JONATHAN KING - BBC APOLOGISES FOR KING'S LIVE PAEDOPHILIA PROTEST

The BBC has apologised to outraged listeners after pop mogul JONATHAN KING appeared on the British broadcaster's Radio Five Live show to protest his innocence, following his three-year stint in prison for sexually abusing young boys.

The disgraced 60-year-old was released from prison in March (05) after serving half of a seven-year sentence for molesting five boys aged between 13 and 15.

And he appeared on Victoria Derbyshire's morning phone-in show last week (ends29JUL05) as part of a programme about paedophilia.

But 25 listeners complained, after King used the interview as a platform to voice his anger about being wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he insists he never committed.

The BBC released a statement which reads, "The BBC apologises for any offence caused by the attempt to use a high-profile case to tackle a very difficult topic. The interview probably failed to shed much light on the wider topic.

"It was not our intention to give him a platform to assert his innocence, but to challenge that assertion rigorously and to examine the possibility that his state of mind is typical of perpetrators of paedophile crimes."