Huw Edwards pleads guilty to indecent child images charges – faces prison time

The Metropolitan Police previously said that the broadcaster faces three charges over alleged activity between December 2020 and April 2022.

Edwards was charged with having six category A images on a phone as well as 12 category B pictures and 19 category C pictures.

The category A images were mostly of children aged 13 to 15, the court heard, but prosecutors said there were two moving images of a young child, estimated to be between seven and nine years old (per Sky News).

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."

Edwards will be sentenced at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 16th September, where he faces possible jail time.

Edwards left the BBC in April, nine months after it was revealed he was facing allegations over payments for sexually explicit images, for which he was suspended from the BBC.

The Metropolitan Police has said the allegations are separate from other claims that were reported last year.

"These allegations did not form part of the matter which was considered by police in July 2023," a spokesperson said (via BBC News). "They were investigated separately as a standalone case."

At the time of the initial allegations, which were first published by The Sun, Edwards was named as the presenter in question by his wife, Vicky Flind, who made a statement on his behalf.

That statement explained that Edwards was in hospital at the time, and was being treated for "serious mental health issues".

At the time of his resignation, Edwards was the BBC's highest-earning newsreader. It was revealed more recently that Edwards was paid between £475,000 and £479,999 in the 2023-24 financial year, a salary that made him the BBC's third-highest-paid presenter overall.

The news of him being charged was reported on Monday 29th July, with a police spokesperson saying "Huw Edwards, 62, of Southwark, London has been charged with three counts of making indecent images of children following a Met Police investigation.

"The offences, which are alleged to have taken place between December 2020 and April 2022, relate to images shared on a WhatsApp chat.

"Edwards was arrested on 8th November 2023. He was charged on Wednesday, 26th June following authorisation from the Crown Prosecution Service."