at the end but, ultimately, I was not reading into these messages in that way and so did not think more about it at the time.”

The young person said the star stopped using heart emojis and kisses “when he realised I was not flirtatious back, he changed in the way he would reply”.

Unnamed presenter ‘angry’ at coverage of claims

While the unnamed presenter has so far not made any comment about the story, he is said to be “extremely angry” at the coverage.

Former BBC presenter Jon Sopel revealed that the star is “getting some support” – but felt “fury” about The Sun’s reporting.

Sopel told The News Agents podcast: “A number of people have been in touch with the presenter to say they feel righteous fury over the way The Sun has covered this and it is fair to say that the presenter at the heart of this is also extremely angry over a lot of The Sun coverage and is convinced they're trying to dig and find new dirt to harm this particular person's reputation.”

The Sun declined an invite to appear on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to discuss their coverage of the story.