Earlier, the BBC released its own timeline into when it first became aware of the allegations being made against an un-named presenter. Here's a reminder of them:

• 18 May: A family member of a young person attends a BBC building to make a complaint about a BBC presenter
• 19 May: The complainant contacts BBC Audience Services; the details are referred to the BBC’s Corporate Investigations Team
• 19 May: That team emails the complainant seeking additional information - there was no response
• 6 June: Having received no response to the email, a phone call was made to the mobile number provided by the complainant - this call did not connect.
• "No additional attempts to contact the complainant were made after 6 June, however the case remained open throughout"
• 6 July: The Sun informs the BBC via the press office, of allegations concerning a BBC presenter
• On the same day the presenter is spoken to by a senior manager and then taken off air while the allegations are investigated
• 9 July: On Sunday the BBC suspends the unnamed presenter

Has a criminal offence been committed?published at 19:29 British Summer Time 11 July 2023

19:29 BST 11 July 2023

Helena Wilkinson
BBC News correspondent

Detectives at the Met are working towards trying to establish one thing: Is there evidence that a criminal offence has been committed?

But given the claim and counter-claim that have been made publicly over the past days, it may not be straight forward getting to that answer.

The allegation from the mother of the young person is that her child was 17 when the BBC presenter started paying them in exchange for explicit photos for thousands of pounds.

The young person has said - through a lawyer - their mother’s claims are rubbish.

Under the Protection of Children Act 1978, it is a crime to take, make, share or possess indecent images of people under 18.

While the Met carries out its inquiries, it has asked the BBC to pause its own investigations. That will allow detectives to get on with their job cleanly.

The detectives assigned to the task are from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command - a team who investigate a wide range of cases, including murders, fraud and sexual offences.

It’s important to remember the police have not at this stage started a criminal investigation.

The Sun is effectively passing over the legal difficulties involved in its story about the unnamed presenter to the BBC by not naming them, the former editor of the Guardian has said.

Normally, a newspaper would name a person it was accusing of wrongdoing, Alan Rusbridger told Sky News, suggesting it was "curious" the Sun had not yet done so.

"If the story was pitched as high as they were pitching it initially.. they could have argued the public interest defence in court if there was subsequent legal action."

Rusbridger said it felt to him that the Sun was not "entirely on solid ground" - and was instead "goading the BBC into trying to do their dirty work for them".

On Friday, the Sun published allegations that a BBC presenter paid a young person £35,000 for explicit photos over three years - money the person's mother said was used to fund a crack cocaine habit.

The Sun says the person's parents turned to them after their complaints to the BBC failed to lead to the presenter being spoken to or taken off air.

The BBC says it twice tried, unsuccessfully, to make contact with the complainant. It was only when the Sun story broke that the director general and executive directors were told about the case, the BBC says.

On Sunday the presenter was suspended.

A lawyer for the young person has disputed the parents’ account - to which the parents replied they stood by their allegations.

The Met is assessing the allegations but there is currently no police investigation.

On Tuesday afternoon, the BBC quoted a person in their early 20s as saying that the same BBC presenter contacted them on a dating app, pressured them to meet up, and later sent abusive and threatening messages.

Image source, EPA

If you're just joining us, here's a recap of what's happened today so far:

• A police force has confirmed it was contacted in April about the unnamed presenter by the parents of the young person at the centre of allegations reported in the Sun. The force says the "no criminality was identified" at the time but that further enquiries are now ongoing
• Meanwhile, a second young person has made allegations to the BBC about the unnamed presenter. The individual, who is in their early 20s, said the presenter put them under pressure to meet up. When the young person hinted online they might name the presenter, they were sent abusive, expletive-filled messages
• Earlier, the BBC set out a timeline detailing when the allegations were made to the broadcaster.
• In it, the corporation said senior managers only put the claims to the presenter last Thursday - seven weeks after the initial complaint

• In an interview with the BBC, director general Tim Davie defended the BBC's response, insisting the right process had to be followed before the presenter was approached by a senior manager
• He also said he had asked a senior BBC figure to look into whether the corporation's processes for raising "red flags" are fit for purpose in light of the recent revelations

With stories like this one, BBC News journalists treat the BBC in the same way as any other organisation the news service reports on.

And like with any other organisation, BBC News has to ask BBC management or BBC services for responses and contact the BBC press office for official statements.

Occasionally, BBC journalists approach senior managers for unplanned interviews - known as "doorsteps" in the news business.

They sometimes also get offered interviews with management, like this one with director general Tim Davie over the Gary Lineker row.

The BBC has just received a statement from a police force confirming two points made by the parents of the young person at the centre of allegations reported in the Sun against an unnamed BBC presenter.

• The force confirms that it was contacted in April. It also says that "no criminality was identified"
• The force has now met the Metropolitan Police and the BBC and "as a result of recent developments, further enquiries are ongoing to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence"

As a reminder, the BBC has confirmed the parents first complained to the corporation on 18 May.

Why did police tell BBC to pause internal probe?published at 16:17 British Summer Time 11 July 2023

16:17 BST 11 July 2023

Dominic Casciani
Legal correspondent

One of the most significant things we have learned today is that the Metropolitan Police detectives who met BBC representatives yesterday, to learn what they knew about the allegations, asked the corporation to "pause" its own investigation.

They asked for that internal work to stop while they establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed.

That puts real flesh on the bones of what we know about the police's involvement.

The fact the police made this request shows they are taking what they have been told very seriously and need time, unhindered, to do their job.

Even though there is no open criminal investigation, police officers are thinking ahead to a time when they may need to take statements or gather evidence that could become evidence in court.

They don’t want anything they gather, particularly first-hand accounts, to be tainted or influenced. They don’t want their job to be made harder than it may already be.

More now on those fresh claims made by a second young person against the BBC presenter.

After the young person and the presenter had first connected on the dating app, the conversation moved to other platforms.

At this stage, the presenter revealed his identity and told the young person not to tell anyone.

Later, the young person alluded online to having contact with a BBC presenter, and implied they would name him at some point.

The presenter reacted by sending a number of threatening messages, which BBC News has seen.

Read our full story here.

A young person has told BBC News they felt threatened by the BBC presenter at the centre of a row over payment for sexually explicit photos.

The individual in their early 20s was first contacted anonymously by the male presenter on a dating app. They say they were put under pressure to meet up but never did.

When the young person hinted online they might name the presenter, they were sent abusive, expletive-filled messages.

Speaking to BBC News, the young person - who has no connection to the person at the centre of the Sun's story about payments for photos - said they had been scared by the power the presenter held.

They said the threats made in the messages had frightened them - and they remain scared.

The new allegations of menacing and bullying behaviour by the high-profile presenter raise fresh questions about his conduct.

BBC News has contacted the presenter directly and via his lawyer but has received no response to the latest allegations.

The board of the BBC must take "full responsibility" for the current crisis, the chairman of Ofcom has said, as he downplayed the prospects of the family at the centre of the claims being able to pursue a complaint with the broadcasting watchdog.

Asked at the Lords' Communications and Digital Committee whether the family may have "recourse" to contact Ofcom if the case is not found to be a matter for the police and they are dissatisfied with the BBC's handling of the allegations, Baron Michael Grade said: "I very much doubt it. I think it (wouldn't) be unless it was a specific programme complaint, a content complaint or a complaint that the BBC had somehow breached its charter... then obviously we would look at it, but I don't see us getting involved in this one way or another."

Lord Grade added: "It is for the board of the BBC to take full responsibility for this present crisis."

Earlier this afternoon, a former chair of the Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee said questions remained about how the BBC handled the initial complaint in May about the unnamed presenter.

Conservative MP Damian Collins told BBC Radio 4: "There is a perception that not much was done... until it was reported in the press, and then there was a more active participation by BBC management.

"Why wasn't more done sooner, when the allegations were made?"

Collins said the BBC needed to look into what happens when a serious allegation comes in and how it's looked at.

Collins added it might not be "sustainable" for the presenter to remain anonymous if the person in question is off-air for a long time and everybody in the industry knows who it is.

Earlier, the BBC released its own timeline into when it first became aware of the allegations being made against an un-named presenter. Here's a reminder of them:

• 18 May: A family member of a young person attends a BBC building to make a complaint about a BBC presenter
• 19 May: The complainant contacts BBC Audience Services; the details are referred to the BBC’s Corporate Investigations Team
• 19 May: That team emails the complainant seeking additional information - there was no response
• 6 June: Having received no response to the email, a phone call was made to the mobile number provided by the complainant - this call did not connect.
• "No additional attempts to contact the complainant were made after 6 June, however the case remained open throughout"
• 6 July: The Sun informs the BBC via the press office, of allegations concerning a BBC presenter
• On the same day the presenter is spoken to by a senior manager and then taken off air while the allegations are investigated
• 9 July: On Sunday the BBC suspends the unnamed presenter

The BBC director general spoke to the World at One on BBC Radio 4 earlier this afternoon.

Earlier BBC director general Tim Davie said the corporation had been asked to pause its investigation by the Met Police.

Now the Met has released a statement to this effect:

"We have asked the BBC to pause its own investigation while we continue our assessment to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed.

"The assessment is being led by detectives from the Met's Specialist Crime Command and follows a virtual meeting with representatives from the BBC on the morning of Monday, 10 July.

"There remains no police investigation at this time."

We've just been hearing from the BBC's director general on Radio 4's World at One.

Here are some key points that came out:

• Tim Davie says the BBC's corporate investigations teams decided the allegations were serious after assessing the first phone call to the corporation, which was 29-minutes long
• However, the director general says the BBC may need to learn lessons and look at whether it raises "red flags quick enough"
• Davie acknowledges that the police "need to do their work"
• He says he doesn't know whether the presenter in question paid for the young person's legal fees and said it's not a matter for the BBC
• The director general said it isn't "odd" that he hasn't spoken to the presenter
• The BBC chief also admits that the allegations are damaging to the BBC but says the corporation is making the "right calls" balancing between duty of care, privacy and a serious allegation.

You can listen back to the full interview here

Finally, Davie re-emphasises that the BBC needs to "strike the right balance" between duty of care, privacy and a serious allegation.

He accepts there is a duty of care to those affected and believes the BBC is making "the right calls in all of those pressures".

Davie then admits these allegations are damaging to the BBC: "It is not a good situation," he says.

But he says he cares about the BBC's newsroom's ability to report "independently, without fear or favour".

"The BBC by going at the story absolutely independently maintains strong levels of trust. Organisationally, we're doing the right thing... We'll be as transparent as we can."

The director general says the information came to him on 6 July and "we acted swiftly".

Sarah Montague asked him is he's "satisfied with the timetable".

Tim Davie responds by saying he thinks that's the "wrong characterisation", there's always lessons to learn and valid question on how complaints are red flagged.

Davie is asked whether it is odd, given why reputation is so important for the BBC, that the director general hasn't spoken to the presenter concerned.

"I think it is critical they are spoken to a very senior manager," Davie answers.

As director general he feels he is "playing the right role" in overseeing the situation.