London: Huw Edwards, the BBC’s former top news presenter, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of making indecent images of children.
The offences he pleaded guilty to at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London during a 26-minute hearing involved images shared on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021. The Metropolitan Police said earlier this week that he was arrested in November last year and charged on June 26.
Huw Edwards arrives at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.Credit: Getty Images
The images that were sent included seven of what are known as “category A”, which are the most indecent. Of those, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, but one was aged between 7 and 9, the court was told.
The court also heard that the unnamed male asked Edwards on February 2, 2021 whether what he was sending was too young. Edwards told him not to send any underage images. Five more, though, were sent, and the exchange of pornographic images continued until April 2022.
Speaking in Edwards’ defence, his lawyer Philip Evans said there is “no suggestion” that his client had “in the traditional sense of the word, created any image of any sort.”
Edwards, he added, “did not keep any images, did not send any to anyone else and did not and has not sought similar images from anywhere else”.
Edwards was one of the BBC’s most prominent figures, as well as one of its highest-paid before he was suspended in July 2023 for separate claims made last year. He later resigned for health reasons.
His lawyer Evans told the court that Edwards had “both mental and physical” health issues, and that he is “not just of good character, but of exceptional character”.
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