Davie: ‘Claims about Westwood’s misconduct never reached me’

TIM DAVIE, the BBC director-general, will tell an investigation that no details of Tim Westwood’s alleged misconduct were brought to his attention when he was in charge of radio output.

Mr Davie was head of radio from 2009 until November 2012, when he took over as acting director-general.

The findings of an internal investigation, published on Thursday, included an allegation that Westwood made inappropriate sexual remarks to a 15-year-old girl.

Although the allegation concerned a non-bbc event, it was made to BBC management and passed to police, who decided several months later that they would take no further action. Though Mr Davie was in charge of the radio department at that time, and Westwood was a star DJ at Radio 1, sources said the complaint was not referred to him.

Nor was he aware of other internal complaints, made in 2011 and 2012, including allegations that Westwood created a “toxic environment among those he worked with at the BBC” and that he made “sexualised and inappropriate comments” on air.

The corporation has commissioned an independent review to be conducted by Gemma White QC, who previously led a House of Commons inquiry into claims of bullying by MPS of parliamentary staff.

It will investigate whether the BBC’S decision not to renew Westwood’s contract in 2013 was linked to the allegations made against him.

The Metropolitan Police is investigating four allegations of sexual offences from 1982, 1985, 2010 and 2016. Westwood was a BBC Radio 1 DJ in 2010 but worked for commercial stations in other years, most recently Capital Xtra, which is owned by Global.

In April, when allegations emerged that Westwood had misused his position in the industry to take advantage of women in their teens or early 20s, and had indulged in predatory sexual behaviour, Global announced that Westwood had “stepped down from his show until further notice”.

Westwood denies the allegations.