David Sullivan’s Sport newspapers used sexualised images of underage girls as ‘bait for predatory men’

David Sullivan was accused of sexual misconduct by seven women in the investigation by the BBC and the Times. Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images View image in fullscreen David Sullivan was accused of sexual misconduct by seven women in the investigation by the BBC and the Times. Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images David Sullivan’s Sport newspapers used sexualised images of underage girls as ‘bait for predatory men’ Former victims’ commissioner says publication ‘deliberately came as close as possible to breaking the law’ David Sullivan’s Sport newspapers used sexualised images of underage girls as “bait for predatory men”, the former victims’ commissioner has said. Vera Baird spoke amid scrutiny of the newspapers’ ’Countdown to 16’ feature , where during Sullivan’s tenure as owner, models were pictured in lingerie and bikinis in the weeks before their 16th birthdays, until they could legally be shown topless. Sullivan, 77, announced his resignation as a director and co-chair of West Ham on Saturday, before the publication of a joint investigation by the BBC and the Times in which seven women accused him of sexual misconduct. Three women claimed that the former pornography baron abused his power as the owner of the Daily and Sunday Sport newspapers to prey on them for sex when they were seeking work. A further four accused him of exploitative and predatory behaviour, including allegations he tried to pressure them into sex during business meetings. Through his lawyers, Sullivan has “categorically” denied the allegations, which the BBC and Times said spanned decades, starting in the 1980s and involving women in their late teens and early 20s. He added: “After a lifetime spent building businesses in the adult industry, in which I have met thousands of women, it is sadly inevitable that a small number of improper conduct claims are being made against me.” View image in fullscreen David Sullivan with his newspaper Sunday Sport in 1986. Photograph: Landmark Media/Alamy Sullivan founded the Sunday Sport in 1986, followed by the Daily Sport in 1991. For more than 15 years, the titles celebrated the 16th birthdays of young models by showing them semi-naked. Some appeared in sexualised shoots in the weeks before they turned 16. One 15-year-old model who appeared in the Sunday Sport was photographed with just her hands covering her chest. The newspaper also printed drawings of how its readers imagined another 15-year-old girl would look topless. “The age rules are there to protect vulnerable children from exploitation, but this inverts that protection by using under aged girls in sexualised images, as bait for predatory men,” Baird said. “It is deliberately coming as close as possible to breaking the law to show it is naughty but nice to like children. [Sullivan is] not a man who should have any safeguarding responsibilities and hard to see how he ought ever to have had control of a newspaper.” At the time, the Sport maintained it ha