Advertisement

BBC's Buerk: Ched Evans' rape victim deserves no credit

The BBC has apologised after presenter Michael Buerk broadcast that footballer Ched Evans' rape victim was among those not coming away "with any credit" from the case because she was "so drunk she could barely stand".

Michael Buerk's comments aired this morning on Radio 4 ahead of this evening's Moral Maze. Credit: Yui Mok/PA Archive

Speaking in a trailer for this evening's Radio 4 programme Moral Maze, which will debate whether Evans should return to his former club Sheffield United after his prison release, Buerk said:

Nobody comes out of the Ched Evans rape case with any credit. Not the victim who had drunk so much she could barely stand, nor the two footballers who had sex with her in the most sordid of circumstances.

The jury convicted only one of rape and now, after serving half his five-year sentence, ashamed but unrepentant, Ched Evans has been released and there is talk of a £500,000 contract to return to his club, Sheffield United.

– Michael Buerk

This morning's aired comments received strong criticism from rape charities amid an angry public response. A spokesman for Radio 4 said:

There was no intention to suggest that the victim was in any way at fault, and we apologise if the way this live trail was phrased suggested this.

Tonight’s Moral Maze will ask whether a convicted rapist who maintains his innocence should be entitled to get his job back.

– BBC statement

The criticism of Buerk's comments come after public outrage at TV presenter Judy Finnigan's claim that the victim in the case had "had far too much to drink" and that the "rape was not violent".