Disgraced former BBC News presenter Huw Edwards, who was arrested on November 8, 2023, and charged on Wednesday, June 26, following authorization from the Crown Prosecution Service, has pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.
Edwards admitted in Westminster Magistrates’ Court to having 41 indecent images of children, which had been sent to him by another man on WhatsApp.
Among the images are seven category A images, two of which showed a child aged between about seven and nine. It is categorized as the most serious classification.
Huw Edwards was one of the main presenters on BBC One’s News at Ten and often fronted coverage of major national events.
However, his broadcasting career ended in disgrace when he was arrested last November and charged last month.
He will be sentenced on September 16 and, if found guilty, could be sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Edwards was surrounded by policemen and reporters when he left the court.
The hearings lasted for 30 minutes, and when the charges were read before him, he replied “guilty” three times, quietly and calmly.
It was revealed in the court that Edwards was involved in an online chat on WhatsApp from December 2020 with an adult man.
The man sent him 377 sexual images, of which 41 were indecent images of children.
The Crown Prosecution Service revealed that most of the category A images were of children between 13 and 15, but two clips showed a child aged about seven to nine. Category A images are deemed serious abuse, including penetrative sexual activity.
Besides the serious charges, Edwards also had 12 Category B pictures, which involve non-penetrative sexual activity, and 22 photographs in Category C, which are deemed indecent images.
The prosecutors also revealed that the man who was sending the pictures on February 2, 2021, inquired if he was sending too young, to which Edwards asked him not to send any underage images.
Edwards’s barrister, Philip Evans KC, told the court:
“There’s no suggestion in this case that Mr. Edwards has… in the traditional sense of the word, created any image of any sort.”
He added,
“Mr. Edwards did not keep any images, did not send any to anyone else, and did not and has not sought similar images from anywhere else.”
He also said that his client had not just good character but exceptional character.
‘Key questions’
In July, newspapers reported that Edwards paid a young person for sexually explicit images. Edwards has not been on air since last July following these reports.
However, the Metropolitan Police has stated that they found no evidence of criminal behaviour about those allegations.
Edwards was suspended by the BBC last July, and an internal investigation was launched, but its details have not been revealed.
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