 Richard Marson was Blue Peter's editor for four years |
Blue Peter editor Richard Marson has decided to step down two months after the show apologised for faking the results of a competition. He has been offered a role as an executive producer within the BBC Children's department working on independent projects.
A BBC source confirmed Mr Marson was changing jobs and said the timing was "not entirely coincidental".
A technical problem led to a visiting child posing as a competition winner.
Callers were asked to phone in and identify a mystery celebrity's shoes. More than 13,800 people entered, with calls costing 10p each, including 3.25p for the Unicef charity.
However, an "unavoidable technical difficulty" meant producers were unable to access the callers' details and so found a stand-in. The winner could select a prize from a list of children's toys.
 The programme had been trying to raise money for Unicef |
The child they found was already in the studio because she had won a separate competition. In March host Konnie Huq told viewers: "We'd like to say sorry to you because when this mistake happened, we let you down."
At the time, BBC Children's controller Richard Deverell called the faking of the competition an "exceptional incident", and said the person responsible had acted "in a panic".
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