Victim of former BBC worker ‘still haunted’ by sexual abuse as a child | UK News

The sexual abuse victim of a former BBC worker said he was ‘still haunted’ by what he endured as a child.

The unnamed victim was ‘massively’ affected by what he endured at the hands of Chris Bell many years ago, Hull Crown Court was told.

Bell, of Beech Avenue, Thorngumbald, Yorkshire, had denied a series of sexual offences, including rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, making indecent images of a child and distributing them.

Following a trial, he was convicted of 12 of them and has been jailed for 21 years.

Bell, now 61, had a ‘persisting interest in children’ the court heard.

Up until 2008, Bell worked in various roles at local UK radio stations, including presenter and programmer and before that, at the BBC, prosecutor Simon Reevell said at the trial.

He later made a ‘failed attempt’ at running a pub, before becoming a coach driver.

Mr Reevell said Bell had offered cigarettes to the young victim, despite him not being old enough to smoke.

He then undressed him and kissed him before trying to engage in sexual behaviour.

Bell told the boy that it was a game, but the boy ‘felt sick’, the jury was told.

Mr Reevell added: ‘He had no real understanding of what was being done to him and no understanding of what it all meant. For some years, he did not feel able to report it.’

Bell had claimed that the victim’s allegations were false and denied that anything inappropriate had happened.

‘He denied any sexual interest in children,’ said Mr Reevell.

An image of two boys was found on his phone. It had been sent to a Snapchat account set up in a false name.

He admitted setting up the account and said that he might have received the image from a friend, the court heard, but later denied responsibility for it.

The victim said in a statement that the abuse meant that he was not able to choose for himself when he became involved in sexual activity.

‘This has affected me massively,’ he said.

The victim had felt ‘guilt, hurt and regret’ at what happened to him and he became ‘severely depressed’.

The abuse ‘still haunts me’, he said, adding that Bell had taken his childhood innocence.

The victim later started taking drugs but was now clean of them.

‘This whole thing has been very hard on me and I am still struggling,’ he said. ‘The road to recovery will be very long and very hard.’

Charlotte Baines, mitigating, said that Bell had no previous convictions.

‘Although the offences are clearly very serious, there is not present here a significant risk to members of the public of serious harm,’ she said.

Bell had lost his home after ending up in hospital with a serious lung infection problem. When he was discharged, he discovered his home had been repossessed by bailiffs.

He lived in at a hotel in Hedon but later ended up being remanded in custody after failing to attend a court hearing and being arrested on a warrant.

He had been on bail during the trial.

Judge Kate Rayfield said the victim had suffered ‘feelings of hurt and regret’, but he had nothing to feel guilty about.

‘Speaking out was a courageous act on his part,’ she said.

Judge Rayfield told Bell, meanwhile: ‘You have a persisting sexual interest in children.’

Bell will have to register as a sex offender for life. A sexual harm prevention order will be made at a later hearing.

Bell’s LinkedIn profile shows that he worked as programme controller for Stray FM, based in Harrogate, between March 2008 and August 2010.

He was also programme controller at Home FM between July and October 2009.

Before that, he was a producer, presenter and manager at ‘various UK commercial radio stations’ between 1987 and 2008.

Bell was previously a broadcaster with the BBC for eight years between 1979 and 1987, responsible for programme output and production.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.