Bringing in police is the BBC’s first sensible move in teen sex pictures scandal, says Michael Cole

CALLING in police is the first sensible move the BBC has made in investigating child abuse claims against one of its presenters, according to a former correspondent at the Corporation.

Michael Cole told GB News: “The BBC, as we all know, is very bureaucratic, is unwieldy. It usually does the right thing eventually, which is what Winston Churchill said of America, and it has at last done the right thing in calling in the Metropolitan Police which should have done as soon as it became aware of these very grave charges…

“I’m afraid that an internal investigation by the BBC – and I’ve seen some of them pan out, usually unsatisfactorily because they’re too little and too late – won’t do in this case.

“It has to be handed over to the police because these are grave errors, if they have been committed they are felonies and it will not do for Tim Davie to issue concerned statements as he has done so far.”

In a discussion with Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner, he said: “This has to be taken by the scruff of the neck, it has to be worked out and bringing in the police is the first sensible thing The BBC has done.

“That should have set the alarm bells ringing and quite clearly it didn’t. The BBC says that then the complaint altered materially last Thursday, and that’s when Tim Davie should have been informed.

“Well, he should have been informed at the outset because the BBC has been beset by recent scandals involving their chairman and so on. We all know about them and of course, in the not that distant past, we’ve had the terrible scandals of Rolf Harris and, even worse, Jimmy Savile.”

He added: “It hasn’t got a great track record of how to deal with these sorts of things which then rather like a small cloud on the horizon can turn into a thunderstorm if they’re not dealt with in the right way from the outset, but as I say, they’re not light on their feet on these occasions.

“It was absolutely right that they did not name him and have not named him and they shouldn’t do that, because it would hopelessly and endlessly prejudice any further legal action, should there be legal action taken in due course.

“It’s difficult but I think a firm hand was needed from the outset, somebody who knew what they were doing. It’s not as if they haven’t had experience of this.”