BBC Director General Tim Davie happened to be out and about at a Voice of The Listener and Viewer event when the allegations about the conduct of former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood publicly surfaced, thanks to a BBC/Guardian investigation, at the end of April.
Mr Davie then said the allegations were "shocking" and the testimony of the women was "powerful and appalling".
"I've asked and we've looked at our records and we've seen no evidence," he said. "If something like this were raised or anything comes up, we investigate it fully. "
The investigative team had raised a Freedom of Information request in November 2021, asking if the BBC had received any complaints against Westwood during his time in its employment. Then, the BBC's line was that it could "neither confirm nor deny whether the BBC holds the requested information".
At the end of April, when the story broke, the BBC line changed; it did not "hold information that is helpful for this investigation".
Now, a full seven months from the first FOI, the BBC says there were six complaints while Westwood worked for the BBC. "We are aware that one of these complaints was referred to police and Westwood was spoken to in relation to another complaint. We are not aware what further action was taken at this stage. As a result of this, we are looking into what action was taken at the time."
The Controllers of Radio 1 during Westwood's employment (from 1994 to 2012) were Matthew Bannister, Andy Parfitt, and Ben Cooper.
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