BBC used convicted paedophiles to chauffeur for over 30 years (2024)

The BBC used convicted paedophiles to chauffeur celebrities and high-profile guests for over 30 years, it has been claimed.

A chauffeur service headed by a man with convictions that included raping a child at gunpoint was used by the BBC from the late 70s until 2006.

Niven Sinclair was paid millions as his firm transported celebrities - including Jimmy Saville and high-profile guests such as then-Prime Minister Ted Heath - to and from the corporation's studios.

The BBC itself issued glowing praise for Sinclair as being a 'wily and determined' man who 'built a reputation for digging programmes out of holes'.

Also known as Niven Cars, his business had 150 cars being driven for the BBC at one stage,The Telegraph reported.

One of the drivers - David Smith - went on to abuse at least two children at the studios.

The newspaper spoke to one of Smith's victims and revealed he is considering suing the under-fire broadcaster in the latest of scandals to batter the BBC.

Both Sinclair and Smith had BBC passes and the cars used to drive the celebrities used number plates referring to the corporation.

Smith began working as a chauffeur for the broadcaster in the early 1980s - and he had already racked up five convictions for abusing children.

It is understood that he was convicted in 1989 of abusing another child, and reportedly remained working for the firm until the early 90s.

Shockingly, Dame Janet Smith's investigation following the Jimmy Savile scandal failed to identify either of the men.

One of Smith's victims told The Telegraph he was sexually abused between the ages of 12 and 14 and believes the BBC should be 'held to account' for a lack of vetting.

Smith pleaded guilty to abusing him in 2001, and the victim said one of the allegations regarded an incident at the BBC's Television Centre in West London.

He was convicted of abusing another child in 2001 who went on to kill himself in 2015.

It is understood he told his family he had been abused at the BBC's studios.

The victim 'hope[s] to understand is whether or not the BBC have been negligent in the way that they have dealt with child sexual abuse and particularly, surrounding Niven Sinclair and Niven Cars and people that worked for him', he told the newspaper.

Smith accumulated 22 convictions for child abuse at the time of his death in 2013, on the eve of another sexual abuse trial.

Court documents at the time revealed he 'was contracted to work as a driver for the BBC'.

His boss, Sinclair, began working for the BBC in 1977 and ran a 'significant' part of its transport. But chillingly, he already had convictions for abusing children in 1961, 1967 and 1971 and served several years behind bars.

The BBC itself described him as the 'driving force' and 'hero' of the organisation who 'delivered thousands of guests to the studio on time' in an article about the driver.

He assisted both Panorama and Newsnight and in 2005 had 92 cars 'working around the clock for scores of programmes'. The corporation also said he was at meetings on election night.

In 2000, Sinclair's contract was suspended for cost-saving reasons but he was later brought back and reportedly demanded a 'stiff' price. He died 17 years later.

Sinclair pleaded guilty to possessing a Beretta automatic pistol without a firearms certificate, having it in a public place and having a pistol despite being a convict in 1971.

He was given three concurrent two-year prison terms.

In 1966, he got five years for buggery and indecent assault on one boy and a second ­indecent assault on a 12-year-old.

In 1971, he was convicted of buggery and sexual assault of four boys aged 13 to 14.

Sinclair groomed boys by paying them for odd jobs, offering them wine before forcing himself on them at his flat in Stanmore, North West London.

He was jailed for six months in June 1961 for indecent assaults on two boys.

He only stopped working for the BBC in 2005, when he was 82-years-old.

In 2016, Sinclair told the Sunday People: 'I was contracted to the BBC via my company, I was never a direct employee so there was never any reason for them to check about my convictions.

'But that was a very different chapter in my life. The only reason I'm being dragged into this now is because of Jimmy Savile.'

A BBC spokesman said: 'Today's BBC has incredibly robust safeguarding policies and processes, which have been strengthened decade upon decade.

'If people have any complaints or concerns to put to us we want to hear from them, and they will be treated with the utmost care and seriousness.'

The revelation comes just days after BBC star Jermaine Jenas, 41, was let go by the corporation after women complained about his workplace conduct.

A junior member of staff - said to have been previously impressed by theBBC star - raised concerns over alleged flirty texts.

The football pundit was fired by the BBC this week over 'alleged issues relating to workplace behaviour', which the broadcaster confirmed involved 'digital communications such as texts, which were raised with the corporation a few weeks ago'.

Other women have since come forward as messages allegedly sent by Jenas are being investigated.

BBC bosses axed Jenas so quickly not even Alex Jones knew about it as he was airbrushed off publicity websites within minutes - in contrast to Huw Edwards who stayed on the payroll for 10 months in a move which was heavily criticised.

The contrast with Edwards is striking, with the BBC continuing to pay him a salary from July last year - when The Sun informed them of allegations he had paid a teenager for sexual images - until April, when he resigned on medical advice.

The 63-year-old has now been asked by the BBC to hand back the estimated £200,000 he received in the five months after his arrest in November on three counts of making indecent images of children.

The case of Huw Edwards dogged the BBC from the moment the first allegations emerged, with the corporation announcing a day after the story that it would investigate the allegations and contact the Met Police.

In yet another blow to the BBC's reputation, Strictly Come Dancing came under scrutiny when Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima were on the receiving end of allegations they had mistreated their celebrity dance partners.

Giovanni has vehemently denied any wrongdoing while Graziano, 30, initially confirmed and regretted his actions against Zara McDermott.

The BBC has been rocked by scandals in recent years stretching back decades as flagship faces including Jimmy Savile and Stuart Hall hid a secret dark side

Huw Edwards wasjust the latest in a long series of paedophiles who have worked at the BBC, many of whom have been exposed following the Savile scandal which rocked the corporation in the early 2010s.

The reputation of the BBC has been marred by one paedophile scandal after another dating back over half a century.

The BBC's most prolific paedophile scandal concerned presenter Jimmy Savile, who died before allegations of his sexual abuse of young children became widely known.

He faced repeated allegations during his life but refuted them, and was the subject of two police investigations - although neither led to charges.

In 2009 Savile famously defended viewers of child p*rnography, claiming they 'didn't do anything wrong'.

After his death in 2011 Newsnight drew up a report on Savile's alleged offences, including interviewing survivors, but it was never published.

The following year ITV revealed details of allegations against Savile concerning up to ten women, one of whom was 14 at the time.

As more victims came forward the BBC faced immense scrutiny over how Savile was permitted to abuse girls and women for decades, including those who were seriously ill in hospital.

It is thought up to 450 young people were assaulted by the presenter.

Police recorded 199 crimes in 17 police force areas in which Savile was a suspect, among them 31 allegations of rape.

The crimes stretched 1955 to 2009 and allegations included the abuse of desperately ill children and necrophilia with corpses at included Leeds General Infirmary mortuary.

BBC bosses were accused of staging various cover-ups to protect Savile, who committed the offences at hospitals and locations across the country including BBC Television Centre.

Chris Denning, one of the original Radio 1 presenters, was repeatedly found guilty of various child sex offences until his death in 2022.

He was a member of the paedophile ring the Walton Hop in the 1970s and was first convicted for gross indecency and indecent assault in 1974.

Presenter and singer-singwriter Jonathan King was another member of the Walton Hop with Denning and rose to fame with his hit song, Everyone's Gone to the Moon.

The 1980s saw him in prominent roles on the BBC including on Top of the Pops.

But in 2001 King's success ended as he was convicted of sexual offences committed between 1983 and 1987 against five boys aged 14 and 15, for which he was jailed for seven years.

Several other trials either collapsed or King was not convicted.

Actor Chris Langham, who starred in the BBC's hit series The Thick of It as cabinet minister Hugh Abbott, became a familiar face - and voice - on the BBC after featuring in a series of radio shows and TV series.

Langham, 75, was named Best Comedy Actor in the 2005 British Comedy Awards and won the Best Comedy Performance award for his role in The Thick of It.

But in 2005 the actor was arrested by Kent Police as part of Operation Ore, which targeted credit-card customers paying to access indecent and abusive images of children on the internet.