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Topics: Crime, UK News, Phillip Schofield, This Morning
Claire Reid
Topics: Crime, UK News, Phillip Schofield, This Morning
Phillip Schofield has released a statement after his younger brother was found guilty of sexually abusing a teenage boy over a period of three years.
Timothy Schofield, 54, was convicted of 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019 at Exeter Crown Court today.
Timothy Schofield told the court he and the teen had watched pornography and masturbated while sitting apart, but insisted he was over the age of 16 at the time. He denied performing sexual acts on the teenager
During the trial, the jury heard that Schofield had told his older brother Phillip in September 2021 that he and the teen had watched pornography together.
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In a written statement to the court, the TV presenter said his younger brother had called him up while in an ‘agitated’ state and he had invited him to his home.
He said they spent several hours talking, before his brother said: “You are going to hate me for what I am about to say,” with him assuring him there was nothing he could say that would do that.
Schofield said in the statement: “Then he said that he and (the victim) had time together and that last year they had watched porn … and (masturbated).”
“I turned and said, ‘What did you just say?’ He said it was last year and we were alone together. Tim said it was just this once. I told him it should never happen again. He then started to tell me about (the teen’s) body.
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“I said, ‘F***, stop’. I shouted at Tim that he had to stop. I didn’t want to know any of the details but he made it sound like a one-off.
“I said, ‘I don’t want you to tell me any more’. I said, ‘You’ve got to stop, just never do it again. Regardless how that happened, it must never happen again’.”
The victim, who said the offending started when he was 13, told the jury he felt ‘emotionally blackmailed’ by Timothy Schofield.
He said: “I felt that emotionally there was no escape from what we had to do and I felt that there was a tremendous amount of pressure and expectation for me to fulfil what was being asked and wanted.”
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In a statement Schofield, who has been absent from his usual presenting slot on ITV’s This Morning last week on ‘pre-planned leave’, said he ‘longer has a brother’.
In the statement, released after the guilty verdict, he said: "My overwhelming concern is and has always been for the wellbeing of the victim and his family. I hope that their privacy will now be respected.
“If any crime had ever been confessed to me by my brother, I would have acted immediately to protect the victim and their family.
“These are despicable crimes, and I welcome the guilty verdicts.
"As far as I am concerned, I no longer have a brother.”
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Judge Mrs Justice Cutts remanded him in custody ahead of sentencing at Bristol Crown Court on May 19.