Police have asked the BBC to pause their investigation into allegations a presenter paid a teenager for explicit images so that detectives can "scope future work.”
More details of how the corporation responded to the initial complaint emerged on Tuesday as Director General Tim Davie published the annual report and accounts.
In a lengthy statement, the national broadcaster revealed that they only attempted to contact the complainant two times, once by email and again by phone.
The BBC Corporate Investigations Team met the Metropolitan Police on Monday following The Sun newspaper’s report that the unnamed presenter paid a young person around £35,000 over three years for the pictures.
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“As a result of this meeting, the BBC has been asked to pause its investigations into the allegations while the police scope future work.”
It added: “The BBC has processes and protocols for receiving information and managing complaints when they are first made. We always take these matters extremely seriously and seek to manage them with the appropriate duty of care.
“The events of recent days have shown how complex and challenging these kinds of cases can be and how vital it is that they are handled with the utmost diligence and care."
In a timetable accompanying the statement, the BBC said a family member of the young person first complained on May 18, when they went to a BBC building.
The following day they contacted BBC Audience Services and the details of the claims were referred to the BBC’s Corporate Investigations Team, who assessed that the claims did not include an allegation of criminality, but nonetheless merited further investigation.
On 6 June, having received no response to an email, a phone call was made to the mobile number provided by the family member, but went unanswered.
No additional attempts to contact the person complaining were made after 6 June, however "the case remained open throughout."
Last week, on 6 July, The Sun contacted the BBC asking for a comment about the allegations.
This was the first time that the Director-General or any executive directors at the BBC were aware of the case.
The broadcaster said the claims "contained new allegations, that were different to the matters being considered by BBC Corporate Investigations."
A senior manager then "held the first conversation on this matter with the presenter concerned" and it was "agreed that the presenter would not be on air while this matter was being considered."
After The Sun’s contact, the BBC contacted both the family member again, and the police.
The complainant sent the BBC "some materials related to the complaint."
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Last night, in a statement released through a lawyer, the young person at the centre of the controversy said "nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken."
It went on to describe the allegations in The Sun as ‘rubbish’.”
The legal representative also said the young person told The Sun on Friday evening before the newspaper published the story that there was “no truth to it”, the BBC reported.
The Sun stands by its story.
Speaking at a press conference about the BBC’s annual report, scheduled some time ago, Mr Davie said: “Of course there will be lessons to be learned, and how processes could be improved.
“Immediately I have asked that we assess how some complaints are red flagged up the organisation.
“We will take time to properly review the current protocols and procedures to ensure they remain sufficient based on anything we learn from this case.”
Earlier in the day, Rishi Sunak said he had been assured that the claims will be investigated “swiftly and rigorously”.
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The Prime Minister told reporters on the plane to the Nato summit in Lithuania: “They were shocking, concerning allegations, of course they were.
“The Culture Secretary (Lucy Frazer) spoke to the director-general, I think it was on Sunday.
“And he has reassured (us) that the process they are undertaking is vigorous and will be swift, so we’ve had those reassurances.”
Asked if he has been told who the BBC presenter in question is, Mr Sunak replied: “No.
“But I’ve been reassured that the process will be conducted vigorously and swiftly.”
He added that it “is important we now let that carry on”.
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