The BBC radio presenter Tony Livesey has left the broadcaster after allegations were raised about his previous career as the editor-in-chief of David Sullivan\u2019s Sport newspapers.<\/p>\n
Staff at 5 Live, where Livesey had most recently presented the 10pm to 1am show four days a week, were told he would not be returning to the station, having stepped away from the role after the allegations first emerged.<\/p>\n
His departure follows a BBC Panorama investigation<\/a>, which accused Sullivan, a billionaire and co-owner of West Ham United<\/a>, of sexually exploitative and predatory behaviour towards women over several decades.<\/p>\n Sullivan has denied the allegations<\/a>, saying through his lawyers: \u201cI categorically deny all of these complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n The investigation<\/a> also aired questions for Livesey, 62, with one alleged victim saying he had arranged a meeting between her and Sullivan.<\/p>\n Livesey has said he has \u201cno recollection\u201d of introducing the young woman to Sullivan and that it was \u201cnot part\u201d of his job to do so. He said he had had \u201cpractically zero\u201d contact with anyone appearing in the paper, such as female models.<\/p>\n A passage in a 1998 book by Livesey said he and Sullivan had devised the idea for a \u201ccountdown to 16\u201d feature, which featured countdowns to models\u2019 16th birthdays, when they could be pictured topless legally for the first time.<\/p>\n Livesey has since said the feature was \u201ccategorically\u201d not his idea and that large parts of his book were \u201cfictionalised\u201d to make it appear he was \u201cat the centre of all stories\u201d, even if he had not been.<\/p>\n