Pervert Huw Edwards has been given a suspended sentence for having indecent images of children.
The former BBC News presenter, 63, admitted to three counts of making such images during an appearance at Westminster Magistrates Court on July 31. He returned to court today and was handed a six-month prison sentence, which is suspended for two years.
Edwards will be on the sex offenders’ register for seven years, meaning he must keep the police informed of his whereabouts. He is also subject to a 40-day sex offender treatment program and a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement.
The court was told that he sent a significant amount of money to convicted paedophile Alex Williams after receiving pornographic images from him.
Edwards was involved in a WhatsApp conversation with Williams from December 2020 to April 2022, during which he received 377 sexual images, including 41 indecent images of children.
He was arrested in November and charged in June over the offences.
Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring took into account the presenter’s “mental trauma” at the time of the offending and accepted that he had no memory of which images he had viewed.
Sentencing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, District Judge Golding said:
“You did not keep them and you did not send them on to anyone else. I accept that you had issues with your mental health. The degree that you received sexual gratification from the images is difficult to assess.”
Although the custody threshold had been crossed, the judge said that he was suspending Edwards’ sentence on the basis of his mental health struggles and potential vulnerability in the prison system.
As one of the BBC’s leading news presenters, broadcaster Edwards was a familiar face to millions of people and deemed ‘a safe pair of hands’ to oversee coverage during some of the world’s greatest historical events. Huw had been the main presenter of the BBC’s Ten O’Clock News, since January 2003, and also presented numerous other programmes for the corporation including on the BBC News Channel as well as Newsnight, Panorama and Breakfast News. Prior to hosting the 10 pm news programme from May 1999, he also presented the BBC’s Six O’Clock News.
Huw joined the BBC in 1984 as a news trainee. In 1985 he joined the television newsroom in BBC Wales, and in 1986 became BBC Wales’ Parliamentary Correspondent. He was appointed TV News Political Correspondent in 1988 and went on to cover the downfall of Margaret Thatcher in 1990.
Formerly Chief Political Correspondent for BBC News 24, Huw spent 12 years reporting politics at Westminster. He combined this with presenting a range of programmes on classical music on BBC Two, Radio 3, Radio 4 and S4C. He has co-hosted General Election results programmes on both radio and TV and was one of the lead presenters for the BBC’s Millennium coverage.