A former BBC journalist has been jailed for child sexual abuse offences.
Duncan Bartlett, 52, was sentenced to eight years at Wood Green Crown Court in north London after admitting paying money to watch live streams of children being sexually abused.
He had pleaded guilty to 35 offences at an earlier hearing on August 30.
The Metropolitan Police said detectives found nearly 6,000 indecent images of children on electronic devices seized from Bartlett.
Police also found evidence of payments to people in the Philippines who would make live films of children being sexually exploited for Bartlett to watch.
Bartlett worked as a BBC journalist for 14 years before leaving in 2015. He was arrested in September 2021.
He was a correspondent in Tokyo and presented the World Business Report on the BBC World Service.
Bartlett, from central London, continued working as a China researcher at London’s SOAS University until after his guilty plea.
He appears not to have told the university about his offending, who did not discover the details of the case until Tuesday.
‘Utterly abhorrent’
A spokeswoman for SOAS confirmed Bartlett was a research associate and contractor at the London university’s China Institute between January 1, 2021, and September 30, 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.”
Detective Constable Emily Dawson who led the investigation said: “Over a period of seven years, Bartlett made multiple payments to people in the Philippines asking that they arrange children to be sexually exploited for his own gratification.
“With close liaison work with our counterparts in the Philippines, we managed to identify and safeguard some of these children while several adults were arrested.
“Bartlett’s behaviour was utterly abhorrent but thanks to the painstaking work of detectives, a case documenting his offending was put together – this left him with no option but to admit his guilt.”