Huw Edwards pleads guilty to making indecent images of children
Huw Edwards. (Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs via Getty)
Former BBC presenter Huw Edwards has pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children.
Edwards, 62, entered his plea at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Wednesday (31 July).
He was charged with having six category A images, the most serious classification of indecent images, on a phone. He is also accused of having had 12 category B pictures and 19 category C photographs.
Category A images refer to those which depict “penetrative sexual activity, sexual activity with an animal or sadism”, category B involves non-penetrative sexual activity and category C are “other indecent images” which do not fall into either of the other categories and so not “depict any sexual activity”.
Prosecutor Ian Hope stressed Edwards had not created any of the images himself but received them from an adult man with whom he was speaking with on WhatsApp.
Between this period of time, it has been reported the unnamed man sent Edwards 377 images, 41 of which were of children, including “moving images” of children aged between seven and nine, 13 and 15.
The man who sent the video of a young boy, possibly as young as seven, saying he was quite young and that he had more illegal content.
Edwards, however, told the man a number of times not to send him anything which was illegal and no further indecent images were sent. The pair continued to share legal pornographic images in the WhatsApp chat until April 2022.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), ‘making indecent images’ has been “widely interpreted by the courts” and can refer to opening an attachment to an email containing an image, live-streaming images of children and receiving an image via social media, even if unsolicited and even if part of a group.
Edwards’ barrister, Philip Evans KC, told the court no indecent images were found on his own devices and had not sought such material elesewhere.
Evans said: “There’s no suggestion in this case that Mr Edwards has… in the traditional sense of the word, created any image of any sort.
“It is important also to remember for context that devices, Mr Edwards’ devices, have been seized, have been searched, and there’s nothing in those devices.
“It is only the images that are the subject of the charges that came via a WhatsApp chat.”
He added that Edwards “did not keep any images, did not send any to anyone else and did not and has not sought similar images from anywhere else”
The Metropolitan Police said the case is separate from other claims which were raised last year about Edward, following allegations he had paid a young person £35,000 over a three-year period for nude images.
“These allegations did not form part of the matter which was considered by police in July 2023. They were investigated separately as a standalone case,” a police spokesperson said.
The former newsreader, who stepped away from the BBC in April after a 40 year career with the broadcaster, was charged last month after first being arrested in November 2023, according to the Met.
“Huw Edwards, 62, of Southwark, London has been charged with three counts of making indecent images of children following a Met Police investigation,” a spokesperson for the force said.
“The offences, which are alleged to have taken place between December 2020 and April 2022, relate to images shared on a WhatsApp chat.”
The force added he was arrested on 8 November 2023 and reminded the media and public that “this is an active case. Nothing should be published, including on social media, which could prejudice future court proceedings”.
Edwards will be sentenced on 16 September and faces up to 10 years in prison.
