Beeb inquiry as presenter makes bizarre claim she is James Dean Bradfield's lover
BBC bosses have launched an internal probe after a TV girl claimed she was James Dean Bradfield's mystery girlfriend.
Blonde presenter Ceri Barnett tried to hoodwink the Welsh Mirror into thinking she was the Manic Street Preacher star's new love.
She even biked to our offices a video compilation of her recent appearances.
But her elaborate sting backfired when we checked out her story - and BBC chiefs are now considering disciplinary action.
On Wednesday the 24-year-old TV presenter rang the news desk, giving the name "Rhiann Locke".
She said she had a story about 30-year-old James Dean Bradfield's new girlfriend and had seen them kissing in the first class train carriage of a Newport-Paddington express.
She named the mystery girl as Ceri Barnett, a presenter with BBC Wales Choice, and promised to send some footage to our office.
But when the video arrived the Welsh Mirror soon established the girl claiming to be Rhiann Locke was in fact Ceri herself.
When we knocked on her door at the family home in Blackwood, Gwent - from where the Welsh band hail - she refused to answer.
And when a Welsh Mirror reporter asked to speak to her outside work she ignored him, knowing the game was up.
The real Rhiann Locke, an accountant at the Welsh Development Agency, said language student Ceri Barnett was a friend of hers but denied contacting the Welsh Mirror.
She said: "I have never spoken to anyone at the Welsh Mirror and I didn't send anything to the paper.
"I know Ceri very well - she is one of my best friends - and I know she's definitely not going out with James Dean Bradfield. If you do find out who used my name please let me know."
Terri Hall, a spokeswoman for the award-winning band, said she knew Ceri Barnett but said there was certainly no love interest between her and the band's famous guitarist.
She said: "Ceri is a friend of the band and the management team but they are not going out with each other as far as I know." In the summer the Manics star was voted third sexiest man in Britain by a men's magazine.
Finally, after being caught red-handed by the Welsh Mirror, Ceri - a former language student at Gwent College - confessed all.
She said: "You have got me in a corner - whatever I say is a no-win situation.
"I was forewarned that the Welsh Mirror has seen us (James and I) out together.
"I know him as a friend and I know the rest of the band. I see a lot of him when he's around.
"We have been out with each other once and now we're friends - we're not going out now."
She added she had sent the video tape and made the phone calls pretending to be Rhiann Locke as a "damage limitation" exercise.
"I would hate for him to think I was wanting to tell stories and was just trying to throw you off the scent.
"They (The Manics) don't need publicity and neither do I - I don't know why I did it."