Scott Mills

[Merpedy]

I think that’s splitting hairs a bit because saying the police took no action against him makes it clear he denies the allegations because if he didn’t the case wouldn’t have been dropped.

Not really... I read his statement more as "yeah something happened but there were no charges so it's alright and I don't want to comment further about it"

Which again when you consider how low the prosecution rate for these things is not exactly reassuring

 

[Saffron08]

My point is you cannot (legally) sack someone on the basis of unproven allegations.

I have to disagree in my place of employment we did. The evidence whilst at the time wasn't enough for the police to charge was enough to bring our company into disrepute. The burden of proof to meet the evidential test for prosecution is beyond all reasonable doubt in employment the balance of probabilities is enough. Just because mills wasn't charged doesn't mean there was no evidence just that the CPS didn't think it met the threshold. The CPS are notoriously difficult

 

[KatLit]

I didn't say that they would. The employer would need to decide, I was asking, if an allegation should or shouldn't affect someone continuing working with them and that may depend on the context/severity/evidence. If they are privy to it. If they aren't, Scott may well have been able to tell whoever he told/who asked that he was being done under "lewd conduct". Otherwise then one allegation is sufficient to end someone's career, as happened with Matthew Kelly. Although, having looked him up, he is doing sterling work in theatre, which is great to read.

Matthew Kelly looks completely unrecognisable – 22 years after disappearing from spotlight | HELLO!

Matthew Kelly is a damned fine theatre actor. He has been in things on TV too, and I remember watching him as a serial killer in a drama, which was creepy as hell!

 

[GrunkaLunka]

i was so frightened and confused about what happened to me

I am so sorry. This breaks my heart every single time I hear it. You deserved so much better and you deserved justice. I am glad to hear you're doing better now.

There will always be people who minimise and excuse abusive behaviour, and I don't know why. I've seen a regular poster who used to do this and doesn't anymore, so I have hope that others will change. I will always stand first with the victims.

 

[WhyYouCry?]

Do you know what you're replying to? The whole discussion is because i didn't think it was right to keep refering to the victim as a boy, when the victim and SM are both 40+

But if we referred to the victim as a man, surely that would take away from the fact that he was a child when the alleged sexual assaults occurred?

 

[IndominusRex]

That Daily Mail article posted above mentions that the BBC treated him like royalty. IMO that is part of their problem, they suck up to the people they see as their stars and ignore any warning signs just as they did with Huw Edwards. Then if it all comes out they are totally impotent and unable to stem the fallout for them as well as the "star" in question.

This really is the key to me. If all this is true he should never have been in a position where he was in the top job. It’s so much worse with radio than news or acting too because radio has a very different audience dynamic. To simplify we felt like friends and now we feel complicit.

 

[AT_16]

And I am so terribly sorry that you have gone through that. Your bravery going to the police cannot be underestimated. I hope you got support and treatment to help you come to terms with this.

thank you very much, that’s very kind i’m doing much better now thank you x

 

[Tofino]

Nihal was on someone’s show yesterday and he said it’s a very small industry and if people are wrong ‘uns people know and there are whispers in the corridor and it’s an open secret and this has been the situation with all the recent high profile cases. But he said he’s worked with Scott for many years and he’s never heard a bad word said about him.

This means jack shit. Look at all the industry people that came out in defence of “poor Huw Edwards” before they knew more. Jon Sopel and Jeremy Vine to name two of them.

This thread reminds me of the early days of the Huw Edwards scandal. Although less busy and fewer bum pics. But very much ‘this seems too harsh, he’s not been charged with anything, maybe it’s false allegations’.

If SM has been unfairly dismissed, then he has legal options he can take. But I expect BBC won’t have taken this decision lightly and whatever evidence they have is substantial enough to justify such a swift decision. It might not meet criminal standards but it doesn’t need to. And I’m glad employers don’t need criminal standards of proof before sacking people for poor conduct.

 

[Yel]

if there's no police investigation or anything pending Scott should release a statement to finish the story and stop reach retch dripping something new every 12 hours to keep the story alive.

 

[louisekc]

I think the sacking is coz he didnt tell them as to me that would be breaking his contract. As I feel a allegation( though obv we dont know if thats what happened) would be a suspension while a investagation is ongoing

As i'm sure the BBC will have guidelines on suspension v sacking as to not risk a lawsuit on a sacking

I think this too. It all seems a bit much before he’s been charged. So after all the incidents the BBC has had over the years they would have been grateful to just get rid of him. It was only last week it was in the news again about how much Huw Edwards was still getting paid while on suspension. But I don’t know I don’t want to seem as if I’ve got any sympathy with a sex offender but something about all of this seems very off. The Beeb isn’t doing this out of any moral obligation it’s definitely a face saving exercise.
Back in the early 2000’s when I was in sixth form there was a boy in my year who was with a girl in year 9. She must have had a useless mother as the lad was allowed to stay over at her home. We all used to discuss how weird it was but no one ever took issue with him. The school must have known too and never acted on it. What I always remember was one of the other lads said at any point in the future she could go to the police and make a complaint about him. Things like this did always go on back then but even when the younger person was complicit it was always viewed as weird. The last 10 years or so there has been a complete change in attitude (for the better) and things like this are being brought to attention a lot more. Attitudes were so different back then I remember how popular the tv show Queer as Folk was, one of the main characters in it becomes involved with a 15 year old, I know it would have been a older actor but they had some very graphic scenes. Not in a million years would that be allowed on television now. Just goes to show how much attitudes have changed. Back then younger people getting involved with a older person were viewed as promiscuous and precocious and they were usually blamed, not the older manipulative adult.

 

[HotesTilaire]

I find it interesting that there are a number of people determined to find the most charitable explanation of what happened, in a way that I’ve not seen in other scandals like this. The BBC are also being criticised for doing what initially seemed like the opposite to the thing they were criticised for with Huw Edwards.

Given it’s been reported that the BBC is in contact with the alleged victim , it seems he’s been in contact with the BBC and raised this with them. They were already aware Scott had been interviewed in 2016 and now they have the victim giving his story. We were all incensed when the BBC ignored the complaint from the family about Huw Edwards. Perhaps they’ve acted decisively to try to avoid a similar situation. Especially if there’s been a mention of going to the media

I think it’s good that people are considering different options because we don’t actually know. We can’t just jump to condemning him on the basis of an allegation that didn't go to court. There’s a lack of info, apart from the Mirror and it’s slow drip feed.

I think it’s more frustrating that people are slating the Beeb for dealing with it as some kind of evidence that they are idiots who only employ sex offenders and wronguns. I’m certain thees a lot of people shitting themselves at other channels who just haven’t been found out yet.

 

[WhyYouCry?]

You are not explaining what you mean very clearly so it is difficult to understand what your point is - we know SM was, I think, 23/24 and the boy was under 16 at the time and that allegations span 3yrs

I think that poster is trying to say that it was less serious because SM was ‘only’ around 22/23 when he allegedly sexually assaulted a boy under 16 then it would be if he’d sexually assaulted him aged 50. Except it doesn’t make any sense because no one had referred to the age gap, just the fact that the victim was a ‘boy’, which he was.

 

[petitspois]

You can definitely expect more to come from this, given Scott’s very carefully worded statement. If he hadn’t done or attempted anything illegal then he would make that very very clear in his words. The fact that he states the evidential threshold was not met stinks to high heaven. He has clearly been stopped before a serious crime took place (so caught starting to groom someone for example).

 

[Yel]

at the height of the Jimmy Savile thing, there were some people saying he’d done things to them who just seemed to want to go on ‘This Morning’ to talk about and get a night in a hotel and a day out in London for free. All the allegations were accepted without question so anybody could say ‘Jimmy Savile did something to me’ and then do the rounds of TV shows and sell stories to papers.

That kind of thing is happening with influencers and tattle often.

Obviously it's different to SA. But an influencer with a small thread on tattle and 20k followers tells this morning that tattlers leaked her NHS records, posted her address and were stalking her outside her home. This morning or Lorraine invite them on and don't ask for any evidence that it ever happened. There is no evidence because it didn't happen. Just some fame chasing weirdos wanting attention. ITV are awful for it.

 

[YeahBrackie]

I wonder if there's some type of proof which he thinks may come out in the coming days/weeks, and that's why he hasn't denied it in his statement? I feel as though, with charges so serious involving sexual allegations with a child under 16, if he could have denied it, he would (and would certainly have been advised to by whichever team helped him construct the statement.)

 

[HotesTilaire]

You weren’t around in the 90s then I guess. Adults sleeping with underage people, girls in particular, was something the authorities turned a total blind eye to between the mid 90s and mid 00s. It was completely common for men in their 20s to be named as the father of an under 16s baby on a birth certificate and no action would be taken. The grooming gangs inquiry revealed that the Labour government took an official line that younger teenagers were capable of taking informed decisions about sexual activity and the age of consent was rarely legally enforced.

For years the age of consent was more of a guideline than a law, relationships between teens under the age of consent and people in their early 20s were much, much more societally accepted. Attitudes have undergone a huge sea change in the last 15 years or so.

See - Trainspotting, Queer as Folk…

 

[dressinggownofdoom]

 

[DoreenMachine]

I cringe inside out at his Eurovision performance. Simulated sex in a grotty toilet? Way to challenge stereotypes.

He seems to think he is some groundbreaking artiste, but he just screams musical theatre school pick me, he comes across as so desperate.

He did a programme for the BBC about 'growing up gay' interviewing some people who for various reasons really struggled coming out etc, and the whole thing was just cringe af. It ended up being mostly him whining about his own experiences, he seems very self obsessed.

His solo career hasn't exactly been a success, it's clear most of the talent in Years and Years came from the other band mates, I imagine they got tired of his schtick.

 

[haggis_head]

I think this one is shocking because it’s totally out of the blue. All the others (except maybe Huw Edwards?) there had been rumours swirling for years. I think if you read tattle or blind item sites then the likes of Phillip Schofield and Russel Brand weren’t a surprise but this one genuinely seems to have come from nowhere. I don’t recall reading anything about him, I just got the vibe that he was a regular guy that loved his job but seems I was very wrong.

 

[Yel]

The Guardian isn't a tabloid

It's been printed as a tabloid since 2018. Id say their content these days is also tabloid rather than broadsheet.

Their articles on tattle have been so shallow and lacking in any evidence or research; they're definitely the output of a tabloid.