Phillip Schofield says 'I no longer have a brother' after sibling Timothy found guilty of sexual abuse

The brother of This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield has been found guilty of sexually abusing a teenage boy over a three-year period.

Timothy Schofield was charged with 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019.

Jurors at Exeter Crown Court returned majority verdicts on Monday as they found the 54-year-old guilty of all counts after more than five-and-a-half hours of deliberations.

Following the verdicts, Phillip Schofield branded his brother's crimes "despicable" and said: "As far as I am concerned, I no longer have a brother."

"My overwhelming concern is and has always been for the wellbeing of the victim and his family," the TV star said.

"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."

Timothy Schofield denied performing sex acts on the teenager, but told the jury he watched porn with the boy and they had masturbated while sitting apart.

He insisted the boy was over 16 at the time but admitted searching for terms on a legal pornography website including "young boy teen sex" and "gay teen torrents".

He told the court he believed this would return results showing men aged between 18 and their early 20s.

The civilian police worker, from Bath, testified that he told his brother Phillip in September 2021 that he and the complainant had watched pornography together.

The TV star provided a written statement to the trial, which said Timothy "made it sound like a one-off" and that he had told him "it must never happen again".

Phillip Schofield described how his brother had phoned him in an agitated and upset state and he invited his sibling to drive to his home in London.

The court heard they spent several hours talking, including eating a meal, before he went to do the washing-up.

He said his brother told him "you are going to hate me for what I am about to say" but the presenter assured him there was nothing he could say that would do that.

Phillip Schofield said in the statement: "Then he said that he and [the boy] 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 boy's] body.

"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 boy, who alleged the offending started when he was 13, told the jury he felt "emotionally blackmailed" by Schofield and "forced" to participate in sexual activity.

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."

Timothy Schofield denied all the charges against him - three counts of causing a child to watch sexual activity, three of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, three of causing a child to engage in sexual activity, and two of sexual activity with a child.

Judge Mrs Justice Cutts remanded him in custody ahead of sentencing at Bristol Crown Court on 19 May.

-sky news