DJ Tim Westwood is facing multiple sexual misconduct allegations from women who claim he used his position in the music industry to exploit them.
Between 1992 and 2017, the 64-year-old is accused of predatory and unwanted sexual behaviour, as well as touching. In a joint investigation into the former BBC Radio 1 DJ, the BBC and the Guardian heard detailed accounts from seven women. He categorically denies the allegations.
The DJ was an early supporter of hip-hop in the United Kingdom, hosting the first nationally broadcast rap show on UK radio in 1994.
The seven black women who spoke to the BBC all said they met Westwood through his work. Some accuse the DJ of abusing his position in the music industry.
The women tell their stories in Tim Westwood: Abuse of Power, a BBC Three documentary that airs Tuesday at 21:00.
Two of them, who aspired to work in the industry, say they agreed to meet him in London to talk about music. They accuse the DJ of driving them to their apartment and initiating unwanted and unexpected sex. At the time, one was 19 and the other was 53.
Another woman told the BBC that she met Westwood, who was in his mid-30s at the time, when she was 17 and in an R&B group. She claims that after agreeing to meet him, she was subjected to unwanted oral sex.
Four more young women allege that the DJ touched their bottoms or breasts while posing for photos with him at various events where he performed.
The women don’t know each other because their names have been changed to protect their identities. Some work in the music industry and are afraid of repercussions, despite the DJ’s continued prominence in an industry that has been chastised for its treatment of darker-skinned black women.
For a long time, allegations about Westwood’s behaviour toward young black women have been circulating on social media. In a statement to the Mail Online in 2020, Westwood slammed the “fabricated allegations” saying they were false and without merit.
The DJ, the son of Bill Westwood, the former Anglican Bishop of Peterborough who died in 1999, began his career on local radio before moving on to Capital Radio in London, where he was later given his own show by BBC Radio 1.
On July 18, 1999, he was injured in a drive-by shooting in Kennington, south London, which landed him in the hospital. He left the BBC in 2013 to work for Capital Xtra, where he hosts a Saturday night show.
“Tim Westwood strongly denies all allegations of inappropriate behaviour,” his representatives said in a statement.
There have never been any complaints made against him, either officially or unofficially, in his 40-year career.
