Alison Hammond breaks down over Phillip Schofield

Phillip Schofield has said that he did “everything he could” when his brother Timothy Schofield was being investigated for child sexual offences.

The former ITV presenter said he had worked “incredibly closely” with the police throughout the investigation and still receives text messages from detectives who worked on the case.

Timothy Schofield, 54, was convicted in April of 11 sexual offences involving a child between October 2016 and October 2019, including two of sexual activity with a child. He was jailed in May for 12 years. Phillip Schofield said after the conviction: “I no longer have a brother.”

Phillip Schofield admitted to a secret affair with a younger male colleague at ITV, but strongly denies accusations of grooming.

In an interview with The Sun amid the fallout from his affair he said his mother had been “heartbroken” by news of his brother, and recalled the investigation process.

“I was interviewed, I gave a full statement to the police, who we’ve worked with incredibly closely throughout,” he told the newspaper. “I still get texts from the investigating detective because we were so pleased with the result. We did everything we could at the right time.”

In a statement released by his lawyer after his brother’s guilty verdict, Schofield said: “My overwhelming concern is and has always been for the wellbeing of the victim and his family. 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. As far as I am concerned, I no longer have a brother.”

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The former ITV presenter took a period of pre-planned leave around the trial at Exeter Crown Court, and accompanied his mother to Cornwall for the sentencing.

He told The Sun it was there that he received news that he would have to step down from This Morning. “Our family thing was always to buy fish and chips and go and sit on the headland,” he said. “I picked my mum up and she went in to get the fish and chips and while she was getting it my phone rang.

“It was my then manager, saying, ‘Mate, I’m so sorry, it has become too loud for ITV. You will have to step down from This Morning’.

“She said to me before I arrived, ‘You’re not coming down with any bad news are you?’ She sat in the car and she was all happy to see me. Then she said, ‘Oh your face has changed’. I said, ‘Let’s go on to the headland’. And I had to tell her. She (was) devastated.”

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