BBC may be prosecuted for offering £40,000 to 'child-smugglers'

The BBC was dragged into a fresh row over standards after police claimed it broadcast a misleading investigation into child-trafficking.

The report, which led BBC1's Ten O'Clock News on Thursday, purported to expose Bulgarian criminals offering toddlers for sale to British couples for £40,000 each.

But Commissioner Veselin Petrov, head of police in the Bulgarian city where the undercover report was filmed, has insisted that there is no evidence of organised criminals selling children.

Petrov accused the BBC of entrapping 'Harry', the alleged trafficker, by offering him money, and threatened to charge the reporters with incitement, an offence that carries a prison sentence of up to a year. The BBC adamantly deny that they offered any money.

The row comes just a week after a number of senior BBC staff were suspended in the wake of revelations about faked phone-in competitions.

The trafficking report, which was presented by Sangita Myska and took a three-strong team a month to film, was produced in an unusual drama-documentary-style format.

'Harry', whose identity was revealed as 39-year-old Hasan Ahmed Hasan when he was arrested two hours after the coverage aired, was filmed being asked to provide a baby for a British businessman.

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He was secretly recorded boasting that he had previously smuggled children across Europe and demanding 50,000 to 60,000 (£33,600 to £40,200) to move a child out of Bulgaria with false adoption papers and into the UK via France and Ireland.

Later, toddlers were brought to a cafe by their families and shown to the BBC team, although none changed hands.

The film did not conceal the identities of the children, who were aged about two, although the pictures on the BBC's website were pixellated to disguise their faces.

Mr Hasan, whose Bulgarian wife lives in Scotland, was identified as a member of a criminal trafficking gang, but Commissioner Petrov, head of police in the resort of Varna, said there was no evidence this was true.

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"According to our information, the BBC's investigation was flawed," he said. "We have found nothing to back up claims of an organised group selling children for 60,000."

Neighbours who know Hasan added that they would not be surprised if he had taken money from the BBC's journalists to fabricate the story, but doubted he was involved in baby-trafficking.

Commissioner Petrov said it was a "sad day" when an institution such as the BBC should "fall so low".

"The BBC led this man on with the promise of vast riches," he said. "He was provoked to give the journalists what they wanted.

"If they had not presented the problem in a way that one of them had been childless for ten years and was desperate for a child, then Hasan would not have agreed to help.

"The journalist . . . promised he was ready to ensure a wonderful life for the child and his family. He suggested he was well intentioned and that everything would be legal.

"If the BBC had managed without lures and incentives to uncover a trade in babies, it would have been a brilliant story, worthy of the highest honour.

"But the reality is something quite different."

He also accused the BBC journalists of delaying the arrest of Hasan until the report was aired by giving his officers false information.

He added: "Although substantial sums of money were offered, none of the parents seems to have been persuaded to part with their children."

Bulgarian police released Hasan without charge and said that, if he is ever charged, it will not be over trafficking but in connection with the more minor offence of inciting a parent to put a child up for adoption.

Under Bulgarian law, the punishment for this is a £350 fine or up to a year's imprisonment.

Commissioner Petrov said Hasan had no criminal record in Bulgaria, Britain, or Ireland, where he lived for nine years.

But he added that he was once detained in Germany on suspicion of involvement in trafficking women for prostitution, but he did not know if that came to court.

BBC sources claim to have evidence that he has a conviction in Germany for trafficking.

The Mail on Sunday asked the BBC whether it had paid any money to Hasan and why it had not obscured the children's identities. It initially refused to answer, saying only that the investigation had followed its own editorial guidelines.

But after it saw our first edition, the Corporation said: "No money had been offered or changed hands at any time."

Ten O'Clock News editor Craig Oliver said: "The BBC fully stands by its report. It was clearly in the public interest and was carried out according to strict BBC guidelines.

"We informed the relevant Bulgarian authorities, including the National Police Service, and also provided them with material to help identify the subjects of our investigation well before our report went on air.

"I am disappointed that the head of Varna's police force has made these misleading remarks."

He added that Commissioner Petrov's allegations were "libellous".

A BBC source said the news team avoided approaching local police because of allegations of corruption.