Tim Westwood: BBC admits receiving complaints about DJ after saying it hadn’t
News comes after BBC director general said he’d ‘seen no evidence of complaints’
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The BBC has confirmed it received six complaints about DJ Tim Westwood – including one referred by the police – after initially denying it had any knowledge of the accusations against him.
Westwood, 64, was accused of predatory and unwanted sexual behaviour and touching, during incidents alleged to have taken place between 1992 and 2017, following a joint investigation by the BBC and The Guardian.
The day after the report was published, BBC director-general Tim Davie called the claims made against Westwood “appalling” and said he’d “seen no evidence of complaints”.
The BBC has since confirmed that it received six complaints, which it is assessing as part of a review into the hiphop DJ’s career at the company.
A BBC spokesman said in a statement: “This is a historic case that the BBC has found in its files. We are establishing the facts around it.
“It did not relate to conduct at the BBC, BBC premises, or conduct towards a BBC staff member, nor was it an accusation of physical assault.”
The BBC declined to say whether the other five complaints had been received before or after Mr Davie’s statement in April.
The BBC also confirmed that Westwood was spoken to in relation to another complaint.
In a separate statement, a BBC spokesperson told The Independent: “As we have said, if people have things that they want to raise with the BBC, then they should do so. People have now done so and we will continue to investigate. We also said that we would dig into what happened in the past. We are doing that with great care. All of that work hasn’t concluded and is ongoing. We said we would take this seriously, and we are. When that work has concluded, we will say more.”
In a statement at the time, Westwood denied any wrongdoing and said the allegations were fabricated, false, and without foundation.
“In a career that has spanned 40 years, there have never been any complaints made against him officially or unofficially. Tim Westwood strongly rejects all allegations of wrongdoing,” a statement issued on behalf of the presenter said.
The seven women spoken to in the joint investigation, who are all Black, gave detailed accounts in the aftermath of anonymous allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Westwood, which were circulated on social media in June 2020.
They share their accounts in a BBC Three documentary, Tim Westwood: Abuse of Power, which is available now on BBC iPlayer.