A Bafta-nominated TV director convicted of online grooming was able to move freely between primetime shows despite years of allegations of sexual harassment on set, it has been revealed.
During his 15-year career, Lee Salisbury worked on ITV’s Coronation Street and Emmerdale as well as the BBC’s EastEnders and true crime series Expert Witness.
Despite an unsavoury reputation, he was able to move to different programmes when claims against him arose because they each had separate executive teams.
He was given a suspended jail sentence in Bradford earlier this month after admitting sexual communication with an underage teenage boy who he promised he could help with his acting career.
His conviction raises questions over what bosses at the shows knew during his spells on set – and follows the BBC’s Huw Edwards’ child pornography conviction.
Salisbury, from Bradford, was sacked by EastEnders in 2016 after six years amid claims of sexual harassment. Despite the BBC insisting at the time that sexual allegations were always taken extremely seriously, it did not report him to police.
That meant that in 2021 he was able to return to the BBC where he made Expert Witness until 2023, directing 20 episodes.
Now cast and crew at ITV’s Emmerdale, where he worked between 2006 and 2015, have revealed he had a widespread reputation there for inappropriately contacting them.
A senior member of the soap’s team said: ‘He sent inappropriate messages to a number of people, including at least one well-known male cast member and another production team member. In the end he was let go and ITV stopped using him, but they didn’t seem to do anything to follow it up.
‘One actor threatened to punch him on set and he often messaged younger newcomers just after they arrived – they thought he was a big player who could help their career, so got drawn in, but it’s an open secret what was really going on.
‘It’s shocking nothing was done about it anywhere he worked – he seemed to operate with impunity.’
Bradford Crown Court heard he boasted to the boy on Instagram that he had worked with One Direction and had seen singer Harry Styles ‘naked on several occasions’.
He then asked the boy if he used encrypted messaging app Telegram so they could continue communicating.
Prosecutors said he was ‘aware’ of the boy’s age and searched Google for ‘how you get text messages thrown out of court’. Salisbury was sentenced to a year in jail, suspended for 18 months.
The BBC said: ‘Any allegations of inappropriate behaviour are taken extremely seriously. Independent companies are responsible for their own hiring and checks, which is not something another BBC production would be aware of.’
ITV said: ‘Lee Salisbury hasn’t worked for ITV’s soaps since 2016.’