Family at centre of Huw Edwards scandal slam BBC for sluggish apology
The mother and father of {the teenager} on the centre of the Huw Edwards scandal have stated their household has been ‘ripped aside’ after the BBC took 9 months to apologise to them.
The Corporation as we speak stated there had been ‘shortcomings’ in the way in which it handled the case and that the grievance was ‘not escalated rapidly sufficient’ to high bosses.
News at Ten host, Edwards, 62, was suspended by the BBC in July over allegations that he had paid a 17-year-old teenager £35,000 for sexual photos over three years.
It took seven weeks for the preliminary inappropriate behaviour claims to be escalated to the BBC director-general and for them to be put to Edwards himself.
After days of hypothesis over a ‘high BBC star’ being taken off air in July, Edwards’ id was lastly revealed by his spouse in July, as she revealed he was ‘affected by severe psychological well being points’. He has not returned to work since.
Breaking her silence on the BBC’s apology, {the teenager}’s mom informed The Sun: ‘We’ve suffered immense ache and it has taken almost a yr which has left me damaged.
‘If the BBC had dealt with the grievance correctly, we’d haven’t needed to undergo this hell. We have been ripped aside as a household.’
The mom slammed the BBC for failing to take the grievance critically and desires to know whether or not the allegations made have been ‘correctly investigated’.
The household of on the centre of the Huw Edwards scandal have fumed on the BBC for taking 9 months to apologise
Today the company stated there had been ‘shortcomings’ in the way in which it handled the case and that the grievance was ‘not escalated rapidly sufficient’ to high bosses. Pictured: BBC director-general Tim Davie
It comes after a report, commissioned within the wake of the scandal, discovered a necessity for ‘higher consistency’ in how complaints on the company are processed.
The household of the younger particular person initially complained about Edwards to the BBC in May 2023 and the BBC stated it tried to contact them twice earlier than The Sun printed an unique story detailing the allegations he paid a teenager for sexually express pictures.
However, BBC senior management was solely knowledgeable of the difficulty on July 6, the evaluation stated.
The BBC has since apologised to the household, BBC Group chief working officer Leigh Tavaziva stated.
She stated: ‘Although our present processes and programs are, on the entire, working successfully, this evaluation exhibits that we have to be part of them up higher to make sure irrespective of how a non-editorial grievance comes into the BBC it’s escalated swiftly, when wanted, and handled by the best folks.
‘Where the evaluation identifies course of enhancements we settle for these in full, and we’re delivering on an motion plan with quite a lot of enhancements already in place.
‘The report identifies particular course of shortcomings within the presenter case. The preliminary grievance on this case was not escalated rapidly sufficient to senior administration and we have now apologised to the complainant for this.’
After the story emerged final yr, BBC director-general Tim Davie ordered a evaluation to ‘assess how some complaints are red-flagged up the organisation’.
He additionally ordered an extra ‘factfinding investigation’.
The evaluation, led by Ms Tavaziva and carried out by Deloitte, highlights failures within the complaints course of, saying that the preliminary grievance about Edwards was not logged on the related case administration system so couldn’t be seen by senior figures.
Edwards (pictured in April 2023), who was final on display on July 5, was named because the presenter on the centre of the scandal by his spouse, Vicky Flind, in a shock assertion on his behalf
Huw Edwards is the very best paid journalist on the BBC and led the nation by Queen Elizabeth II’s demise
Huw Edwards was suspended final July over claims he paid hundreds of kilos to the teenager for sexually express pictures
There was additionally no documented course of for contact and follow-ups with the complainant, so when makes an attempt to make contact had been unsuccessful, the plan of action was not clear.
The report says: ‘The case was not logged on the incumbent case administration system (Perspective) contemporaneously, that means that there was no alternative for wider visibility of the case inside the BBC; and there was no documented course of for contact with the complainant and/or follow-up, such that when preliminary makes an attempt to contact the complainant had been unsuccessful, the steps to be taken weren’t sufficiently clear and the method adopted was not documented.’
The report additionally stated that some staff interviewed stated they’d really feel nervous about elevating a grievance with the BBC, significantly if it was a few extra senior member of workers or a excessive profile determine.
It stated: ‘These staff stated they’ve decrease ranges of confidence in how robustly the grievance will likely be dealt with if it’s a grievance relating to a different member of workers or expertise, significantly the place there may be an precise or perceived energy discrepancy between the complainant and the topic of the grievance.’
The report added there’s a want for ‘higher consistency throughout groups in how non-editorial complaints are handled, whatever the route by which they’re obtained after which reviewed’.
It urged ‘higher use of know-how to handle non-editorial complaints and work to make sure there’s a full image of all circumstances throughout groups coping with them; in addition to work to make sure enough sources throughout specialist groups coping with non-editorial complaints, to handle the workload in a well timed method with out impacting on workers welfare.’
In a letter to BBC News, the younger particular person on the centre of the Edwards controversy stated through attorneys nothing inappropriate or illegal occurred with the-then unnamed presenter.
Edwards has been absent from screens for the reason that story first broke and his spouse beforehand stated he was receiving in-patient hospital care and was struggling ‘severe psychological well being points’.
In December, Scotland Yard confronted a secrecy row after refusing to say whether or not its officers are nonetheless investigating Edwards.
The teenager’s mom and stepfather complained to police in April, however three months later detectives declared that no crime had been dedicated.
When the Metropolitan Police was requested whether or not detectives had been nonetheless assessing any allegations, the pressure declined to reply.
Under College of Policing tips, forces routinely reply to media inquiries when requested if there may be an replace to an present policing matter.
The nationwide steering states: ‘As an investigation or different policing exercise continues, officers and communications workers ought to frequently evaluation the data that has been launched and take into account whether it is applicable to launch extra data.’
But when requested whether or not officers had been nonetheless conducting any inquiries into Mr Edwards, a Scotland Yard spokesman refused to reply, saying: ‘We are usually not in a position to reply your question on the data you might have supplied to us.’
