BBC 'refuses' to release video and audio models say will help them bring rape allegations against former boss of Elite agency Gérald Marie

The BBC is reportedly refusing to release video and audio footage that a group of models claim will help them bring forward rape allegations against the former boss of a multinational modelling agency.

The alleged victims of Elite agency chief Gérald Marie have petitioned the broadcaster to release 'vital' footage reportedly obtained during Lisa Brinkworth's three-year investigation into industry abuse.

The 'hundreds of hours' of video and audio was captured while Brinkworth, a former BBC reporter, posed as a model in a 1998 documentary for the BBC's MacIntyre Undercover.

She has alleged that she was assaulted by Marie while undercover, but claims she did not report the incident to police because she did not want to break her cover. However, she is said to have recorded her account of the assault on camera. 

But despite her requests for copies of the material, the BBC in January wrote to Brinkworth declining to hand the audio and video recordings over, citing the terms of a settlement with Elite Models, The Times reported.

Brinkworth had been filming for the documentary when she alleges Marie pinned her down on a chair and attacked her after a group dinner.

She had been posing as a model within the agency to expose the treatment of women within the industry.

The BBC aired the MacIntrye programme in November 1999, and it claimed that Brinkworth was attacked in a nightclub in Milan, Italy, in October 1998. 

Elite Models took legal action against the corporation over the programme, alleging misrepresentation. A settlement in 2001 saw the BBC promise not to rebroadcast or share any of the material gathered in research - including the tape of Brinkworth. 

According to The Times, the BBC has now told Brinkworth that the settlement prevents it from providing the video and audio materials to her. 

The journalist is the founding member of the Victorious Angels group, which includes eight other alleged victims of Marie and model scout Jean-Luc Brunel.

Sixteen women from the US, Britain and Australia have allegedly provided depositions to French officials that detail detail rapes and sexual assaults by Marie in Paris and Milan. He denies all allegations.

The Victorious Angels successfully asked French authorities to open a criminal investigation into the allegations against Marie in 2020, but a court later decided the accusations were beyond the 20-year statute of limitations.

Brikworth last November initiated an appeal against the court's decision alleging that the BBC's settlement prevented her from taking legal action at the time. 

She also wants to obtain the documents and materials related to the settlement. She claims that the BBC has provided 'very scant materials' that are not nearly as significant as her recorded testimony of the alleged assault.

'That was made as my personal record and never for broadcast and should be immediately handed over,' she told The Times of her testimony. 

'The BBC says it is restricted by the legal settlement the corporation agreed with Elite, which in itself was a betrayal of not just me but all the victims, it enabled a sex predator to continue working with teenage girls for another two decades.'

She argued that 'public interest would be properly served' by the BBC releasing the material, some of which she claims it gave an external production company to make a separate documentary.

Brinkworth added: 'The BBC knows that time is running out for us, and the distress being caused by what is now a four-year fight for this evidence. Why do they not assist us?'

A BBC spokesperson told the newspaper: 'We have already provided documents to the French authorities to help Ms Brinkworth pursue the matter and investigators have assured us they have what they currently need from the BBC. We will continue to do whatever we can to assist with the process.'

MailOnline has approached the corporation for comment.