Former BBC news presenter Huw Edwards has been given a six-month prison sentence – suspended for two years – and ordered to undergo a sex offender treatment programme by a London court for accessing indecent images and videos of children.
The sentence means the veteran presenter will not serve jail time unless he commits any other offences in the next two years. Handing down the sentence at Westminster magistrates’ court on Monday, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said Edwards’s “long-earned reputation is in tatters”.
Edwards (63) was the highest-paid newsreader at the UK national broadcaster when he resigned in April. In court, he looked straight ahead with his chin resting on his hands as the sentence was read out.
In July, he pleaded guilty to three charges of accessing indecent images of children between December 2020 and August 2021, involving the receipt of 41 illegal pictures and videos from a man on the WhatsApp messaging platform.
Seven of the pictures and videos were deemed to be Category A, the most serious type. Several were believed to be of a child aged between 13 and 15, while another was of a child possibly as young as seven.
The prosecution told the court that Edwards had paid about £1,000 to £1,500 in total to Alex Williams, the man who sent him the images, as gifts or presents after receiving the content. However, the judge said that he accepted the defence’s explanation that the payments were more of a “thank you” rather than payment for purchasing the images.
Monday’s sentencing sealed the downfall of Edwards, who fronted the BBC’s flagship News at Ten programme and led coverage of important state and international events, including the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and the coronation of King Charles. The Welshman was at the centre of a media frenzy last summer after reports emerged that a senior BBC presenter had alleged relationships with a series of young people.
His wife Vicky Flind, who confirmed his identity as the person at the centre of the allegations after days of speculation, said Edwards was suffering from serious mental health issues. The police concluded that Edwards had not broken any laws.
But in April, Edwards resigned from the BBC, where he earned about £475,000 a year, having been arrested on suspicion of serious offences last November.
The corporation said last month it would seek to claw back hundreds of thousands of pounds in salary it paid Edwards between his arrest and his resignation. He had “clearly undermined trust in the BBC and brought us into disrepute”, the corporation said.
A BBC spokesperson said on Monday that the broadcaster was “appalled by his crimes. He has betrayed not just the BBC, but audiences who put their trust in him”.
“These are extremely serious offences,” said Judge Goldspring, who told Edwards he had been “forced to confront your wrongdoing in a very public way”.
“[However], you do not present a risk or danger to the public at large and specifically to children,” the judge added in his explanation for why Edwards was not receiving an immediate custodial sentence.
Edwards will be placed on the UK sex offenders’ register for seven years, a requirement based on the length of his sentence.
The judge said that Edwards had been residing as an inpatient at the Nightingale Hospital, a mental health facility, since his last court appearance, and that his stay had been extended on the advice of his consultant psychiatrist. Edwards, the judge added, “remains at high risk of suicide”.
In mitigation submissions on Monday, the court was told that Edwards had asked the man he was in contact with on WhatsApp not to send him illegal underage content.
While the charges are described as “making” indecent images, Edwards’s barrister, Philip Evans KC, reiterated to the court that this was a legal term and there was no suggestion Edwards had created any of the content.
Mr Evans said the expert reports compiled for Edwards’s sentencing showed there was an “unfortunate storm” going on in his life at the time of the offences and that he was suffering from both mental and physical health problems.
Edwards was always a man of good character and “he has lost that good character in a very public way”, Evans said. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024