BBC Director General Tim Davie today revealed the corporation has spoken to the family claiming Huw Edwards paid £35,000 to their vulnerable loved-one for explicit photographs.
Mr Edwards is receiving treatment for mental health problems after being taken off air and suspended over the scandal.
But Mr Davie did not say if he had yet spoken to the BBC’s top newsreader, who was last seen on screen almost a fortnight ago. He said: ‘Since that weekend we have been in touch with the complainant and we want to be engaged and appropriately listening and understanding their concerns.’
Davie also updated the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee on the internal investigation into the allegations faced by the veteran broadcaster, 61. As well as the sexual pictures for cash claims, junior BBC staff have said the married father-of-five sent flirtatious messages to younger employees that made the recipients ‘shudder’ amid allegations of an ‘abuse of power’.
Mr Davie today admitted it could take ‘weeks or a couple of months or even longer’, adding: ‘This has been a difficult affair where we have tried to calmly and reasonably navigate some difficult concerns around the allegations themselves, duty of care, privacy and legitimate public interest.’
BBC Director General Tim Davie today admitted an internal investigation into claims Huw Edwards paid £35,000 to a vulnerable teenager for explicit photographs could take months.
Huw Edwards is being treated in hospital following his suspension over the scandal
He added: ‘We are in the process of looking at those facts, we are keen to receive any information, we want to understand anything that is out there.
‘It’s difficult to give a precise time on that because you have to go though that diligently, assess the information, there are duty of care concerns within that. Because I’m not control of all the variables that could take weeks or a couple of months or even longer, depending on what we get and managing the individuals concerned flawlessly.
‘My main priority is to be fair and get all the information into that process and act judiciously.’
Updating the committee on the review he has ordered into the internal protocols and procedures on complaints at the BBC in the wake of the Huw Edwards furore, Mr Davie said he expects to report in the autumn or late autumn.
But he also insisted to the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee that staff at the corporation are ‘confident’ in the broadcaster’s whistleblowing process.
Tim Davie also confirmed to peers that high-profile staff members have in their contract a clause about not bringing the BBC into disrepute.
He said: ‘I think we’ve done really good work at the BBC, and I’m proud, actually, of the work we’ve done over the last few years – having a really clear code of conduct, our values… I mean, we’ve done a very big push on what our values are as an organisation.
‘We’ve got, I think, a good process; we could do more with it.’
Mr Davie also said there is a ‘a safe place’ where staff can go to raise concerns, which is the whistleblowing complaints process that is ‘external and confidential’.
‘I am proud of (it). I think it is working but we’ve got more to do in making sure everyone’s confidence in it,’ he said.
‘We’ve got most people very confident in it, but we need to keep working on it. There’s still gaps in that and this is normal when you’re deploying these things.’
It emerged last week that BBC journalists were already investigating Huw Edwards before the teenage sex pictures claims emerged.
Newsnight anchor Victoria Derbyshire was said to have been working on a potential expose.
There has been an outpouring of support as the newsreader continues to have mental health treatment in hospital after being named by his own wife as the BBC presenter at the centre of the week-long drama.
But there is also ‘boiling fury’ in some quarters, insiders said.
Edwards’ friend and former BBC veteran Jon Sopel lashed out at the corporation’s coverage of the scandal and said Edwards himself was ‘very angry’ and ‘unimpressed’.
Mr Edwards was named by his wife Vicky Flind as the BBC presenter facing allegations over payments for sexually explicit images. Mr Edwards and Ms Flind are pictured together in 2018
He accused Edwards’s colleagues of enthusiastically digging into the ‘messy’ private life of the married father-of-five, and he condemned BBC News for announcing that their star presenter with a history of depression was in hospital receiving help, only to then immediately pile further allegations onto him on Wednesday evening.
Sopel said: ‘You think, woah, the guy’s in hospital.’
Edwards – the trusted face of the BBC acclaimed for his dignity and authority fronting national events, including announcing the Queen’s death – is not facing any police action.
Scotland Yard met BBC management on Monday but dropped its probe on Wednesday, and nine minutes’ later Edwards’s wife Vicky Flind ended the national speculation by naming her husband and revealing he was in hospital for a serious ‘mental health episode’.
But the veteran newscaster remains suspended while the BBC examines whether he should face any disciplinary action following the reports on BBC News – some from colleagues sitting in his own chair in the News At Ten studio – and Radio 4 and Newsnight alleging ‘inappropriate behaviour towards employees past and present’.
Industry website Deadline cited BBC sources as saying its journalists had been looking into the issue fand Ms Derbyshire had ‘contacted multiple individuals regarding rumours about Edwards’s alleged behaviour’.
Responding to Deadline’s claims, a BBC source admitted there had been ‘very initial soundings’, which had taken place ‘in the days before’ The Sun story, but it would be wrong to characterise it as ‘an investigation’.
Newsnight then decided to ‘develop further’ her initial ‘leads’ on the conduct of the star.
With special correspondent Lucy Manning, Ms Derbyshire then broadcast a story on Wednesday evening’s Newsnight about claims of ‘suggestive’ messages sent to BBC employees on social media by Edwards.
It triggered ‘boiling fury’ from some BBC colleagues, a well-placed industry source told the Mail.
