bourbiza mohamed
The mother and father of {the teenager} on the centre of the Huw Edwards scandal have mentioned their household has been ‘ripped aside’ after the BBC took 9 months to apologise to them.
Right now the company mentioned there had been ‘shortcomings’ in the way in which it handled the case and that the criticism was ‘not escalated shortly sufficient’ to prime bosses.
Information 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 photographs 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.
His id was lastly revealed by the star’s spouse in July after days of hypothesis, as she revealed he was ‘affected by critical psychological well being points’. He has not returned to work since.
Breaking her silence on the BBC’s apology, {the teenager}’s mom advised The Solar: ‘We have suffered immense ache and it has taken almost a yr which has left me damaged.
‘If the BBC had dealt with the criticism correctly, we’d haven’t needed to undergo this hell. Now we have been ripped aside as a household.’
The mom slammed the BBC for failing to take the criticism significantly 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
Right now the company mentioned there had been ‘shortcomings’ in the way in which it handled the case and that the criticism was ‘not escalated shortly sufficient’ to prime 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 individual initially complained about Edwards to the BBC in Might 2023 and the BBC mentioned it tried to contact them twice earlier than The Solar revealed an unique story detailing the allegations he paid a youngster for sexually specific pictures.
Nonetheless, BBC senior management was solely knowledgeable of the problem on July 6, the overview mentioned.
The BBC has since apologised to the household, BBC Group chief working officer Leigh Tavaziva mentioned.
She mentioned: ‘Though our current processes and programs are, on the entire, working successfully, this overview exhibits that we have to be part of them up higher to make sure regardless of how a non-editorial criticism comes into the BBC it’s escalated swiftly, when wanted, and handled by the appropriate individuals.
‘The place the overview identifies course of enhancements we settle for these in full, and we’re delivering on an motion plan with quite a few enhancements already in place.
‘The report identifies particular course of shortcomings within the presenter case. The preliminary criticism on this case was not escalated shortly sufficient to senior administration and we’ve got apologised to the complainant for this.’
After the story emerged final yr, BBC director-general Tim Davie ordered a overview to ‘assess how some complaints are red-flagged up the organisation’.
He additionally ordered an extra ‘factfinding investigation’.
The overview, led by Ms Tavaziva and carried out by Deloitte, highlights failures within the complaints course of, saying that the preliminary criticism 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 screen 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 best paid journalist on the BBC and led the nation via Queen Elizabeth II’s demise
Huw Edwards was suspended final July over claims he paid 1000’s of kilos to the teenager for sexually specific pictures
There was additionally no documented course of for contact and follow-ups with the complainant, so when makes an attempt to make contact have 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, which means that there was no alternative for wider visibility of the case throughout 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 have been unsuccessful, the steps to be taken weren’t sufficiently clear and the method adopted was not documented.’
The report additionally mentioned that some staff interviewed mentioned they might really feel nervous about elevating a criticism with the BBC, notably if it was a couple of extra senior member of workers or a excessive profile determine.
It mentioned: ‘These staff mentioned they’ve decrease ranges of confidence in how robustly the criticism can be dealt with if it’s a grievance relating to a different member of workers or expertise, notably the place there’s an precise or perceived energy discrepancy between the complainant and the topic of the criticism.’
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 acquired after which reviewed’.
It prompt ‘higher use of expertise 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 adequate 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 Information, the younger individual on the centre of the Edwards controversy mentioned by way of attorneys nothing inappropriate or illegal occurred with the-then unnamed presenter.
Edwards has been absent from screens because the story first broke and his spouse beforehand mentioned he was receiving in-patient hospital care and was struggling ‘critical psychological well being points’.
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