Ex-BBC journalist jailed for eight years for child sex abuse offences

A former BBC journalist has been jailed for eight years after pleading guilty to numerous child sex abuse offences.

Duncan Bartlett, 52, was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court in North London after admitting to paying money to watch live streams of children stripping in the Philippines.

Bartlett, who worked as a journalist at the BBC for 14 years until 2015, pleaded guilty to 35 offences at an earlier hearing on August 30.

The ex-Tokyo correspondent would ask the children and their parents about their schoolwork whilst he directed them to carry out sexual acts.

He would pay an average of £25 for a screening, which involved children aged nine to 16.

The Metropolitan Police seized electronic devices from the 52-year-old and discovered almost 6,000 indecent images of children.

The force said that some of the victims have been identified and put under safeguarding measures in the Philippines.

At Wood Green Crown Court, Bartlett pleaded guilty to 11 counts of causing a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, nine counts of causing a girl 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity, 10 counts of paying a girl under 13 for the sexual services, three charges of making indecent images of children, and two offences of encouraging the commission of either way offences.

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Detective Constable Emily Dawson, who led the investigation, said: “Over a period of seven years, Bartlett made multiple payments to people in the Philippines asking that they arrange children to be sexually exploited for his own gratification.

“With close liaison work with our counterparts in the Philippines, we managed to identify and safeguard some of these children while several adults were arrested.

“Bartlett’s behaviour was utterly abhorrent but thanks to the painstaking work of detectives, a case documenting his offending was put together – this left him with no option but to admit his guilt.”

The 52-year-old was first arrested back in September 2021 but continued to work as a researcher and expert at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) after his guilty plea.

When Scotland Yard’s child abuse team came to arrest Bartlett, he told them: “I know what’s happening now.”

The university is understood not to have known about the offending until the sentencing today.

A SOAS spokesman said: “Although not a permanent member of staff or in a student-facing role, he was paid as a contractor to produce a series of podcasts about China, producing his last edition in September 2024.

“Neither SOAS nor the SOAS China Institute were aware of any legal proceedings before we were contacted by the media about this case today.”