Yentob turns on BBC as he wins youth charity battle
BBC journalists reported ‘shocking and malicious’ claims that led to the collapse of a youth charity, one of the broadcaster’s former bosses said last night.
Alan Yentob, who was creative chief at the BBC, had faced a ban on being a company director for alleged mismanagement while chairman of Kids Company.
But he and six other trustees – including the founder Camila Batmanghelidjh – were cleared of wrongdoing following a ten-week High Court trial.
The Official Receiver brought proceedings after Kids Company, which helped deprived children in south London and Bristol, went bust in 2015.
It went under three days after being handed a £3million government grant, on top of the £39million of public funding it had already received. But rather than being the victim of mismanagement, Mrs Justice Falk said the charity’s demise coincided with the launch of a police investigation into allegations of abuse and exploitation.
A BBC Newsnight report on the claims wrecked the charity’s attempts to drum up funding.
Mr Yentob said: ‘The allegations were shocking and malicious and had no truth to them.
‘Of course I wasn’t happy with the Newsnight investigation.
Journalists do what they have to do, I understand that. But was I happy with the report? No I wasn’t.
‘It has been five years and cost millions of pounds for this case to come to court. The work Kids Company did was admired by many people over many years.’
He added: ‘This case is important, because if charity trustees are treated like this no one will want to be a trustee in the future.’
Mrs Justice Falk said there was ‘no allegation of dishonesty, bad faith, inappropriate personal gain or any other want of probity against any of the defendants’.
She added: ‘The charity was exonerated following a police investigation, but by then it was too late.
‘The decision concludes that, if it had not been for the unfounded allegations, it is more likely than not that the restructuring would have succeeded and the charity would have survived.
‘The public need no protection
‘Impressive and dedicated’
from these trustees. On the contrary, this is a group of highly impressive and dedicated individuals who selflessly gave enormous amounts of their time to what was clearly a highly challenging trusteeship.’
The judge pointed out that Miss Batmanghelidjh had shown an ‘enormous dedication to vulnerable young people over many years’.
She appeared in photo opportunities with David Cameron as Kids Company was lauded as an example of the then prime minister’s ‘Big Society’ plans. The charity was also backed by the band Coldplay and artist Damien Hirst.
In a statement after the judgement, Miss Batmanghelidjh said: ‘My regret is that many thousands of children whom we supported were left unassisted and vulnerable once our service was withdrawn and that there were many others who never got a chance to receive help.
‘To them, my heart goes out. I would also like to thank our many donors, staff and volunteers for their remarkable support.
‘I shall not break step in my continuing campaign for the rights of children and to build for them a better future.’
Commenting on the case, a BBC spokesman said last night: ‘The BBC stands by its journalism.’