A female BBC star allegedly showed an explicit picture to a junior member of staff in the latest sex scandal to hit the broadcaster.
Bosses hauled the top talent in for a series of crisis talks about the incident and made her apologise for the unsolicited ‘d*** pic’.
It is believed the woman is ranked in the Corporation’s top 50 earners this year.
She apparently asked a stunned junior employee about her preferences before brandishing the unwanted nude image, the identity of which is unknown.
The story is thought to have been kept secret for some time, remaining the subject of gossip within the BBC’s offices.
A source told The Sun: ‘As soon as the name of this woman – and details of her bad behaviour – are unleashed, it will derail entire departments and mark the first female to be formally swept up into the BBC’s wrongdoing roll call.
‘It was meant to be jokey, locker-room type banter, but the woman was completely horrified and cried about it.
‘No one minds a bit of office banter, but this was on another level. She felt like it was an intentionally shocking move to intimidate, veiled as a joke. It was way too much.’
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘While we do not comment on individual cases, we take all complaints about conduct at work extremely seriously.’
It’s the latest saga to strike the BBC, after MasterChef star John Torode was sacked from the show for allegedly using the N-word on set and directing it towards a member of staff.
The Australian-born chef, 59, lost his job at MasterChef after two decades over allegations that he used the N-word, which he claims to have ‘absolutely no recollection’ of.
The BBC said last month that Torode’s contract would not be renewed after a report found he had used an ‘extremely offensive racist term’ following a complaint from a member of staff.
It has been previously reported that the presenter, who also hosts a cookery show with his wife Lisa Faulkner on ITV, used the N-word while singing along to a Kanye West song during a wrap party in 2019.
But BBC News has since reported this was not the incident which led to the complaint upheld by the report.
This instead related to another incident a year earlier, when he allegedly used the same word on set after filming an episode of Masterchef and it was directed at a member of staff.
The news site added that the upheld allegation of racist language was one of nine complaints made against Torode in the report, which also related to allegations of abusive language towards junior production staff and sexual language, and which were not upheld.
These allegations were not upheld as they were unsubstantiated due to a lack of evidence or witnesses.
The complaint against Torode was revealed in the report into co-presenter Gregg Wallace’s inappropriate behaviour. Wallace, 60, was sacked after more than 40 complaints against him were upheld.
The report also included one further complaint which was upheld relating to a third unnamed person, supposedly a MasterChef senior executive who was accused of swearing, according to BBC News.
The news site said it has contacted that executive but has not heard back.
Meanwhile, a Banijay spokesperson said the allegation is being handled ‘appropriately internally’.
Torode has never defended his MasterChef colleague Wallace when allegations against him first emerged in December last year.
In a statement at the time the Australian chef said the claims were ‘truly upsetting’ and the ‘thought of anyone who has appeared on our show not having a brilliant experience is awful to hear’.
Wallace was said to be ‘furious’ with his former co-star and unfollowed him and his wife Lisa on Instagram.
Last month, Wallace was banned from working at the BBC after executives ruled they did not ‘have the confidence that you can change what seems to be learned behaviour’.
In a letter of dismissal from Claire Powell, head of compliance for BBC Television, the corporation made clear that Wallace would not work as a BBC presenter following an investigation into his behaviour on MasterChef.
When coming to the judgement the BBC said they took into account Wallace’s autism diagnosis but concluded that he ‘struggled to distinguish the boundaries between appropriate and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace’ despite training in 2019.
The independent report by Lewis Silkins, which was commissioned by Masterchef producers Banijay in November after the initial allegations, has yet to be published but Wallace has insisted he has been cleared of the most serious allegations of groping.
But it is understood that he has been found guilty of making repeated inappropriate comments which he considered ‘banter’.
Defending himself, Wallace recognised ‘that some of my humour and language, at times, was inappropriate’ for which he apologised ‘without reservation’.
Wallace has been blasted by disability charities for using his autism as an excuse for his alleged inappropriate behaviour.
He claimed that television executives had failed to ‘investigate my disability’ or ‘protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment’.
Fifty people came forward this week with fresh allegations about Wallace, including inappropriate sexual comments, touching and groping, which he vehemently denies.
Elsehwere in the Corporation, the BBC‘s head of music stepped back from her role after the broadcaster admitted that punk duo Bob Vylan were assessed as ‘high risk’ before their controversial performance at Glastonbury – and yet still allowed on air.
Lorna Clarke is among a small number of senior staff who have temporarily withdrawn from their day-to-day duties covering music and live events.
Clarke, who is on an annual salary of £215,000, was stood down so she could focus on the investigation into why the BBC failed to cut the feed during Bob Vylan’s appearance, The Times Reports.
It comes after the corporation has faced a furious backlash following last Sunday’s set that included the duo’s frontman calling out ‘Death to the IDF’ and ‘Free Palestine‘.
The performance at the West Holts Stage was livestreamed but the organisation later expressed regret for not stopping its broadcast of the set.
