A DAMNING report today slams BBC management over workplace bullying following the apparent suicide of BBC Coventry and Warwickshire journalist Russell Joslin. BBC bosses have today accepted failures. They also apologised unreservedly to the respected broadcaster's Kenilworth-based family, including Russell's father Peter Joslin, the former Warwickshire chief constable. The BBC also today pledged to transform the BBC's "workplace culture", and the corporation's system of handling staff with work-related stress, and bullying and harassment concerns. Today's report by "external professional" Lesley Granger, a former BBC HR employee follows months of investigation, in which she also interviewed many BBC Coventry and Warwickshire staff. The long-awaited report also contains criticism of a former high-profile female presenter at the BBC radio station in Coventry, who still works for the BBC. Mr Joslin had accused her of bullying and sexual harassment after she allegedly spurned his sexual advances in 2007. The presenter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Joslin believed it was the start of years of him being sidelined at work, and he felt unable to complain to BBC managers. The 50-year-old was found suffocated at St Michael's psychiatric hospital in Warwick, and died on October 22 last year, three days after walking in front of a bus in Warwick Road, Kenilworth, in which he was largely uninjured. Exclusive reports by the Coventry Telegraph - followed up by the national media - revealed how Mr Joslin, of High Street, Kenilworth, had been tormented by work-related stress in the run-up to his death; and how he had been in contact with BBC West Midlands boss Cath Hearne and a senior HR professional in a bid to resolve the issues. He had only recently returned part-time to the station, after being off work with stress and depression since Spring last year, when he had contacted BBC's occupational health to raise his concerns. The Granger report is particularly critical of how those concerns were handed by the private company Capita Health and Wellbeing, which handles BBC's occupational health work. Texts Mr Joslin left behind showed he had been upset to apparently be told there was no record of previous complaints to occupational health. BBC West Midlands insiders had claimed the conclusions of a previous internal BBC inquiry last year, headed by an independent person, into "bullying" complaints were never made public, and little was done.
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