by
David Prior
A man has been charged after a BBC reporter was subjected to “racist and abusive behaviour” as she prepared for a live broadcast.
Sima Kotecha, who has previously presented Radio 5 Live’s Up All Night, Breakfast and Drivetime programmes, was preparing to conduct interviews in Leicester on Sunday when she and her team were abused.
Russell Rawlingson, 50, has now been charged with threatening and abusive behaviour causing distress and will appear in court later.
Apologies to our guests who we had to send home without putting on air after myself and team were subjected to racist and abusive behaviour – sad obstruction of reporting of a national crisis. Yes I’m furious
— Sima Kotecha (@sima_kotecha) May 10, 2020
Kotecha had been due to interview people for their reaction to Boris Johnson’s televised statement.
But the segment was cancelled, with Kotecha tweeting at the time that a man had been “shouting terrible things at me”.
A BBC spokesman said: “While preparing to broadcast, our reporter, her production team and guests were subjected to racist and abusive behaviour.
“We will not tolerate racism or abuse of our staff.”
