Former BBC journalist jailed over child sex abuse offences

A former BBC journalist has been jailed for eight years for a string of child sexual abuse offences.

Duncan Bartlett, 52, was jailed at Wood Green Crown Court in north London after admitting paying money to watch live streams of children being sexually exploited.

He had pleaded guilty to 35 offences at an earlier hearing on 30 August.

The Metropolitan Police said detectives seized electronic devices from Bartlett and recovered nearly 6,000 indecent images of children.

They also found evidence he made payments to people in the Philippines who would arrange live films of children being sexually exploited for Bartlett to watch.

Bartlett – who worked as a BBC journalist for 14 years until 2015 — was arrested in September 2021.

He spent time as a correspondent in Tokyo and presented “World Business Report” on the BBC World Service.

Bartlett, from central London, continued working as a researcher and expert in China at London’s SOAS university until after his guilty plea.

He appears not to have told his employer about his offending and the university did not discover the details of the case until today.

A spokeswoman for SOAS confirmed Bartlett was a research associate and contractor at the London university’s China Institute between 1 January 2021 and 30 September 2024.

She said: “Although not a permanent member of staff or in a student-facing role, he was paid as a contractor to produce a series of podcasts about China, producing his last edition in September 2024.

“Neither SOAS nor the SOAS China Institute were aware of any legal proceedings before we were contacted by the media about this case today.”