BBC bosses under pressure to explain why news report about convicted paedophile who sent sexual messages to 14-year-old boy was edited to remove mentions of his drag queen career
- Andrew Way, 61, was caught in paedophile hunters’ sting operation’ and jailed
- The ex-drag queen sent messages and images of his genitals to the ‘youth’
BBC bosses are under pressure to explain why a report about a convicted paedophile was edited to remove references to his career as a drag queen.
Andrew Way, 61, who was organising the first Pride event for Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, was jailed for 34 months after vigilantes set up a fake social media profile for a boy of 14.
The performer, whose stage name was Miss Gin, exchanged a string of sexual messages and images of his genitals with the ‘youth’ while pretending to be a 27-year-old man.
The BBC’s original online news report from August 24 was headlined ‘Ex-drag queen caught in paedophile hunters’ sting operation’.
But, a day later, it had been changed to ‘Man caught in paedophile hunters’ sting operation’, while references to the Pride event and his drag queen act were also removed.
Andrew Way, whose stage name was Miss Gin (pictured), believed he was sending explicit messages to a 14-year-old boy
Way (pictured) pretended he was 27 and began contacting the ‘teenager’, not realising a paedophile hunting group had set up the profile and trapped him
The drag artist veteran of more than 40 years sent ‘highly sexualised’ messages over a chat website, Snapchat and WhatsApp to the decoy
The BBC’s original news report was headlined ‘Ex-drag queen caught in paedophile hunters’ sting operation’, which was changed to ‘Man caught in paedophile hunters’ sting operation’
A footnote said the story was altered to remove details not mentioned in court. But there was no formal court request to remove references to Way’s occupation or links to the Pride event, which was cancelled in late June.
Graham Breeze, a county councillor in Welshpool, said: ‘I think there should be some kind of explanation [from the BBC] as to why they are not saying who he is.’
Appearing at Mold Crown Court, Way, of Wrexham, admitted trying to engage in sexual communication with a child of 14 and breaching a sexual harm prevention order. The BBC declined to comment.
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