i think one thing i would say, these are clearly damaging to the bbc, it's not a good situation. at the nato summit in lithuania the member states have agreed to allow ukraine to join nato as soon as conditions are met. ~ ., to join nato as soon as conditions are met. a, , , ., to join nato as soon as conditions are met. , , ., ~ ., are met. more support for ukraine, but not that — are met. more support for ukraine, but not that crucial _ are met. more support for ukraine, but not that crucial timeline - are met. more support for ukraine, but not that crucial timeline for - but not that crucial timeline for ukraine to join nato. but not that crucial timeline for ukraine tojoin nato. find but not that crucial timeline for ukraine to join nato. ukraine to 'oin nato. and protests continue ukraine to join nato. and protests continue in _ ukraine to join nato. and protests continue in israel— ukraine to join nato. and protests continue in israel as _ ukraine to join nato. and protests continue in israel as the _ ukraine to join nato. and protests continue in israel as the country's| continue in israel as the country's parliament pushes ahead with a new law aimed at restricting judges powers. welcome to verified live, three hours of breaking

we start with breaking news this hour. at the centre of the allegations over paying another young person for explicit pictures. bbc news has spoken to a young person in their early 20s who says they felt threatened by the same bbc presenter who is currently this young person was first contacted anonymously by the bbc presenter via a dating app — and claims the presenter then sent menacing messages. helen know wilkinson is in the studio with me right now watching the development of the story, just take us through this second set of claims. fix, take us through this second set of claims. �* , ., take us through this second set of claims. �* ,, , ,., take us through this second set of claims. �* ,, , .,, ., take us through this second set of claims. , ., “ claims. a young person has told bbc news that they _ claims. a young person has told bbc news that they felt _ claims. a young person has told bbc news that they felt threatened - claims. a young person has told bbc news that they felt threatened by i news that they felt threatened by the bbc presenter at the centre of other allegations. the young person in their early 20s was first contacted a nominative —— anonymously by the bbc presenter on

anonymously by the bbc presenter on a dating app, they were put under pressure to meet up but they never did. they were then sent abusive, expletive filled messages, speaking to bbc news the young person who has no connection at all to the person at the centre of the other allegations, we've been reporting over another —— a number of days. they've been scared by the power the presenter held, the threats made in the messages that have been seen and verified by abc news frightened them and they remained scared. new allegations by this young person of menacing and potentially bullying behaviour by the high profile presenter raised fresh questions about his conduct. bbc news has contacted a presenter directly and via his lawyer but has received no response to these latest allegations. there is also ——. the

allegations. there is also --. the erson allegations. there is also --. the person involved _ allegations. there is also --. the person involved in _ allegations. there is also ——. the person involved in the allegations over these sexually explicit photographs they learned from the parents they contacted the police over what, over the behaviour they described as inappropriate heavier between the child and the bbc presenter. we'vejust between the child and the bbc presenter. we've just received this station —— statement at the centre of the allegations on the first one is the forces confirmed that it was contacted in april, remembered the parents say and we know this now from the bbc they contacted the bbc in may so the following months. and

when the charon �*s contacted the police force the parents told us that no criminality was identified and the force in question has now met the metropolitan police and the bbc. and it says as a result of recent developments further inquiries are ongoing to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence and as a reminder as i mentioned the bbc confirmed the parents first complained to the corporation on the 18th of may. the metropolitan police has today confirmed that they've asked the bbc to pause their investigations while the metropolitan police carry out inquiries. there is no formal terminal investigation at this stage but they are carrying out inquiries to see if a criminal offence might have been committed. helena, thanks for taking us through that, the very latest coming to us from the prime

minister, his spokesperson in vilnius, he is there at the nato summit so let's just take you to what number ten is saying, press secretary said she hadn't seen the latest reports about the bbc presenter that hannah was just talking about, but repeated that these were "serious and concerning allegations" the press secretary said in general anyone who's been a victim of the nature of these allegations of course would call on these people to come forward to ensure they are supported and their claims are looked into. that latest coming from number ten from the team with the uk prime minister in vilnius. while a little earlier the bbc had released new details into the investigation initial claims against the presenter. the bbc�*s director general tim devi confirmed

that the presenter was not spoken to about the issue until seven weeks after the initial complaint where new information had emerged. the allegations had been clearly damaging. the bbc has been asked to pause its investigation by the police while they make further inquiries. new detail has been given by the bbc today, so on the 18th of may of the complaint and went to a bbc building to make the initial allegation. the following day the complaint was assessed by the bbc�*s corporate investigations team, that team decided the complaint did not

include an allegation of criminality, but nonetheless merited further allegation. then there was a delay almost three weeks to june the 6th where the bbc made delay almost three weeks tojune the 6th where the bbc made a... no further attempts were made to contact the complaint and for a month. that takes us tojuly six where the bbc... allegations it was intending to publish. director general tim davies said he was made aware of the matter for the first time. the first conversation was made with the presenter at the centre of the allegations. the following day the sun published its story, the bbc said it made contact with the complaint and on that day and also spoke to the police. and on july the 9th it confirmed the presenter had been suspended. he was

questioned by my colleague, sarah montague. things did suddenly pick up and kick in from last thursday when the sun reported it, but when you look at the timeline, the question is partly because the bbc said the sun's report contained new allegations — what was the initial complaint? in terms of the situation we've got on our hands, i want to say one thing upfront, which is you are balancing serious allegations, duty of care, privacy issues and legitimate public interests, and how do you navigate that fairly, calmly and do due diligence? i've given a bit of context to a few people in terms of the numbers of issues we get coming into our corporate investigations unit. over six months, that will be about 250 and you take those and they are the serious complaints that are coming through of

all different types. what happens is we have an outstanding corporate investigations team, they're very experienced, they assess the complaint. i'm not going to go into the absolute specifics because of privacy concerns... i understand that, but the question of how it differed because clearly it was judged to be not illegal when it was assessed back in may, but serious enough. how did it differ from the sun's report? i want to be careful in terms of what i can give you about the specifics of the complaint. the facts are there that the corporate investigations team looked at the log that is a summary of the call. we've got clear records of an interaction that lasted through the call and the summary of that call of 29 minutes, that summary then goes to the corporate investigations team, passed by audience services and they assessed it. so exactly as you say.

in that summary, in the information that the bbc became aware of at that stage, was it clear that — as the family have suggested — that there were contacts made and they dated back three years from when the child was 20? i cannot get into specifics. what i would say is it was clearly serious allegations. they were serious because the corporate investigations team decided to push forward and investigate the case. it's very important that the team saw them as serious allegations. which seems weird that the presenter was only spoken to onjuly the 6th. let's talk about that for a minute because i think that is a really important point. if you've got an allegation coming into a corporate investigations team, i think you need to balance the concerns of duty of care,

privacy, all those things i've talked about, i don't think you take that complaint directly to a presenter. if you just work that through, if anything that comes through or anything that hasn't been verified just gets brought in front of someone, i would say it's important at that point to validate that, to have not just the audience services team, but the specialists talk to that individual, understand their concerns and go through that process. but there were only two attempts made to contact the family, one by e—mail, one by phone. does that seem fine to you? one of the things i've said today is i think that's a fair question and as director—general i want to look at a couple of things. the first thing is, immediately, do we raise the red flags quick enough on complaints of this nature? and the second is the processes and protocols — there may well be some learnings from this case. the case was kept open so that does

not mean we had finished. we have a process where we keep going back, we leave a bit of time and then we go back, so the case was kept open... you left an awful lot of time when you consider that was the 18th or 19th of may until last thursday. you can see from the timeline, they were contacted, there was no response. we can debate how many times that should have happened, but the allegations were taken seriously. do you think it's odd that the presenter was only spoken to last thursday? no, because what has happened is simple... and what was his response, has he denied it? i'm not going to get into the specific conversations with the presenter. have you spoken to him? personally, no. he's been spoken to by a senior manager. has he offered to resign? i think we have to respect the privacy of the employee. we're in a strange situation — he has not been named,

but everyone in this building knows who it is and there are an awful lot of people who you also have a duty of care to, male presenters on air, who are having to go on air to say that it's not them. it's not a sustainable situation, is it? it's a very difficult and complex situation and we're trying to calmly and judiciously navigate our way through quite difficult circumstances, whereas i said you've got to balance duty of care issues, privacy issues. i think i would restate that it is absolutely not the right thing to be doing, to speculate. some of the malicious stuff online... understood. ..i would condemn, of course i would, but i have to make those calls, as director—general, in a balanced manner. but this situation isn't sustainable, is it? we need to let the police do their work in terms of seeking evidence and further activity.

have there been any other allegations or complaints made against the same presenter? because this is the subject of an active police discussion in terms of them looking forward, absolutely, i cannot comment on that. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some of the other stories making headlines here in the uk. a jury has concluded that a man stabbed to death a nine—year—old girl as she played in the street last summer. lilia valutyte was fatally stabbed in a street in boston in july last year as she played with a hula hoop, just yards from her mother. deividas skebas was found unfit to plead due to his mental health. in a trial of the facts, the jury determined he had killed lilia. mortgage costs, have hit

their highest level for 15 years, after the rate on a two—year fixed deal — surpassed the peak, in the aftermath of the mini budget. the average rate, on such a deal is now 6.66% — a level not seen since august 2008. meanwhile, wages in the uk excluding bonuses — grew by seven—point—three percent, in the three months to may, compared with last year , equalling the highest growth rate on record. the figures have raised concerns among some analysts, that inflation will stay high for longer. those are some of the headlines here in the uk. you're live with bbc news. i'm joined now byjonathan coad, a media lawyer and pr expert who specialises in reputation management. jonathan thank you so much for joining us here on the programme. we were hearing tim devi they are being asked whether there had been any

more complaints about this presenter and in the last hour we've heard from a second young person. your assessment in terms of where we are. the first thing to say how extraordinary it is that the bbc, as always the first to report the problems by the bbc is the bbc, and your director general has allowed himself to be brutalised, obviously knows whole no holds bars interviews. director general about thejimmy interviews. director general about the jimmy seibel case interviews. director general about thejimmy seibel case and within hours... i imagine that we can all expect that in these circumstances a new spare newspaper editor is unlikely to be that brave. the problems with bbc are absolutely a

minefield here and they are sort of damned and sort of damned if they don't. and one of the presenters, that's right, the lady interviewing, said the situation is now not sustainable with, with other senior bbc presenters having to go online, and go on error saying it's not me. but that is an entirely... bbc there are two organisations that could name, the bbc is one, at least in theory. the sun is the other. the sun they've got bank records... introduce me as a pr expert but also lively gold out films, television programmes, newsprint, magazines, books, i can tell you also being an editorial lawyer, that account of what they have in terms of evidence at sun is correct, they haven't

absolutely bulletproof defence if they publish it. why has the sun not published the name? in they publish it. why has the sun not published the name?— they publish it. why has the sun not published the name? in terms of the 10 one you're — published the name? in terms of the 10 one you're talking _ published the name? in terms of the 10 one you're talking about - published the name? in terms of the 10 one you're talking about in - published the name? in terms of the 10 one you're talking about in terms| 10 one you're talking about in terms of the pressure on them after the young person's lawyer said they had sent a denial to the paper before publication, just your, your view on that aspect of things because so much focus on the bbc about what is your assessment about issues around the newspaper itself? ishiliiile your assessment about issues around the newspaper itself?— the newspaper itself? while i think there are real— the newspaper itself? while i think there are real questions _ the newspaper itself? while i think there are real questions that - the newspaper itself? while i think there are real questions that havel there are real questions that have to be asked about the conduct of the sun in all of this. when that news broke i went back to the sun to read it. the sun six and one of their code says this, newspapers cannot publish misleading or inaccurate material including pictures. all of

those allegations but omitting the fact that the supposed victim of those allegations visit vigorously denies them. could possibly be accurate, if that isn't told to the readers. that's enormously important point. and the other thing to say is we are dealing with the privacy of individual that the sun is saying you know they are very considered —— considerate of the privacy... against this individual�*s wishes, but also what this young person has become essentially is collateral damage in a battle which the sun is fighting with the bbc. what good is this individual to be caught up in all of this? one of the reasons why it is of course, tim devi is going

to be interviewed, obviously that attracts more attention. aha, to be interviewed, obviously that attracts more attention.- attracts more attention. a final thou~ht attracts more attention. a final thought there, _ attracts more attention. a final thought there, what _ attracts more attention. a final thought there, what do - attracts more attention. a final thought there, what do you - attracts more attention. a final. thought there, what do you make attracts more attention. a final- thought there, what do you make of the time that's been put out, in terms of whether the bbc has been transparent enough over recent days, and tim devi talking about the public interests, when does public interest trumps the other two? it’s interest trumps the other two? it's an interest trumps the other two? it�*s an extremely difficult point. 0ne an extremely difficult point. one which the courts have wrestled with, there are two competing rights here. the rights of the individual and the rights of the general public to go what's going on. and as someone who's been a lawyer in this field field 30 years, it is a difficult call to make. i would say that in these very difficult circumstances you asked about transparency, again i go back to the fact that the bbc has published all of these accounts of what is done or what's not done, it's accepted that it could have

done things better, it's put its director general up in the socks to have rotten through thrown at him, i don't think it could have been more transparent. could it possibly have done things better, well yes. but hindsight is a wonderful thing. jonathan we have to leave you there, but thank you so much joining us life on bbc news, thank you for your time. another really important story, becausejust in time. another really important story, because just in the last few minutes the royal mail have issued that their workers have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a deal to end a long—running dispute over payjobs and conditions, that'sjust come from the communication workers union so the royal mail they have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a deal to end their dispute. 0ver pay and conditions, that hasjust come from the cw you. now let's move to nato and lithuania, the summit in

vilnius, ukraine dominating the conversation. exact timetable when ukraine canjoin the conversation. exact timetable when ukraine can join the alliance, leaders are divided about how to handle ukraine's bid for nato membership, nato members are obliged to defend any other member states that come under attack and of course wary of escalating russia's invasion into some sort of all—out global war if ukraine were to join. let's head to vilnius, tour correspondent ben white. then, that is the central thing they have tried to navigate, integrate to ukraine they can join but not set out any sort of specific, exact, timeline. yet, the dilemma is _ specific, exact, timeline. yet, the dilemma is exactly _ specific, exact, timeline. yet, the dilemma is exactly as _ specific, exact, timeline. yet, the dilemma is exactly as it _ specific, exact, timeline. yet, the dilemma is exactly as it is - specific, exact, timeline. yet, the l dilemma is exactly as it is matthew, there is clearly a very keen desire among all nato members here in lithuania to show as much solidarity to ukraine as they can without

sketching out a timeframe for the country's membership of nato, not wanting to do it while there is a conflict under way in ukraine that would of course trickled the article five defence mechanism, that something that no nato member wants to see happen at the moment. but here in the centre of vilnius, i'm just talking to some people here and this concert that is, concert of solidarity for ukraine, there is huge and deep and passionate support for ukraine, and for president zelinski who is actually here and in the last hour addressing the crowd behind me. he told me it was like coming home. he said nato would give ukraine security, ukraine will make nato stronger. earlier this afternoon mr zelensky said a communique and agreement here but didn't sent out a timetable would be absurd, he will be continuing his conversations with nato leaders gathered here tonight and into

tomorrow but nato leaders do not want to pin a date down in terms of when ukraine will actuallyjoin nato. when ukraine will actually 'oin nato. �* when ukraine will actually 'oin nato. ., , ., ., ., when ukraine will actually 'oin nato. ., , ., . . . nato. i've only got a minute and a half and i want _ nato. i've only got a minute and a half and i want to _ nato. i've only got a minute and a half and i want to wash _ nato. i've only got a minute and a half and i want to wash you -- - nato. i've only got a minute and a| half and i want to wash you -- you half and i want to wash you —— you ask you a few quick questions. if cluster bombs are used in ukraine the russian army would be forced to use similar methods. how much of that issue is still being talked about in the use of cluster weapons full? i about in the use of cluster weapons full? ~' about in the use of cluster weapons full? ~ ,, ., full? i think the us made their decision after _ full? i think the us made their decision after the _ full? i think the us made their decision after the request - full? i think the us made their| decision after the request from ukraine to provide their own cluster munitions, one of the few countries in the world that is not a signatory to an agreement that bends their conduct —— construction storage and use. they they can see how in terms of ukraine's fight it will help them try to break down russian defences. but it doesn't really feel like a live issue here, it's a decision that has been made the munitions

will go. b, that has been made the munitions will no. �* w' that has been made the munitions will no. �* x' ., that has been made the munitions will no. �* w' ., ., will go. a quick one on the prime minister, latest _ will go. a quick one on the prime minister, latest thoughts - will go. a quick one on the prime minister, latest thoughts on - will go. a quick one on the prime minister, latest thoughts on the l minister, latest thoughts on the latest allegations on the bbc story. there was a briefing forjournalists just in the last hour with reporters here and the prime minister �*s press secretary had not seen the very latest story about repeated words the prime minister made himself when he was on the plane flying over here this morning, saying that the allegations that have been reported now for two or three days are serious in concerning. the press secretary said in general anyone who has been a victim of these allegations we would call and these people to come forward to show that they are supported and their claims looked into. they are supported and their claims looked into-— looked into. thank you for doing it so briefl , looked into. thank you for doing it so briefly, will— looked into. thank you for doing it so briefly, will be _ looked into. thank you for doing it so briefly, will be back with - so briefly, will be back with more injust a moment. good evening. the shower clouds menacing in the menai straits behind me earlier today. it has been a day of contrasts, really. the sunshine between the showers, but when they've come along, we've had some really torrential downpours, lots of thunder and lightning, some

hail in there as well. a rather more persistent band of rain still across the north of scotland. the showers perhaps fading a little later this evening and overnight across england and wales, but some more persistent rain potentially pushing through northern ireland into southern scotland, again back into north wales and northern england. i think we've lost the humidity, so a more comfortable night for sleeping. but those breezes, that brisk wind will continue to push those showers eastwards overnight and into wednesday with that low pressure close by. perhaps a little respite in the south on thursday, but not for long. the next area of wet and windy weather comes in by the end of the week and then lingers into the weekend. we're set in this trend, really, at the moment of really very unsettled weather. so wednesday dawning with a little bit of sunshine, but the shower cloud soon gets going and they'll be heavy and frequent across northern ireland, scotland, northern england. and there will be showers further south as well. almost nowhere exempt from them, so when they come along, they will move through on that brisk wind coming from the west or the north—west. so it'll feel fresher, but as i say there is still the chance of some showers disrupting the play on wednesday at wimbledon, for example, because they will be

coming through on that brisk breeze at times. squally winds and downpours continue into the evening. they fade a little, then, as we head towards thursday morning in southern areas. again, a pleasant night for sleeping having lost that humidity, fairly cool i should imagine in the suburbs, perhaps into single figures. but that ridge of high pressure's really only around in southern areas. still some heavy showers further north. and then this next area of low pressure pushes back in with some more persistent rain and a bout of strong winds again for friday. but for thursday, again plenty of showers, slow—moving and heavy with the slightly less windy weather in the north. perhaps fewer showers in the south, but there'll still be some around. with a bit more sunshine, temperatures will be a little higher. and then into friday, as our next area of low pressure winds itself in, it will give another spell of quite heavy and thundery rain, strong winds to go with it and following some heavy showers. and you can see it stays unsettled for the most part into the early

part of next week as well.

the family at the centre this is bbc news, the headlines. a bbc presenter accused of paying a teenager for explicit photos faces new claims about a second young person. it comes as the corporation says just two attempts were made,

over several weeks, to contact