Sacked BBC presenter says homophobia was ignored

A former BBC radio presenter and journalist told a tribunal he was not supported with homophobic abuse and death threats he received.

Jack Murley, from Bodmin, was sacked as a presenter with BBC Radio Cornwall in 2024, after five years working at the station.

He was dismissed by the BBC for posts on social media which the corporation said "breached applicable policies".

A tribunal in Exeter heard how Mr Murley believed he was discriminated against for being gay and being a union representative.

On 29 June 2023 Mr Murley said he was asked to call his then manager Emma Clements, the executive editor at BBC Radio Cornwall.

In his written witness statement he said "she brusquely told me that she’d conducted a review of BBC Radio Cornwall’s social media and found I’d broken guidelines for weeks”.

Mr Murley admitted that he was upset by this conversation and Jesse Crozier, barrister for the BBC, told the tribunal that Miss Clements described his reaction as "angry".

In her witness statement she said: "He raised his voice and swore at me."

She added that he refused to delete any of his social media posts and she tried to offer support on the call.

Mr Murley told the tribunal this was Pride month and a time when he received “even more homophobic abuse than normal, including death threats and threats of torture”.

He said his tweets were in response to people who had sent offensive messages to him and he did not agree that they broke BBC social media guidelines.

Mr Murley said he was upset that Ms Clements had seen his posts, and denied that she had offered him support with regards to the abuse he had received.

It was the “most serious example of BBC management ignoring the homophobia,” he said in his witness statement.

He added that Ms Clements' tone left him "feeling harassed, bullied and shaken".

On 30 June Mr Murley was removed from his BBC duties, subject to disciplinary proceedings.

He said he did not receive evidence of what he was dismissed for until 21 September.

He told the tribunal he asked multiple managers if it was due to his sexual orientation and trade union representation, but did not receive a clear answer to this.

Mr Crozier said a BBC internal investigation found “no evidence” the approach taken “was to single [Mr Murley] out”, and an appeal concluded he had been treated fairly and reasonably.

The claimant's barrister, Nick Toms, asked Mr Murley why he did not accept this evidence.

Among his reasons he highlighted messages sent in a Cornwall Management Whatsapp group which said he was "frothing" over what he called homophobic posts on social media.

Mr Murley claimed managers had also described his posts on LGBT content as "troll baiting".

The tribunal continues.

You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.