The man at the centre of the Great British Bake Off's 'Bingate' scandal has spoken out for the first time, as the BBC confirmed that fellow contestant Diana Beard quit the show due to illness shortly after the controversial episode was filmed.
Iain Watters, a construction engineer from Northern Ireland, was eliminated from the show on Wednesday after throwing his baked Alaska in the bin because the ice cream had melted. The episode appeared to show Beard removing his batch from the freezer, sparking a torrent of online abuse directed at her.
Watters told the Guardian that he did not believe claims from programme-makers and Beard that the pudding was only left out for 40 seconds, saying it was long enough to ruin the dessert. 'After I made meringue for the outside of my baked Alaska, I went over to the freezer to check how my ice cream was re-freezing... Then I realised Diana had left it out of the freezer. She moved it out of the way to put hers in. That was the reason it melted,' he said.
Watters condemned the online abuse directed at Beard, calling it 'unfair and unnecessary', and said he bore her no malice. However, he disputed her claim on the show that bakers had designated freezers, noting that two freezers had broken the day before, leaving only three for the contestants to share.
The BBC confirmed that Beard quit the show before episode five was filmed, stating that her decision was 'not connected in any way to what happened in episode four'. Presenter Sue Perkins also defended Beard on Twitter, writing: 'Iain's Alaska was out of the freezer for 40 secs. That's it. No sabotage.'
Watters said he felt the judges' decision to eliminate him was harsh, as it was 'more of a technical error than a baking error'. He added that many fellow contestants believed no one should have been thrown off that week due to the circumstances.
