RAGE, TEARS AND UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

THE STORY SO FAR AND WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

FIFTEEN-year-old Claire McAlpine’s four visits to live recordings of Top Of The Pops were chronicled in a diary, found by her mother, Vera, in early 1971. In it was a disturbing claim that after a show, the teenager said she’d met Tony Blackburn, who invited her back to his flat in West London and seduced her.

THE claim prompted Mrs McAlpine to call the BBC, saying ‘something had to be done’.

TEN days after the complaint, a BBC memo, which emerged yesterday, records that Blackburn was interviewed by Bill Cotton, then the Head of Light Entertainment, and ‘flatly denied’ the accusation that he had slept with the girl.

A FEW weeks after Mrs McAlpine’s complaint, Claire withdrew her allegation.

ON MARCH 30, 1971, Claire was found dead on the floor of her bedroom. Inside her diary was a suicide note, which read: ‘Don’t laugh at me for being dramatic, but I just can’t take it any more.’

CLAIRE’S mother passed the diary to Scotland Yard, who did not question or identify the DJ or other celebrities she named, dismissing the contents as the work of a young woman unconnected with reality.

AN INQUEST, days after Claire’s death, also ignored the diary, and concluded her ‘mind was disturbed’.

BETWEEN 1971 and 1972, lawyer Brian Neill was instructed to investigate a string of scandals surrounding Top Of The Pops. He interviewed 15 people connected with the BBC including, it is claimed, Tony Blackburn. Blackburn insists he never met Brian Neill.

IN 2013, Blackburn gave a formal interview to the Savile inquiry. When asked by Dame Janet Smith whether he was ever made aware of Mrs McAlpine’s complaint against him, he said he was not. He also denied ever being interviewed by Bill Cotton.

DAME Janet concluded Blackburn ‘could offer no explanation’ for the existence of the memo. She said Blackburn later accepted: ‘I might prefer the documentary evidence to his recollection.’