Just how long is the rap sheet for Richard Bacon, the 5 Live presenter? Not only was he forced to quit Blue Peter after admitting taking cocaine, he has now revealed that he narrowly escaped prosecution for attempting to “bribe” a juror in an on-air prank. Bacon was told to attend Charing Cross police station after an incident during his XFM radio days went wrong.
In his memoirs, A Series of Unrelated Events, Bacon tells how he read out a text from a listener who was serving on a jury. Bacon told him: “Come, come, tell me all about that trial, give me the details and I will tell you whether to go guilty or not guilty. And in exchange you can have a My Chemical Romance CD. One man’s liberty will depend on how much you like emo.”
Following a police visit to XFM’s Leicester Square HQ, Bacon was summoned for an interview under caution.
The officer asked him: “For the purposes of the tape, can you tell us about your radio show on XFM?” This was a “devastating opening gambit” since it revealed a widespread unfamiliarity with the show. When Bacon was asked to give an example of a “mundane text” he might read out, his inquisitor replied: “And that’s meant to be funny. is it?”
Bacon writes: “His stony, motionless face just stared back at me. So ashen. So devoid of humour, this PC made those fellas on immigration at JFK look like Alan Carr.”
The matter was referred to the CPS, who eventually told Bacon no further action would follow. He writes: “They asked me ‘never tell this story on the radio’. And I gave them my word that I wouldn’t. And I haven’t. And this isn’t the radio.”
