ITV confirms when Phillip Schofield will return to This Morning
ITV presenter has taken time off as his brother appeared in court charged with 11 sexual offences involving a child
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Your support makes all the difference.Phillip Schofield has been absent from This Morning during the trial of his brother Timothy, who was found guilty on Monday (3 April) of sexually abusing a teenage boy over a three-year period.
The presenter first missed the daytime show on Monday 27 March. ITV has confirmed that Phillip would not be returning until after the Easter holidays.
On Monday, his brother Timothy, 54, was charged with 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019.
A jury at Exeter Crown Court found him guilty of all counts with a majority of 10-2 after more than five-and-a-half hours of deliberation.
Phillip welcomed the guilty verdicts, adding: “As far as I am concerned, I no longer have a brother.” His full statement can be found here.
Last week, Alison Hammond and Joel Dommett stood in for the presenter alongside Willoughby while Phillip’s brother Timothy was on trial.
For the scheduled Easter break, Hammond and Dermot O’Leary, who usually present the show on Fridays, will stand in for the pair.
During the trial, Timothy, a civilian police worker from Bath, denied the charges. He was convicted of 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.
Timothy told the jury he had watched pornography with the boy, who he insisted was aged over 16 at that time, and they had masturbated while sat apart, but denied performing sexual acts on the teenager.
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Timothy is said to have told his TV star brother about some of the alleged offences in September 2021. In a written statement, Phillip told the court that his brother had phoned him in an agitated and upset state and that he had invited him to drive to his home in London.
Phillip said they spent several hours talking, including eating a meal at his home. “I was washing up and Tim was standing behind me and he said, ‘You are going to hate me for what I am about to say,’” Phillip said. “I said there was nothing he could say that would make me hate him. 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,” he wrote. “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 anymore’. I said, ‘You’ve got to stop, just never do it again. Regardless how that happened it must never happen again.’
“Tim would say it was just ‘[boy] time’. I said, ‘What the hell is [boy] time?’”
Timothy has been remanded in custody ahead of sentencing at Bristol Crown Court on 19 May.
If you’re worried about a child, even if you’re unsure, you can contact professional counsellors at the NSPCC for help, advice and support by emailing help@nspcc.org.uk or calling 0808 800 5000. For those aged 18 or under, Childline offers free, confidential advice and support whatever your concern and whenever you need help. Call 0800 1111 or Contact Childline.