A BBC presenter has reported a tweet in which he was accused of inappropriate action to the police.

A number of BBC employees have been falsely accused of being the unnamed presenter who is alleged to have paid a teenager for sexually explicit photos.

The allegations, first reported by The Sun, are that the BBC presenter paid £35,000 for explicit photos over a three-year period.

5 Live host Nicky Campbell was amongst those who were quick to distance themselves from false accusations.

In a now-deleted tweet, the user had posted a photograph of Nicky, writing: "This is the BBC host who paid teenager for sexually explicit photos. £35,000 paid for the photos #Disgusting."

To which Nicky said: "I think it’s important to take a stand. There’s just too many of these people on social media. Thanks for your support, friends."

The profile of the user read that he was ‘die-hard Blackburn Rovers fan’.

 

Jeremy Vine, Gary Lineker and Rylan Clark are other presenters to have publicly denied that they are the person in question.

Rylan Clark tweeted: “Not sure why my name’s floating about but re that story in the Sun – that ain’t me babe. I’m currently filming a show in Italy for the BBC, so take my name out ya mouths.”

Jeremy Vine tweeted: “Just to say I’m very much looking forward to hosting my radio show on Monday — whoever the ‘BBC Presenter’ in the news is, I have the same message for you as Rylan did earlier: it certainly ain’t me.”

Gary Lineker tweeted: “Hate to disappoint the haters but it’s not me.”

Today, the unnamed BBC presenter was facing fresh allegations by The Sun after it claimed he paid a teenager for sexually explicit photos.

The presenter at the centre of the claims allegedly appeared in his underwear in a video call, according to the newspaper. 

The young person’s mother told The Sun she saw a picture of the presenter on her child’s phone in which he was “sitting on a sofa in his house in his underwear” and she said she was told it was “a picture from some kind of video call”.

The Sun said the teenager’s family complained to the BBC on May 19.

The BBC reported on the story in its news bulletins throughout Saturday.

On the News at Ten presented by Clive Myrie, special correspondent Lucy Manning said: “I think this is very serious for the BBC, let’s make no bones about this.

“The understanding is the presenter isn’t due on air in the near future, but we haven’t been told, and we have asked, we haven’t been told by the BBC whether there has or hasn’t been a formal suspension.

“The BBC will need to answer if the investigation should have happened sooner, if it should have been more thorough, and if it’s fair to other presenters unconnected to this that their names are now sort of in the headlines.”

Later on Sunday the BBC confirmed it had suspended the presenter.

The corporation said it was made aware of a complaint in May but that new allegations of a “different nature” were brought to it on Thursday.

In a statement shared with the PA news agency, a BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC first became aware of a complaint in May.

“New allegations were put to us on Thursday of a different nature and in addition to our own inquiries we have also been in touch with external authorities, in line with our protocols.

“We can also confirm a male member of staff has been suspended.

“We expect to be in a position to provide a further update in the coming days as the process continues. The BBC board will continue to be kept up to date.”

The statement added that the corporation takes “any allegations seriously” and that it has “robust internal processes in place to proactively deal with such allegations”.