12 July 2023 , 08:54
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Jeremy Vine says the BBC presenter at the heart of a scandal is "very angry".
Speaking on his Channel 5 show this morning, Vine said he was "very worried" about the male presenter accused of paying a teenager for sexually explicit images.
The Radio 2 presenter - who last night urged the unnamed star to come forward - revealed he hasn't spoken to the suspended BBC presenter himself but knows someone who has.
"I know the individual concerned. I'm very worried about his state of mind and what this is doing to him," Vine admitted on his show today.
"But I have spoke with someone who has spoken with him. He [the BBC presenter] is angry and keen to play it long. It seems he wants to remain anonymous for as long as possible."
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Elsewhere during the show today, Vine said "it seems The Sun were right to run the original story" and claimed even if the BBC presenter is sacked, the public service broadcaster still may not be able to name them.
Following Rylan Clark becoming the first star to tell to deny being the unnamed BBC presenter to his 1.7m followers on Saturday, Jeremy Vine also took to Twitter to shut down any suggestion he was the unidentified person in The Sun's report,
"Just to say I'm very much looking forward to hosting my radio show on Monday — whoever the 'BBC Presenter' in the news is, I have the same message for you as Rylan did earlier: it certainly ain't me," the broadcaster told his followers over the weekend.
Vine then went on to warn social media users he will be taking legal action against anybody who falsely accuses him of being the BBC presenter at the centre of a scandal involving a young person and sexually explicit images. His comments came after a now-deleted Twitter account claimed Vine was the man in question.
On Twitter, Vine told his 789,400 followers: "A defamation lawyer advised me that what he did on Twitter yesterday is the quickest way to lose £20,000. I messaged Andy to that effect," before sharing a screenshot of a tweet to the account reading: "I've passed screenshots of your messages about me to a lawyer. They are seriously defamatory. They are completely and utterly untrue."
Responding to further tweets, Vine said: "This defamatory tweet has been logged and screenshotted and I will follow up with you next week." A second saw him say: "You repeated a defamatory lie. That's libel and I will be in touch in the coming days."
He went on to add: "This tweet is seriously defamatory of me. I have screenshotted it and the retweets and passed it to a lawyer. There is no truth WHATSOEVER in what you are saying." Vine later responded to another social media user saying he would be reporting the tweets to a lawyer on Monday.
On Tuesday, Vine urged the unidentified BBC presenter to make themselves known to the public in order to protect other BBC stars and presenters. He tweeted: "I’m starting to think the BBC Presenter involved in the scandal should now come forward publicly. These new allegations will result in yet more vitriol being thrown at perfectly innocent colleagues of his. And the BBC, which I’m sure he loves, is on its knees with this. But it is his decision and his alone."
The unnamed presenter was suspended from the BBC on Sunday afternoon. The license-payer-funded corporation said: "The BBC takes any allegations seriously and we have robust internal processes in place to proactively deal with such allegations.
"This is a complex and fast-moving set of circumstances and the BBC is working as quickly as possible to establish the facts in order to properly inform appropriate next steps. It is important that these matters are handled fairly and with care.
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"We have been clear that if - at any point - new information comes to light or is provided to us, this will be acted upon appropriately and actively followed up.
"The BBC first became aware of a complaint in May. New allegations were put to us on Thursday of a different nature and in addition to our own enquiries, we have also been in touch with external authorities, in line with our protocols. We can also confirm a male member of staff has been suspended.
"We expect to be in a position to provide a further update in the coming days as the process continues. The BBC Board will continue to be kept up to date."