Yahoo News Darts player gave Helen Skelton 'friendly bottom slap'
Darts player Ross Montgomery has said he gave Helen Skelton a "friendly slap on the bottom", following the emergence of footage purporting to show the sportsman touching the TV presenter from behind.
In an interview with The Telegraph published today, Skelton claimed that a male interviewee groped her while the two were in the middle of a broadcast, at a time when she was pregnant.
The Countryfile presenter declined to name the man or the programme she was working on, but went on to describe the incident as "intimidating".
Now Montgomery, also known as The Boss, has denied groping Skelton but admitted to giving her a "friendly slap on the bottom", telling the Mail Online: "She wasn't groped.
"It was nothing more than a friendly slap on the bottom."
He added: "I was spoken to at the time. She was apologised to and she didn't make a big deal of it. But using the word grope, that's a bit much.
"My wife was in the crowd and it wasn't a grope."
The alleged incident happened at the BDO World Darts Championship in Hampshire in 2015, which was aired live on BT Sport.
Helen told The Telegraph: "Basically, this guy grabbed me on the arse when I was presenting live telly.
"I felt really awkward about it. I was pregnant at the time as well. I didn't really know what to do.
"It's intimidating and you don't want to be the person who is being difficult and awkward. That's just the culture that television breeds.
"No one wants to be difficult. You want to bring solutions, not problems. We are all 'happy, happy'."
While Helen chose not to go to her superiors over the incident, a colleague - BBC Radio 5 Live sports analyst Colin Murray - complained on her behalf and action was taken.
"[Colin] said it wasn't acceptable," she remembered. "He kicked off and said that needs dealing with. It was handled brilliantly because of that. I'd never thought about complaining."
Helen continued: "I don't want it to become my identity. The man in question was punished. There was a line drawn under it, and that was that."
Last week, Helen denied tabloid reports claiming that she'd been sacked from the BBC's Commonwealth Games in Australia.
A BBC spokesperson told Digital Spy: "We are sending a considerably smaller operation to Australia than we have to previous games and as such there won't be presentation from a number of sports including swimming. Helen remains a key presenter for BBC Sport."
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