Police to question Top Gear host Chris Evans over sexual assault allegations - report
BBC presenter and Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans says he is the victim of a "witch hunt".
Top Gear host Chris Evans is to be quizzed by the Metropolitan Police over sexual assault claims, reports Heat Street. The website's source says that the Radio 2 host will be spoken to "in the near future" by police after a former colleague made a complaint against him.
It is not clear if this is linked to claims in May that Evans was accused of grabbing a colleague's breasts and "flashing her almost every day for two years" in the 1990s. According to the Daily Mail, while speaking anonymously in May, the woman said she was sent to Coventry after rejecting Evans' advances, and that he "told colleagues not to talk to her".
The former colleague said she was speaking out to prevent others becoming victims of his "bullying behaviour". She said she sought legal advice over her claims several years ago, particularly around Evans' "flashing" which she said was a tactic to "punish those who didn't do what he wanted".
These claims came after former colleagues took to social media to accuse Evans of bullying when he worked on The Big Breakfast in the 1990s. His former radio sidekick John Revell once claimed Evans was "out of control" and that BBC bosses were too scared to stand up to him.
The woman who made the historic sexual assault allegations in May said she was "not surprised" to hear the claims from Evans' colleagues, and said she was eventually prescribed anti-depressants after becoming "burnt-out" and "traumatised by Evans" who she claimed "knew he could get away with it". She added she was "gobsmacked and appalled" Evans got the Top Gear job and called for him to be investigated.
Evans' denies bullying
In May, Evans denied the allegations, saying the "bullying claims and other allegations are just ridiculous". Evans also said the accusations have hurt his family. He described how he and wife Natasha, and their two young children Noah, seven, and Eli, four, live a "normal life" in a small area and said the accusations amounted to a "witch hunt".
Evans said: "I'm not a bully. But, of course, if you sling enough mud, some will stick to the wall. Is it hurtful to see your wife – or your children – upset? Of course it is."
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