Eamonn Holmes claims BBC is ‘prolonging the inevitable’ by not naming presenter

Eamonn Holmes urged the BBC to release the name of the suspended male presenter who allegedly paid a 17-year-old for explicit sexual images.

The GB News presenter, 63, advised the corporation to end speculation and inform the public of who they have since removed from their usual broadcast schedule.

According to the Northern Irish broadcaster, the BBC is only delaying the inevitable by leaving out the star’s name ahead of the network’s meeting with the Met police on Monday.

Follow the latest news on the BBC presenter allegations over on Metro.co.uk’s live blog.

He expressed his feelings on the incident during a review of the newspapers on his GB News breakfast show which he anchors with Isabel Webster.

Eamonn said: ‘I’m not sure exactly why the presenter hasn’t been named yet.

‘I’m not sure whose purpose that serves because sure as heck, it’ll be out in the next couple of days. I mean, they’re only just prolonging the inevitable on this…

‘The Sun newspaper has a direct relationship with the family involved so they know everything that is going on. And they believe that they have the presenter bang the rights on this one, there’s no getting out of it.’

Later, in an interview with former police officer Mark Williams-Thomas, Eamonn shared: ‘The name is going to come out. It’s going to come out and I don’t really understand why it isn’t already but do you agree?

‘Do you think within the next few days, we will know that no matter what steps are put in place, we’re going to find out who this is?’

The ex-police professional – who has been credited with exposing Jimmy Savile – replied: ‘I think that the whole problem is that his name is already out on social media…

‘The question is who puts that name out. The BBC are not going to put that name out, because they’re going to be very worried that it leads to a witch hunt because of the way that this whole thing has been led.

‘What they should have done is suspended the individual at least a couple of weeks ago, maybe as far back as the end of May said that the person is subject to an investigation and then spoken to the editors of the newspapers and said, “Look, there is this ongoing matter. It is a very sensitive matter” and got them to buy into it to some degree…. but let’s be clear that probably the only person that can end up naming this individual is an MP in the house.

‘Other than that, I can’t see any broadcaster or any outlet naming the individual.’

Metro.co.uk contacted the BBC for comment.

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