Corporation says it will reconsider renaming section of BBC Broadcasting House if sex abuse claim is proved

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

The BBC has said it will reconsider naming part of its new London headquarters after the late DJ John Peel, if a claim he made a 15-year-old pregnant is proved.

Friday's Daily Mail claimed that Peel had unprotected sex with Jane Nevin when she was 15.

Nevin became pregnant after a brief affair with the DJ but did not tell him and had an abortion, according to the Mail. About 30 years later she wrote to Peel about their encounters and he wrote back expressing his relief that she was not writing to tell him he had a secret child.

Nevin told the Daily Mail she had come forward after reading the stories about alleged sexual abuse of underage girls by Jimmy Savile in the past few days.

A BBC spokesman said: "Clearly, in the event of proven allegations of sexual abuse the BBC would re-consider its decision on the naming of part of our new building."

Earlier this year the corporation announced that a section of the newly refurbished BBC Broadcasting House in central London would be called the John Peel Wing in tribute to the former Radio 1 presenter, who died in 2004.

At the time then director general Mark Thompson described Peel as a "great ambassador" for the corporation.

However, since the ITV1 Exposure documentary last week aired claims of sexual abuse of underage girls by Jimmy Savile in the 1970s and 1980s, the conduct of other Radio 1 DJs has come under scrutiny.

Peel, who was the victim of sexual abuse at school, openly joked he "didn't ask for ID" when young women wanted to sleep with him.

The part of the newly redeveloped Broadcasting House that the BBC is set to name after Peel was known as the Egton Wing and it houses the entrance to Radio 1.

BBC staff are still being moved into the new building. Some are understood to be concerned that naming part of Broadcasting House after Peel might now prove awkward and embarrassing for the corporation.

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