Tim Westwood hit with bullying allegation while working at BBC Radio 1-Cydney Yeates-Entertainment – Metro

Tim Westwood was a presenter at BBC Radio 1 for 19 years (Picture: Getty)

Tim Westwood faced a bullying allegation while he worked as a DJ at BBC Radio 1, reports claim.

Earlier this month, another 10 women claimed they are victims of sexual misconduct by Westwood, with one alleging he had sex with her when she was 14.

Westwood previously strongly denied other allegations of sexual misconduct, with his reps saying in a past statement: ‘Tim Westwood strongly denies all allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

‘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.’

Since then, the Guardian has reported that a former BBC employee raised concerns about ‘unacceptable bullying’ by the presenter when he was employed at Radio 1, but they felt they were warned against taking action.

After the publications joint investigation with BBC News published allegations of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour against Westwood in April, the BBC director general, Tim Davie, originally stated the corporation had no evidence of complaints.

Westwood previously strongly denied other allegations of sexual misconduct (Picture: Getty)

It later confirmed it had received six complaints related to allegations of bullying and sexual misconduct following a freedom of information request from BBC News, and announced an internal investigation would be published.

A former staff member told the Guardian they worked with Westwood in the early 2010s and they shared a timeline of issues they raised on multiple occasions, including alleged ‘unacceptable bullying’.

The employee said the complaints did not relate to sexual misconduct.

They wrote an email to a BBC executive, in which they stated: ‘I have already had a conversation with you about the ongoing difficulties we’re having with Tim’s staffing/duty of care. We’re in a real pickle now as essentially, there’s no one who wants to work on that show.’

The DJ faced a bullying allegation during his time at the BBC (Picture: Getty)

According to the Guardian, the executive replied with a promise to ‘work out what next steps might be needed’ with other senior leaders, adding they had to ‘balance our needs to look after the staff with our need to produce some difficult talent’.

The former staff member claimed they were then spoken to by another senior executive, and was warned to be ‘really careful about saying the words “duty of care”’.

The ex-employee alleged this conversation felt designed to silence. ‘What I got from that was: be quiet, don’t say any more, be careful what you say,’ they told the publication.

‘We are taking this incredibly seriously and want to understand what happened with regard to the BBC,’ a BBC spokesperson said.

‘At the beginning of the month we confirmed we had received a number of complaints relating to allegations of bullying and sexual harassment.

‘As we have set out, we are fully committed to investigating them and when that work has concluded we will publish findings.’

Another former staff member, who worked with Westwood for several years in the 2000s, described a ‘boys’ club’ culture and said official and unofficial complaints had been made about his treatment of co-workers.

‘Everyone knew what he was like,’ they said. ‘There was a culture of “don’t piss off the talent”, and everyone else was fair game.’

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An ex-producer who worked on Westwood’s show said she had experienced sexism, such as him asking others to rate her attractiveness while on air.

‘The culture around it was so normalised that you just dealt with it as part of your job,’ she said.

Westwood quit his Capital Xtra in April after accusations by seven women of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour, which he denied.

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