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Former BBC news anchor Huw Edwards was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and placed on a sex offenders’ treatment programme by a London magistrate for accessing indecent images and films of children.
The sentence means the veteran presenter will not serve any prison time unless he commits any other crimes in the next two years.
Sentencing him at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday, Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring said Edwards’ “reputation which he had built up over many years has been shattered”.
Mr Edwards, 63, was Britain’s highest-paid news anchor at the time he quit in April. He stared straight ahead, his chin in his hands, as the verdict was read in court.
In July, he pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children between December 2020 and August 2021, and admitted receiving 41 illegal photos and videos from a man over the messaging app WhatsApp.
Seven of the photos and videos were classified as Category A, the most serious category, with some appearing to be of children between 13 and 15 years old and one appearing to be of a child around seven years old.
The prosecution told the court that after receiving the images, Edwards paid a total of around £1,000 to £1,500 to Alex Williams, who sent them, but the judge said he accepted the defence explanation that the payments were more of a “thank you” rather than a payment for purchasing the images.
Monday’s verdict sealed Edwards’ downfall as presenter of the BBC’s flagship show. The 10 o’clock news As part of the programme’s production, he led coverage of major national and international events, including the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and the coronation of King Charles.
The Welshman was at the centre of a media furor last summer after reports emerged that the veteran BBC presenter had had relationships with a string of young people.
After days of speculation, Edwards’ wife, Vicki Flind, who identified him as the man at the center of the allegations, said he suffered from serious mental illness. Police concluded he had broken no laws.
Edwards, who was arrested on suspicion of serious criminal offences in November last year and resigned from the BBC in April, was charged in June with producing indecent images of children.
The BBC said last month it would seek the return of hundreds of thousands of pounds in salary it had paid the veteran presenter between his arrest and his resignation, arguing that Mr Edwards had “clearly undermined confidence in the BBC and brought it into disrepute”.
“These are extremely serious crimes,” Goldspring said, telling Edwards he had been “forced to confront your wrongdoings very publicly.”
“[However]”He poses no danger or risk to the public, particularly children,” Judge Goldspring added in explaining why Edwards did not receive an immediate prison sentence.
In a mitigating statement on Monday, the court was told Edwards had asked the man he was in contact with on WhatsApp not to send him illegal content aimed at minors.
The charge is of “producing” indecent images, but Edwards’ lawyer, Philip Evans KC, reiterated in court that this is legal terminology and there is no evidence to suggest Edwards produced the material.
Mr Evans said expert reports compiled for Edwards’ sentence showed there was a “storm of misfortune” going on in his life at the time of the offences and he was suffering from mental and physical health problems.
Mr Edwards had always been a man of good character, but “he lost that good character in a very public way”, Mr Evans said.
