Huw Edwards, one of Britain’s most famous newsreaders, will return to court today where he could be sentenced over receiving sexual images of children as young as seven.
The disgraced former BBC News star has admitted three charges of ‘making’ indecent photographs of children after he was sent 41 images by convicted paedophile Alex Williams in vile WhatsApp messages.
The 63-year-old is on conditional bail and is set to be sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court at 10am today, following his guilty pleas in July. The maximum sentence Edwards could receive from the magistrates’ court is 12 months.
But Edwards’ case could be sent to crown court if the presiding district judge decides they do not have appropriate powers to sentence the ex-presenter today.
The three offences he has pleaded guilty to can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. A community order and sexual offender treatment programme could also be considered as alternatives to a custodial sentence.
Seven of the indecent images shared with Edwards by Williams were of the most serious type. Of those images, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, but one was aged between seven and nine.
Williams was charged in relation to his WhatsApp chat with Edwards and was convicted of seven offences following an investigation by South Wales Police – receiving a 12-month suspended sentence.
Former BBC news anchor Huw Edwards leaves Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London in July
In July, Edwards admitted three charges of ‘making’ indecent photographs after he was sent 41 illegal images by convicted paedophile Alex Williams over WhatsApp
Alex Williams, 25, shared indecent images with Huw Edwards that led to the newsreader’s downfall. Williams is pictured here as a teenager on a family trip to a Welsh beauty spot
The final indecent image was sent in August 2021, a category A film featuring a young boy, with the convicted paedophile telling the newsreader the child was ‘quite young looking’ and that he had more images which were illegal.
Overall the charges cover a period between December 2020 and August 2021.
The BBC has admitted it was informed that the former TV presenter had been arrested in November but continued to employ him for around five months until he left on medical advice.
Edwards, one of the BBC’s most famous stars who presented the Queen’s death and King Charles’ coronation, has not been on TV since he was named by his wife as the high-profile presenter at the centre of a sexual pictures scandal in July 2023.
In the completely separate case, Edwards was accused of paying £35,000 to a young person in exchange for sexual images.
The Met Police confirmed that no criminal offence was committed in this instance.
The mother of the teenager told The Sun that Edwards has caused ‘immense pain and suffering’ and should be locked up.
In a powerful open letter published by the newspaper, she said: ‘I am today writing this open letter to make you understand the immense pain and suffering you have caused me, my son, my family, your own family – and all of your victims over the years.’
She said that her ‘heart breaks for every one’ of the young children ‘robbed of their innocence forever for your sick pleasure’ and their families who have gone through what she has.
She wrote of how her son was happy before the disgraced news anchor ‘wormed’ his way into the teenager’s life from the age of 17.
The distressed mother said her son began having problems with drink and drugs, which was further fuelled by Edwards’ ‘pestering him for pictures’ and paying him ‘tens of thousands’.
She said Edwards: ‘Sent text messages calling him ‘Princess’ to control him and keep him onside.’
Concluding the letter, she told Edwards: ‘That you have lost everything is no consolation to us. You will receive your punishment in court.’
The teenager who was paid £35,000 by the former BBC star is now 21. He allegedly was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement and said he felt ‘groomed’ by the disgraced presenter.
Although no criminality was found from these allegations, the Met revealed in July this year that Edwards had separately been charged with making indecent images of children.
In a dramatic fall from grace, the force confirmed Edwards had been arrested on November 8 2023 and charged on June 26 2024.
Edwards pictured in 1999. He would go on to become one of the BBC’s highest-paid stars
Edwards spent 40 years working his way up the ranks of the BBC, first coming to national attention presenting the BBC Six O’Clock News
Edwards announcing the news of Her Majesty’s death to the nation in September 2022
Edwards pictured with his wife Vicky Flind in London in 2018. She named him as the high-profile presenter as the centre of a sexual pictures scandal
Police officers clear the way as former BBC news presenter Huw Edwards arrives at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on July 31
Welsh police uncovered the broadcaster crimes during a separate probe into a sex offender
Five days later, Edwards pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children – and will be sentenced today.
Edwards, who resigned from the BBC in April, has been asked to repay the £200,000 salary he has received since his arrest.
BBC director-general Tim Davie said the money should be returned and that the corporation will ‘explore’ the legal process if Edwards refuses.
Mr Davie and BBC chairman Samir Shah were questioned by the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee last Wednesday.
Regarding the disgraced presenter’s pay, Mr Davie said: ‘We’ve made the formal request, and I can’t go into too much detail, but discussions are under way, but I’ve got no further news, apart from the BBC’s position is clear, the money should be returned, and we made the request.’
When asked if he set a deadline, he said: ‘I don’t believe we set a deadline… but we do expect to make progress and get an answer.’
Mr Shah told the same committee that Edwards had ‘damaged’ the BBC’s reputation.
He said: ‘There’s nothing more important than public trust in the BBC, and we are custodians of that trust and what Huw Edwards did damaged the reputation and the trust for the BBC so we take that very seriously indeed.
‘I should say, it was a shock to discover, when it was announced, when he was charged, that he had led this double life.
‘On the face of it, a trusted news presenter, but hidden, secretly, he was this figure who did the most appalling things. I mean, let’s never forget the victims.’
He added that he ‘knew him’, having overseen current affairs at the BBC decades ago, and said that other staff who worked with him ‘feel angry and betrayed’ by Edwards.
The relevant images range from the most serious category, known as category A, to the least serious, known as Category C.
They include seven category A images, 12 category B images, and 22 category C images.
The Sentencing Council, a public body sponsored by the Ministry Of Justice, defines category A images as those involving penetrative sexual activity, sexual activity with an animal, or sadism.
Huw Edwards, 62, at the pinnacle of his career and picking up a television award for Best Live Event for covering the late Queen’s funeral
The star anchor’s prestigious career involved breaking the news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death and both Prince William and Prince Harry’s weddings. Pictured with Justin Welby on May 6, 2023
Edwards is seen on screen for what would be the last time before the scandal became public, when he covered King Charles’ visit to Scotland
Edwards, of Wandsworth, wore a dark blue suit with a blue tie in the dock in July
Category B images are those involving non-penetrative sexual activity, while category C images are indecent images that do not fall into A or B.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), ‘making’ an indecent image has been broadly interpreted by the courts.
It can range from opening an attachment to an email containing an image, to accessing pornographic websites in which indecent photographs of children appear by way of an automatic ‘pop-up’ mechanism.
In the case of Edwards, he received the illegal images as part of a WhatsApp conversation.
Speaking in Edwards’ defence, his barrister Philip Evans KC has said that his client had not ‘created’ the images ‘in the traditional sense of the word’.
Huw Edwards shaking hands with Queen Elizabeth II during a royal visit to BBC Studios in London in June 2013. He enjoyed a glittering career until the scandal came to light
Huw Edwards pleaded guilty to receiving 41 indecent images of children, which included two sexual videos of a boy under nine (Edwards is seen leaving court)
The maximum prison sentence for making an indecent image of a child is 10 years.
Sentencing guidelines set the starting point for any jail term for possession of a category A image at 12 months, with a range of 26 weeks to three years.
The starting point is 26 weeks for a category B image, and a community order for category C.
A number of potential defences to the charge exist, including not seeing the images and having no reason to believe that the images were indecent, having a legitimate reason to possess the images, or if the images were unsolicited and not kept for an unreasonable amount of time.
Edwards made his way through the media melee before being driven away from court
Aggravating features to be taken into account for Edwards include that the images included moving images, and the young age of the child thought to be seven to nine years old in two of the category A images.
Mitigating factors are Edwards’ early guilty plea, his previous good character, his mental health issues, and his remorse.
During his four decades at the corporation, Edwards was among the broadcasting teams leading coverage of historic events including the late Queen’s funeral in 2022 and most recently the coronation of the King in May 2023.
Edwards also announced the late Queen’s death on the BBC in September 2022.
The former presenter was seen for the last time on the BBC as he covered King Charles’ visit to Scotland on July 5 2023, two days before The Sun’s article about the ‘unnamed presenter’ scandal was published.
Full timeline of Huw Edwards’ downfall
March 2023
Edwards announcing the news of Her Majesty’s death to the nation in September 2022
Huw Edwards signs new three-year deal with the BBC after praise for the way he led coverage of the Queen’s death.
It came after he was seen at the offices of the BBC’s biggest radio rival – Global – in August 2022. The News at Ten veteran admitted at the time he was ‘thinking about my future’.
In June that year he would pick up the best live event honour at the Tric Awards for being among those to cover the state funeral of the late Queen, and in February he received the Broadcast Awards’ special recognition award.
April 2023
Police were contacted but ‘no criminality was identified’.
May 6, 2023
Edwards hosts coverage of King Charles’ coronation as he lead the BBC broadcast of the historic event.
May 18, 2023
A family member of the young person, who was 17 at the time, made an in-person complaint about the behaviour of a BBC presenter.
May 19, 2023
A complainant contacted the BBC in a 29-minute call to the BBC’s audience services team, and the details were referred to the Corporate Investigations Team.
The family member reportedly asked the broadcaster to stop sending their family member cash.
The Corporate Investigations Team decided the complaint didn’t include an allegation of criminality, but merited more investigation.
The investigators email the complainant to get more information but they get no response.
June 6, 2023
After getting no reply to the email, the Corporate Investigations Team tries to call the complainant but the call does not connect.
However, the Sun reported later that the family said no one from the corporation phoned them for a proper interview after they complained.
The BBC said no more attempts to contact the family were made after this date, but that the case ‘remained open’.
July 5, 2023
Edwards is seen on screen for what would be the last time before the scandal became public, when he covered King Charles’ visit to Scotland
Huw Edwards is seen for the last time on the BBC as he covered King Charles’ visit to Scotland.
July 6, 2023
The Sun informs BBC Press Office about allegations against the star presenter.
The BBC launches an ‘incident management group’ of top executives after becoming aware of new allegations ‘of a different nature’ against the presenter.
It is the first time Mr Davie or any executive directors were made aware of the case, according to the BBC.
A senior manager holds the first conversation with the presenter concerned.
It is agreed he should not appear on air while the allegations are investigated.
July 7, 2023
The Sun published its exclusive which alleged that a BBC presenter, unnamed at the time, paid a total of £35,000 for sexual content to someone beginning when they were 17.
But a lawyer acting on behalf of the young person told The Sun that evening there was ‘no truth’ to the claims.
The BBC said it would investigate and it made contact with the Metropolitan Police.
July 8, 2023
The complainant sends the BBC ‘materials related to the complaint’.
There is a frenzy of speculation about the identity of the star. Gary Lineker, Jeremy Vine, Rylan Clark and Nicky Campbell all feel obliged to deny that they were the man in question.
July 9, 2023
A mocked up version of a reported Instagram message exchange between Edwards and a teenager
The BBC confirms that a male presenter has been suspended from all duties.
The Sun reports that the presenter allegedly made two phone calls to the young person and pleaded with them to call their mother to stop the investigation.
July 10, 2023
BBC representatives and Metropolitan Police detectives meet in the morning to discover if any crimes have been committed.
The young person claims through a lawyer that the allegations are ‘rubbish’.
In response, the Sun said it had ‘reported a story about two very concerned parents who made a complaint to the BBC about the behaviour of a presenter and the welfare of their child’.
The parents stood by their account to the Sun and the stepfather was quoted in a story saying the allegations were originally put the the BBC ‘for an hour’.
July 11, 2023
Director-general Tim Davie sends an internal email to staff reiterating that the BBC is taking the allegations ‘incredibly seriously’
Director-general of the BBC Tim Davie defends the delay in speaking to the BBC presenter.
But the BBC admits there were ‘lessons to be learned’ prompting a boss to assess the protocols.
In the afternoon, new claims emerged from the BBC that the presenter sent threatening messages to a second young person.
It is claimed they met on a dating app, before the conversation moved to other platforms where the presenter revealed his identity.
He then allegedly sent a number of ‘threatening messages’ to the youngster, which the BBC has seen.
The Sun reported the star is also accused of breaking lockdown rules to meet a 23-year-old stranger from a dating site.
July 12, 2023
Huw Edwards pictured with his wife Vicky Find in South London in 2018. She has since separated from the former broadcaster in the wake of his recent scandals
Huw Edwards is revealed as the BBC presented by his wife Vicky Flind.
She said he was ‘suffering from serious mental health issues’.
The bombshell revelation came just moments after the police said they were ‘taking no further action’ in the case.
But BBC boss Mr Davie sent an email to staff informing them that an internal investigation would continue even though police were no longer involved.
The BBC reported fresh allegations from two current junior members of staff and one former member of staff who claim they were sent messages that made them uncomfortable.
July 12, 2023
Mr Davie asked for a second review of the BBC’s complaints protocols after it was revealed the family were only contacted twice by the corporation – despite the seriousness of the allegations.
November 8, 2023
Edwards is arrested, but tells noone.
Later speaking to MailOnline, one shocked former colleague and friend said: ‘Huw kept his arrest completely secret’.
They added: ‘It turns out he was arrested four months later and nobody knew. I had no idea until he was charged.’
February 27, 2024
The BBC apologised to the young person’s family, who’d complained about Edwards two months before he was suspended.
An independent report by Deloitte is published into the BBC’s complaints handling procedure
The publicly-funded broadcaster acknowledged that there had been ‘shortcomings’ in the way it had dealt with the case as it reviewed its complaints procedures.
April, 2024
Edwards took sanctuary in his beloved Wales and was being comforted in Carmarthenshire by his mother Aerona.
April 22, 2024
Edwards resigns from the BBC.
Broadcasting executive Stewart Purvis CBE said there is ‘relief across the BBC’ that the ‘extraordinarily damaging saga’ has been resolved.
He added that Edwards having ‘walked from the BBC’ will be viewed as ‘quite a successful outcome’ for the corporation.
June 26, 2024
Edwards is charged with the possession of indecent images of children.
Interrupting coverage of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ statement in the House of Commons, the BBC announced the breaking news on July 29.
According to the charge sheet, he was accused of having six category A images, 12 category B pictures and 19 category C photographs on WhatsApp.
July 23, 2024
The BBC’s annual report reveals Edwards was paid between £475,000 and £479,999 for the year 2023/24 for 160 presenting days, BBC One news specials, election specials and other television programming.
This salary marked an increase from 2022/23, when he was paid between £435,000 and £439,999 for 180 days presenting on BBC One, as well as news specials.
This was despite him being absent from screens from when the story first broke in July last year until his exit nine months later in April 2024.
But he stayed on the payroll while suspended, which is normal BBC policy, and was suffering from serious mental health issues and received in-patient hospital care.
The BBC confirmed at the time of his departure that he had not received a pay-off and was leaving ‘on the basis of medical advice from his doctors’.
Director general Tim Davie defended the pay and the rise, confirming there was ‘no settlement payment.’ He also said he was not going to ‘get into who’s spoken to who’ when asked if he had spoken to Edwards since his resignation.
July 31, 2024
Edwards remained silent as he left the court building surrounded by the press today
Edwards pleads guilty to making 41 indecent images of children – and faces jail.
The newscaster admitted he kept seven category ‘A’ images of the very worst kind on his phone after being sent them on WhatsApp by a paedophile.
The sick child porn images showed youngsters aged between seven and 14, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.
He remained emotionless as he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children, between December 2020 and August 2022.
His admission now leaves the former news star’s glittering four-decade career in tatters.
September 16, 2024
Edwards is due to be sentenced – and could face up to 10 years in jail.
