BBC 5 Live host suspended in sex assault inquiry
BBC Radio 5 Live host George Riley has been suspended from the corporation after accusa-tions of serial sexual assault.
Mr Riley, a regular sports host on the station’s breakfast show, alleg-edly groped eight female colleagues over a period of around six years.
The 39-year- old is understood to be one of two presenters who have now been taken off air for alleged sexual mis-conduct. The radio host, who is also a commentator on rugby league, snooker and darts for BBC TV, was supposed to be anchoring Radio 5 Live’s coverage of the Rugby League World Cup which began last week.
Four of the women who claimed to have been groped reported the sports host to senior BBC bosses ten days ago, and submitted state-ments detailing their encounters.
They told Radio 5 Live controller Jonathan Wall that they wanted Mr Riley fired – but the corpora-tion initially kept him on air while it launched a secret investigation into his behaviour.
The corporation’s internal ‘ BBC Investigations’ unit, staffed by former police officers, is leading the probe, amid fears that Mr Riley’s alleged behav-iour with BBC staff is just the tip of the iceberg.
A source said: ‘The BBC is taking it incredibly seriously, so they are trying to gather all the women involved.’ Mr Riley was suspended on Friday – shortly after his breakfast show co-hosts Nicky Campbell and Rachel Bur-den had been on air discussing having Mr Riley on the programme later that morning. The four women who reported Mr Riley to BBC bosses alleged that the assaults took place at informal events with other BBC staff, off the BBC’s premises.
According to sources, the inves-tigators have been informed of eight BBC staff who have allegedly been harassed by Mr Riley, although only four of them have made a formal complaint about him. A source said the others may have been ‘too scared’ to do so, in case it harmed their careers.
The four women who did complain were apparently embold-ened to come forward after they secured the backing of a well-known female radio presenter. Yesterday it was claimed a ‘secret’ group of the BBC’s top female presenters, including Mishal Husain and Victoria Derbyshire, had uncovered a string of sus-pected cases of sexual abuse and encouraged the alleged victims to report them to BBC bosses. How-ever, Miss Husain said on Twitter that it was ‘wrong to portray’ the group of women she talks to as ‘focused on sexual harassment or targeting individuals’. Miss Derby-shire retweeted the message. Mr Riley would not comment on the allegations when contacted by the Daily Mail on Friday and has been unreachable since.
Sources have also claimed a second unnamed presenter has been taken off air over sexual harassment allegations. A BBC spokesman said: ‘We can’t com-ment on individuals but treat any allegations seriously and have processes in place for investigat-ing them.’
The BBC has also urged staff to report any alleged sexual assaults to the police.