Huw Edwards pleads guilty to making indecent images

Huw Edwards has pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children during his first appearance in a British court.

On Wednesday morning, Edwards appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court in London to admit the charges before Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring and a packed press room.

The former BBC news presenter, who was once one of the highest paid figures at the BBC, showed no emotion as he was led through Courtroom 1 to the glass-panelled dock, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and blue tie. While he entered the courthouse wearing dark sunglasses, he had taken them off before entering the court.

Edwards only gave his name, date of birth and his partial UK address to enter his plea to each charge and confirm he understood the bail conditions. His counsel requested that Edwards, contrary to British court tradition, not read his full speech due to the “volatile” situation outside the court, including protests.

The prosecutor explained how the images were sent to him via WhatsApp by ‘an adult male who contacted Mr Edwards via social media’. They were automatically saved to his phone. Edwards asked the WhatsApp sender to stop sending “illegal” images of underage children. The chat then continued and “further legal pornographic images” were sent.

The charges related to 41 images and videos shared on the messaging site between 2020 and 2022. Six of these were category A, which is considered the most serious.

The maximum penalty is 10 years in prison.

Sentencing has been postponed until September for a preliminary report. Edwards has since been released on conditional bail.

His lawyer told the court in mitigation that Edwards was a man “not only of good character, but of exemplary character.” He also added that mental health issues were at play “at the time of the offense and now.” The lawyer also wanted to emphasize that Edwards had not “created” any images or videos in the “traditional” sense.

The newsreader, who had worked at the BBC for forty years, resigned in April on medical advice. He had been on leave for 10 months after a tabloid newspaper revealed that a senior presenter at the BBC had been involved in a sex photo scandal. Although Edwards was not initially named, after the rumors reached boiling point, his wife issued a statement confirming that the BBC presenter was involved and had checked into mental health treatment.