What has Scott Mills done to deserve his sacking?

Radio DJ Scott Mills has been sacked by the BBC. Mills joined the corporation in 1998 and had, until the end of last week, hosted Radio 2’s Breakfast Show. Yesterday, the Mirror revealed that he was interviewed by police in 2016, in connection with historic sexual offences against a teenage boy, alleged to have taken place between 1997 and 2000.

We don’t know the full details behind the sacking. We don’t even know whether the police interview played any part in it. The BBC has only said that the dismissal relates to Mills’s ‘personal conduct’. There may well be far more to this story than the bare fact of a historic police interview. But whatever direction this story takes, there is only one reasonable response to the revelation that Mills was once interviewed by police: so what?

Being interviewed by police means nothing beyond the fact that an allegation has been made and officers felt it warranted investigation. That’s it. The burden of proof in a criminal case is high. The prosecution must have strong evidence in order to secure a conviction. We don’t even know whether Mills answered the questions put to him. He may have provided a perfectly innocent account of everything alleged. We simply don’t know.

How we respond to this news matters. We live in an era in which entire careers have been destroyed on the basis of allegations that later proved to be false. Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey saw his career collapse following allegations of assault. Even though he has been acquitted of every charge made against him, he remains cast out of Hollywood. The fabricated allegations made by Carl Beech against former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor were repeated for years by prominent figures before being exposed as pure fiction. Beech was eventually jailed for 18 years for perverting the course of justice and multiple sexual offences. Yes, allegations must be taken seriously and investigated rigorously. But we must withhold judgment until the facts can be properly tested.

That is why the initial response to the Scott Mills story has been, at least in part, encouraging. Several public figures have questioned the sacking. Piers Morgan has called on the BBC to explain how Mills can be fired over a police interview from 10 years ago, not least when the investigation led nowhere. Dan Hodges, Mail on Sunday commentator, called it ‘insane’ that Mills should lose his job merely for having been interviewed by police, unless there is more to the story. There is at least some sense this time that people are prepared to wait and see.

Good. Whatever happens next, it is worth stating plainly: the fact that Mills spoke to police many years ago means nothing in itself. It should not be grounds for dismissal. It should not even be news. We cannot rush to punish people on the basis of an allegation alone.

The presumption of innocence must protect individuals absolutely. The case of Harvey Proctor shows us, with brutal clarity, what happens when it doesn’t.

Luke Gittos is a spiked columnist and author. His most recent book is Human Rights – Illusory Freedom: Why We Should Repeal the Human Rights Act, which is published by Zero Books. Order it here.