British police assessing information from BBC over claim a presenter paid a teen for explicit photos

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. London’s Metropolitan Police force said detectives were “assessing the information discussed at the meeting and further enquiries are taking place to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed.” "There is no investigation at this time," the force said. The BBC said in a statement on Sunday that it “first became aware of a complaint in May,” but that “new allegations were put to us on Thursday of a different nature.” The broadcaster said “the BBC takes any allegations seriously and we have robust internal processes in place to proactively deal with such allegations.” It said the corporation had also been in touch with “external authorities,” but did not specify whether that was the police. Radio host Nicky Campbell said it had been “a distressing weekend, I can’t deny it, for me and others falsely named.” “Today I am having further conversations with the police in terms of malicious communication and with lawyers in terms of defamation,” Campbell said on his BBC radio program. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman, Max Blain, said the allegations were “concerning,” but that the government had been “assured that the BBC is investigating this matter quickly.” “The first thing to do is establish the facts and ensure they are set out at the appropriate time,” he said.