BBC presenter Ashley Cain called women ‘slags’, ‘sluts’ and ‘bitches’

A BBC presenter lauded by the corporation for his appeal to young male audiences has a history of making abusive and misogynistic remarks about women, whom he has variously called “slags”, “sluts”, “psychos” and “bitches”, the Guardian can reveal. Ashley Cain is the presenter of the BBC Three documentary series Ashley Cain: Into the Danger Zone , which was filmed on location earlier this year after the BBC commissioned a second series. A former footballer turned reality TV star, Cain travels to the world’s most dangerous places, interviewing young men who live on the fringes of society. Before Cain began working with the BBC, he was a prolific user of X, which was then known as Twitter. He frequently referred to women in tweets using abusive terms, making jokes about hitting women and degrading sexual practices. He also sent female users of the social media platform abusive messages with offensive sexualised language. In 2014, in response to a since-deleted tweet he perceived to be a homophobic, Cain tweeted that one female user should “go and choke on a cock you slut”. To another female user in 2015 he wrote: “The only thing that’s desperate around here is your pictures with your shit tits. Now suck a dick, and fuck off.” These and dozens of other similar posts, all of which were publicly available, raise questions for the BBC about what, if any, vetting was conducted before his appointment. …