Jeremy Vine slams social media after being falsely linked to BBC sex scandal

Jeremy Vine was forced to defend himself over the weekend, as he was among four top male BBC presenters that social media users falsely speculated about after The Sun alleged the public broadcaster was investigating one of their stars.

Jeremy was trending on Twitter at one point and had to make clear to his 788,000 followers that he was in no way linked to the explicit images storm.

Speaking on his show this morning, Jeremy said: “Over the weekend, a number of names were thrown in… I was shocked that my name [appeared].

“This is what social media does. It’s just basically a massive fountain of sewage, and someone needs to put a cap on it.”

Sharing the offending tweet, the presenter wrote in view of his over 700,000 followers: “I do not know who this person is, but a defamation lawyer advised me that what he did on Twitter yesterday is the quickest way to lose £20,000. I messaged him to that effect.”

In a tweet aimed directly at the troll, Jeremy said: “I’ve passed screenshots of your messages about me to a lawyer.

“They are seriously defamatory. They are completely and utterly untrue.”

The troll later claimed he’d been drinking and that when he’s drunk, he “like many others”, sends “daft tweets, which are deleted the following morning”, describing it as “perfectly normal behaviour”.

Jeremy responded: “It’s really not ‘perfectly normal behaviour’.

“You have a lot of followers who will have read and spread your damaging lies. I let loads of stuff go on here — but not this. I’ll be in touch soon.”

Radio host Nicky Campbell also voiced dismay at being linked with The Sun‘s story about the BBC presenter, who is not being named in the UK for legal reasons.

Speaking on his BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC News channel show, Campbell said he was in contact with the police about the accusations.

“It was a distressing weekend, I can’t deny it, for me and others falsely named,” he said.

“Today I’m having further communication with the police in terms of malicious communication and with lawyers in terms of defamation.”

Gary Lineker, the BBC’s highest-paid presenter, also distanced himself from the story as he typed in view of his 8.8 million followers: “Hate to disappoint the haters but it’s not me.”