The BBC has said it will publish an internal investigation into bullying and sexual misconduct allegations against radio presenter, Tim Westwood, within the next two weeks.
The DJ, who was a BBC radio presenter for almost 20 years, stepped down from his show on Capital Xtra in April after accusations by several women of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour. The claims were uncovered by a joint investigation involving the Guardian and the BBC.
The BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, had initially insisted that in its records the BBC had “no evidence of complaints” against Westwood, who worked for the corporation between 1994 and 2013. Facing an objection over its handling of a freedom of information request, the corporation then backtracked and admitted it had received six complaints concerning the presenter’s tenure at the BBC relating to allegations of bullying or sexual misconduct – including one that had been referred to the police.
The BBC said that this particular complaint was historical and did not relate to an allegation of physical assault, adding that it would be in a position to say more when its investigation had concluded. The police declined to comment on whether they had received or how they had handled any referral.
Westwood has strongly denied the allegations of the seven women who featured in the original investigation in April. Lawyers acting for Westwood said at the time that he was a well-respected and highly successful DJ. They said he denied in their entirety the serious allegations being made against him, saying they were false and defamatory, and said he wanted to make clear that he did not behave in the manner described.
In 2020, the 64-year-old said claims of inappropriate behaviour made against him at the time on social media were fabricated, false and without foundation. A spokesperson for Westwood previously said in April there had been no official or unofficial complaints against him in his career.
Davie said his original statement – that the BBC had not received any complaints – was based on “an initial round of analysis of HR files” which turned out to be incorrect. In a statement to the Guardian at the time, the BBC said he had “set out the position as he understood it at the time”.
Speaking as the corporation unveiled its annual report, he pledged to fully investigate the claims against Westwood. “We take this very seriously. I want to ensure anyone who’s got anything to bring relating to the BBC or time spent at the BBC – we fully investigate,” he said. “We have an internal audit separate to myself working to the senior independent director, Nick Serota, going through now, responding to anything that is coming into us.”
He added: “I don’t want to give a running commentary on that. It is not because I am lacking in transparency. It is just we want to do that work and then we will come back, and I think what we will do is publish something and summarise exactly to the questions.
“Here are the things we have got in – this is all we have got as the BBC, and be fully transparent around that. And we should get that out within the next two weeks.”
“We have no objective apart from to ensure everything is flushed out and we understand exactly what happened with regards to the BBC and also to do the right thing and [ensure] any cases are looked at.”
Westwood left the BBC in 2013 to join commercial radio station Capital Xtra, where he remained until the allegations were published earlier this year. The station is owned by Global, a privately owned media company which also controls LBC and Classic FM.
The Guardian has previously approached Global about whether it had received any complaints about Westwood’s behaviour. A spokesperson said: “If Global is going to provide comment we will let you know”, and did not respond to a further request for more information.
