A BBC presenter has apologised after regional journalists revealed he sent sexually explicit photographs of convicted sex offender Stephen Bear to his production team.

Stephen Nolan has said sorry following an investigation by the Irish News and Rodney Edwards, the new editor of Enniskillen weekly the Impartial Reporter.

The Belfast-based News reported on Tuesday allegations that Stephen sent images of Bear, who was last year found guilty of disclosing a private film of him having sex with a woman, to his television production team in 2016.

The BBC says it has not been able to independently verify the claims made by the News, but Stephen apologised on his BBC Radio Ulster programme this morning.

He told listeners: “We have had days, as you probably know, of headlines about me and the Nolan team in the papers this week and I am not ignoring the story.

“It’s just that the BBC has processes in place to deal with staff complaints and I do, and need to, totally respect those processes. They have got to be confidential for them to work.

“I can say one thing though and that is that I’m sorry.

“There was a photograph, it was widely available on the internet and I was talking to a long-term friend and peer outside of work. I am deeply sorry.”

Among other allegations made by the News were that a BBC staff member had separately made a formal complaint of bullying against him.

Stephen has issued a categorical denial of another claim that members of BBC staff were placed in the audience of the Nolan Live TV show.

On his programme, he added: “There have been other headlines, too, including a suggestion that we manipulate programmes by planting producers in the studio audience.

“I’m telling you now and I can say this on the record. That is completely categorically false.

“We do not do that in the Nolan team. We value our relationship with you far too much to compromise it.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “As we have said previously, the BBC has established and robust processes in place to deal with any workplace-related issues, concerns and allegations. However, we don’t publicly comment on individual staffing matters as there are important considerations of fairness and confidentiality involved.”

They added: “We can confirm that the director of BBC Northern Ireland, Adam Smyth, has asked the editor of the Irish News to withdraw the claims that it had made about BBC staff contributing to Nolan Live discussions whilst pretending to be members of the public.

“He said the BBC had asked several times for evidence to support allegations of audience deception and that nothing had been forthcoming.

“Adam Smyth said these claims, and the terms in which they were made, had effectively impugned the integrity of many BBC staff.

“He said that in the continued absence of evidence, the Irish News should withdraw what it had said and publish a correction and apology.”

But Noel has refused to back down, teliing HTFP: “The Irish News has firm evidence setting out the circumstances in which junior members of staff were placed in the audience of Nolan Live.

“At no stage did we suggest that senior BBC executives were involved in this process.”