Ex-BBC presenter pleads guilty to indecent images of children

Huw Edwards, former BBC presenter, pleads guilty to making indecent images of children

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July 31, 2024 11:14 AM PT

Huw Edwards, a former top BBC presenter who was suspended from his duties last year, pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of making indecent images of children, London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed to The Times.

Edwards, who served the news organization for 40 years before his July 2023 suspension and resignation in April, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London. The charges stem from offenses between December 2020 and April 2022 and involve images shared in a WhatsApp chat. During a 26-minute hearing, the court heard that an unnamed man had messaged the 62-year-old news veteran via social media and then sent hundreds of sexual images between December 2020 and August 2021, including 41 indecent images of children.

Seven images were classified as “Category A,” the most indecent. The children in most of those photos ranged from 13 to 15 years old, though one photo featured a child who was between 7 and 9 years old. After receiving a final “Category A” image in August 2021, Edwards told the unnamed sender to stop sending the illegal images, though they continued to exchange legal pornographic images until April 2022.

“Accessing indecent images of underage people perpetuates the sexual exploitation of children, which has deep, long-lasting trauma on these victims,” said Claire Brinton of the Crown Prosecution Service, which decides whether a case should go to court.

Edwards pleaded guilty days after details of his November arrest were made public this week and months after police launched an investigation in 2023. During an unrelated investigation last year, South Wales Police officers seized Edwards’ phone and discovered the WhatsApp conversation.

The embattled former anchor is due back in the same court for sentencing on Sept. 16, police said.

A representative for the BBC did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

Philip Evans, Edwards’ defense lawyer, denied the allegations that his client “in the traditional sense of the word, created any image of any sort.” He also denies that Edwards kept or distributed the images and said his client “has not sought similar images from anywhere else.” The newsreader is “not just of good character, but of exceptional character,” Evans added.

Edwards had been among BBC’s best-paid stars, with an annual salary of at least $565,000. But his BBC glory quickly faded when he was accused in July of paying a 17-year-old for explicit images — in a case unrelated to the WhatsApp charges.

Last July, Edwards’ wife, Vicky Flind, confirmed in a statement that the longtime anchor was the person at the center of the accusations, which were first reported by the Sun without naming a name. The allegations surfaced as he faced mental health issues and was hospitalized for “another serious episode,” Flind said at the time.

“In the circumstances and given Huw’s condition I would like to ask that the privacy of my family and everyone else caught up in these upsetting events is respected,” she said. “I know that Huw is deeply sorry that so many colleagues have been impacted by the recent media speculation. We hope this statement will bring that to an end.”

The BBC suspended Edwards last July amid the accusations. This April, he resigned from the BBC, citing his health.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.