The chairwoman of BBC Children in Need has resigned, after reports she protested over grants given to an LGBTQ+ youth charity whose former chief executive was jailed for child-sex offences 15 years ago.
Rosie Millard, a former BBC journalist, served as Children In Need’s boss for six years.
In the letter, seen by The Times, Millard reportedly criticised the charity and its chief executive Simon Antrobus for his response to the controversy after it emerged that Children In Need provided funding to LGBT Youth Scotland (LGBTYS), an organisation supporting queer youngsters in the devolved nation.
In 2009, the LGBTYS’s chief exective Jame Rennie was convicted of the sexual abuse of a young boy and was involved in what was thought at the time to be Scotland’s biggest paedophile network.
Grants from Children In Need to LGBTYS, which eventually totalled £466,000 (more than $580,000), began seven months later.
LGBTYS hit the headlines again this year after a former service user, Andrew Eaton, was convicted of sharing indecent images of children, including some of newborn babies. Eaton had contributed to who contributed to schools guidance put together by LGBT Youth Scotland in 2010, but was never an employee of the charity.
In May of this year, grants to LGBTYS were suspended after Millard alerted alerted the charity to the 2009 case and funding was withdrawn three months later.
A spokesman for Children in Need said: “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of all children and young people. When allegations were made in relation to LGBT Youth Scotland, their grant was immediately suspended with the full support of the board and a review began.
“To do this thoroughly and fairly, the review took three months and culminated in the decision to withdraw funding.”
However, Millard has accused the charity of “institutional failure” and claimed that Antrobus did not address the matter “with the necessary level of seriousness”, saying he hesitated for months.
Millard claimed that Antrobus and the charity’s board “did everything in their power to distract the board from its duty to sever funding” during the review period and only finally did so so out of fear about bad publicity.
Antrobus has not publicly commented on Millard’s resignation.
In a statement shared with The Times, Mhairi Crawford, the current chief executive of LGBTYS, said Millard’s resignation letter “demonstrates the ideologically driven nature of her attacks on our organisation”.
She went on to say: “We are pleased to see confirmation that Children in Need’s investigations into the work of LGBT Youth Scotland found nothing to report.
“Time and time again, those with anti-inclusivity motives point to historic allegations in attempts to destroy our reputation, allegations that have been investigated and cleared by Police Scotland, and proven to have had no link to our work.”
Rape Crisis England and Wales works towards the elimination of sexual abuse. If you’ve been affected by the issues raised in this story, you can access more information on their website or by calling the National Rape Crisis Helpline on 0808 802 9999. Rape Crisis Scotland’s helpline number is 08088 01 03 02.
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