BBC is under new pressure for handling complaints about former DJ Tim Westwood’s behavior. The retired judge who supervised the Jimmy Savile Scandal review has backed calls for an independent investigation.
Janet Smith was the author The Times an impartial figure was required to scrutinise complaints made against the DJ, accused of sexual misconduct by 17 women – all whose claims he denies.
She stated: “An independent inquiry is always better than an internal one because, however objective you think you can be, you aren’t, full stop.”
The BBC will shortly release the results of its own internal review into the complaints after director-general Tim Davie – who was previously head of Audio and Music at the corporation, making him Westwood’s ultimate boss for four years – initially asserted that the BBC had seen “no evidence” of the DJ’s alleged behaviour.
When six complaints of bullying and sexual misconduct received by the BBC did come to light, Davie’s confusion was blamed on an “human resources mix-up”An internal review was started. The BBC’s corporate investigations and internal audit team will report its findings in the next couple of weeks.
The BBC DJ was there from 1994 to 2013, and he had a strong reputation in the worlds of rap music. Before moving to Global, the DJ. A claim that Westwood had sex in public with a 14 year-old girl is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.