BBC requests that Huw Edwards return more than £200,000 of salary
BBC chair Samir Shah has claimed that Edwards "behaved in bad faith" by continuing to collect his salary until his resignation in April.
The BBC has requested that Huw Edwards return more than £200,000 of salary after he pleaded guilty to indecent child images charges.
The long-time BBC News presenter was suspended by the broadcaster last July, but remained one of its highest-paid employees, earning between £475,000-£479,999 last year – which represented a pay increase of £40,000 compared to the previous year.
But now BBC chair Samir Shah has claimed in a letter to BBC staff that Edwards "behaved in bad faith" by continuing to collect his salary until his resignation in April, while fully aware that he planned to plead guilty to the charges.
It is not currently clear whether, in the event Edwards refuses to pay back the money, the BBC will undertake legal proceedings against its former presenter.
Edwards was arrested in November last year and, following a Met Police investigation, he was charged with three counts of making indecent images of children between 2020 and 2022 – with the charges relating to 37 images shared on WhatsApp.
He was was charged with having six category A images on a phone – mostly of children aged 13 to 15, but also including two moving images of a young child estimated to be between seven and nine years old – as well as 12 category B pictures and 19 category C pictures.
Edwards pleaded guilty in July and will be sentenced at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 16th September, where he faces possible jail time.
During the trial, the court was told that Edwards had been involved in a WhatsApp chat from December 2020 with an adult man, who sent him 377 sexual images, of which 41 were indecent images of children.
The court heard that in February 2021, the man asked whether those featured in the images he was sending were too young, to which Edwards told him not to send anything illegal. No more were sent, and the pair continued to exchange legal pornographic images until April 2022.
Edwards's defence lawyer, Philip Evans KC, 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's 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.
"Mr 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."
Meanwhile, earlier this week, it was revealed that he would not be stripped of his awards, including his BAFTA for coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, with BAFTA, the Royal Television Society, and the Television and Radio Industries Club confirming to Deadline that the awards recognised the efforts of production teams and not just Edwards as a presenter.
However, BAFTA is "reviewing seven individual prizes handed to Edwards by the BAFTA Cymru Awards".
In response to a RadioTimes.com request for comment, BAFTA said: "Like everyone in the industry and country we were shocked by the news – given the seriousness of this abhorrent crime, we are reviewing."
