after he first met the young man, who was 15 at the time. mr schofield strongly denies grooming him, but says he regrets the relationship and lying about it when itv tried to investigate. he s been talking to the bbc s amol rajan. last week, if my. ..daughters hadn t been there. ..then.i wouldn t be here. and they ve. .. ..guarded me. um. and won t let me out of their sight. it s like a weird.numbness. i know that s a selfish point of view. but you come to a point where you just think, how much are you supposed to take? if all of those people that write all of that stuff. do they ever think that there s actually. ..a person at the other end? and so. ..hereiam, um. are you feeling 0k to do this? are you feeling strong enough to do this interview? yeah, i have to. why? why do you want to do this interview? because there is an innocent person here who didn t do anything wrong. who is.vulnerable. ..and probably feels like i do. and. ..i just have to say. ..stop with him. ok, wi
..i just have to say. ..stop with him. ok, with me. but stop with him. leave him alone now. let me say, you know, a lot of my questions are going to be uncomfortable and, let s face it, intrusive. but you ve chosen this opportunity to tell your side of the story. and there are questions that your viewers, all the people who supported you over the years including your family will want answers to. there s also, of course, lots of questions for itv in all this. you mentioned this young man, and at the centre of recent events is a young man who, together with many others in the media, we re not going to name. under article 8 of the human rights act, he has a right to privacy, and he s not here today to give his own account of events. when did you last speak to him? um. as i engaged the lawyerfor him. um. so.he needed independent support. and so that was the last time. how concerned are you about his welfare right now? massively. massively concerned. where did you first meet t
i said, come down and have a look, for sure. which he did. how old was he when he made that first.? so, there s two stages there. how old was he when he first said to you, i m interested in television ? was he 18 by that point? 19 then, i d think. 19 by then. and then when he said, could i come and have work experience? he would ve been older than 19. well, just. more or less about the same time, cos i d organised it. and what did he ask you for? so he asked you for work experience and you said, sure, come and have a look ? i ve done it all my life. i m best friends with the people who got me into television. and i ve always believed in paying it forward. and so. ..that was my. you know, ijust didn t think about it, you know, ijust did that. when you look back now, if you were to look back at those messages now, is there any sense in which you were flirting with him? no. i ve been 41 years in television. you know, nothing like this before. you know, no accusations. i mean, this i
and then he asked if he could visit the studios, work experience type of thing. i said, come down, have a look, for sure, which he did. how old was he when he first said to you, i m interested in television ? was he 18 by that point? 19 then, i would think. 19 by then. when you look back now. if you were to look back at those messages now, is there any sense in which you were flirting with him? no. then when you met him in person, was there a little moment of sexual attraction then even? absolutely not. 0k. so, to be absolutely clear, how old was this young man when you first had any kind of sexual contact with him? 20. this is obviously the nub of it, and for the record and to put speculation to rest, let me ask you directly, did you have any kind of sexual relationship or sex with him
you in touch with him? hardly at all. and that was it for a while. and then he asked if he could visit the studios, work experience type of thing. i said, come down, have a look, for sure, which he did. how old was he when he first said to you, i m interested in television ? was he 18 by that point? 19 then, i would think. 19 by then. when you look back now. if you were to look back at those messages now, is there any sense in which you were flirting with him? no. then when you met him in person, was there a little moment of sexual attraction then even? absolutely not. 0k. so, to be absolutely clear, how old was this young man when you first had any kind of sexual contact with him? 20. this is obviously the nub of it and for the record and to put speculation to rest,