Disgraced broadcaster Stuart Hall to be stripped of OBE

Former It's A Knockout presenter is currently serving a 30-month jail term after admitting offences of indecent assault relating to 13 victims

Former broadcaster Stuart Hall (Reuters)

The disgraced BBC broadcaster Stuart Hall is set to be stripped of his OBE after he was jailed for a string of sex offences against children.

The announcement will be made this afternoon in the London Gazette, sources said, which carries all official news from the palace.

The 83-year-old was awarded the honour in 2012 for services to broadcasting and charity – a decision which appears to have been reversed by the official independent forfeiture committee. Honours are taken away if a recipient is deemed to have brought the system into disrepute.

The former It’s a Knockout presenter is expected to serve half of a 30-month jail term – extended by the Court of Appeal after an initial 15-month term was deemed “unduly lenient”.

Though he initially publicly declared his innocence, Hall eventually admitted 14 counts of indecent assault against 13 girls aged between nine and 17 over a period of almost 20 years in April.

He initially described the accusations against him as “pernicious, callous, cruel and above all spurious”, denials which Lord Chief Justice Judge said were a “seriously aggravating” feature of the case.

Preston Crown Court heard that the broadcaster was an “opportunistic predator” who “got away with it” for most of his life.

But in the wake of his father’s admissions, son Daniel Hall, a 50-year-old lawyer, told the Telegraph: “My father’s massive work for charity for 50 years, for which he was awarded an OBE, and a lifetime of good work should not be whitewashed in one brushstroke. That would not be fair.”

Hall has been a familiar face and voice in British broadcasting for half a century, becoming a celebrated figure on BBC Radio 5 Live for his eccentric football commentary style and writing a weekly sport column for the Radio Times magazine up until his arrest.