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Paul Gambaccini will not be charged over assault claims

By Aly Barchi | Published on Monday 13 October 2014

Broadcaster and ‘talking head’ Paul Gambaccini will face no criminal action regarding alleged historic sex crimes, it’s been confirmed, due to a lack of evidence. Gambaccini has always denied the claims made against him, which, the Crown Prosecution Service has stated, relate to a number of alleged assaults on two teenage boys, then aged fourteen and fifteen, over two years in the 1980s.

This follows the BBC Radio 2 DJ’s arrest in November 2013 as part of the wider ‘third strand’ of Operation Yewtree, the investigation launched following revelations of offences committed by the late Jimmy Savile. As previously reported, the focal point of this particular strand was/is allegations made against TV and radio personalities not directly linked to Savile himself.

Making a statement via his lawyers last week, Gambaccini said he’d be “back at work soon”, adding: “There may be members of the press who will ask me to give interviews or make provocative statements. I will politely decline. To discuss horror in this way is to trivialise it. I will never trivialise the twelve months of trauma to which I have been unjustly subjected”.

His solicitor Kate Goold, meanwhile, said that though she and Gambo’s legal team felt “delighted with the outcome”, they were also “deeply concerned at the length of time it took to resolve this investigation”.

“Paul made his innocence clear at the outset and questions remain as to why this investigation took so long”, she added.

Speaking for the prosecution, Baljit Ubhey, the Chief Crown Prosecutor of CPS London, said: “Having carefully reviewed this case, we have decided that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute”.

A 75 year old man arrested on the same day as Gambaccini, in conjunction with the same claims, will also face no additional action.