WITH the BBC still failing to sack Martin Bashir, the disgraced journalist is being allowed to ‘work’ through his three month notice period following his resignation – meaning the taxpayer continues to be forced to pay him thousands of pounds.
Bashir quit as religious affairs editor before the damning evidence and conclusion from the Dyson Report was published, revealing that he had forged documents and lied to the family of Princess Diana to secure the infamous 1996 interview.
BBC boss Tim Davie has now admitted the shamed employee is still on the BBC payroll, saying on BBC Radio 4 this morning: “He’s working out a short notice period because he resigned. And that’s where we are now.”
He also confirmed that Mr Bashir will be on the Beeb’s payroll until mid-August.
Bashir resigned shortly before the report being published – citing health reasons related to Covid-19 as the reason, despite being snapped walking merrily down a London street recently carrying a takeaway.
Laying out a questionable list of justifications not to sack Bashir, Davie said: “The first was there were very significant medical care issues. And with Martin Bashir, as a staff member regardless of the situation around it is a factor.
“The second was a clean break with no pay-off which I thought was in the licence fee-payers interest – there was a clean process.
“The third was there is no restraint in us getting to the truth. This was not an honourable discharge, we were able to go after that report and fully expose all the deceits in Dyson.”
Meanwhile, further accusations have been made against Bashir, including by the ex-partner of George Best, Terry Venables (who alleges Bashir once again created fake documents), and by the mother of the Babes in the Woods victims, who claims that she gave Mr Bashir items of clothing belonging to her murdered daughters for DNA testing, yet the journalist failed to return them.
