Former BBC presenter Huw Edwards has been spared a jail term for receiving sexual images of children, completing his spectacular fall from grace.
The shamed newsreader, 63, was the face of the BBC’s flagship News at Ten programme and spoke to the nation on events such Royal weddings, jubilees and funerals.
But he disappeared from screens under a cloud when it emerged he had been sending money to a teenager for sexual images.
Then, in July, it emerged that Edwards that the veteran broadcaster had secretly received indecent images and videos of children from a convicted paedophile, with some of the victims against just seven to nine years old.
Westminster magistrates court heard Edwards replied “any more” when sent some of the most serious abuse images. When it was suggested he could receiving ‘naughty’ videos from the same source, he replied: “Go on”.
He paid up to £1,500 to university student Alex Williams, who had sourced images on the Dark Web, and was sending legal pornographic pictures of young men and illegal images and videos of children being sexually abused to Edwards over WhatsApp in 2020 and 2021.
Edwards pleaded guilty to three criminal charges relating to 41 illegal images of a child, told the court on Monday he is “profoundly sorry” for his actions and apologised for “betraying the priceless trust and faith of so many people”.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring sentenced Edwards to a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered him to complete 25 rehabilitation sessions and 40 days of sex offender treatment.
“You had a very successful career in the media, and until now were very highly regarded by the public for your dedication and professionalism,” he said.
“Perhaps you were the most recognisable journalist or newsreader in the country. It is not an understatement to say your long-earned reputation is in tatters.”
He accepted Edwards had sent money to Williams as “thank yous” for the images he sent, rather than directly paying for them.
And he said Edwards had told Williams he did not want images of underage children, but only in the latter stages of offending and after illegal material had been sent.
The judge also said he took Edwards’ mental health struggles into consideration when passing sentence.
“You have a mental disorder, your decision-making across the relevant time was, or could have, adversely impaired.”
He concluded that Edwards was genuinely remorseful and could be rehabilitated, meaning an immediate prison term was not needed.
Edwards sat with his hands clasped in front of his face as the judge said that sharing of child abuse images causes life-long harm to victims.
Prosecutor Ian Hope told the court Edwards had received the material from Alex Williams, a university student who first randomly contacted the newsreader through social media in 2018.
“It is clear from the face of the WhatsApp chat recovered that a deal of the chat between Alex Williams and Mr Edwards was sexual in nature”, said the prosecutor.
“It is also clear that Mr Edwards was paying not insignificant sums of money - low hundreds of pounds on an occasional basis - to Alex Williams which Mr Williams directly asked for on several occasions, as gifts or presents, apparently off the back of sending pornographic images to Mr Edwards, about which images they chatted.
“Alex Williams has stated that the money was more generally to support him at university and amounted to around £1,000 to £1,500.”
Mr Hope said the “bulk of the images were sexual images featuring younger-looking adult males, and therefore lawful”, but a “significant minority proportion of the images recovered” featured abuse of children.
The court heard Edwards was sent images in December 2020 of a teenager aged between 14 and 16, and when asked if he wanted more of the same material he replied: “Yes xxx”.
Edwards repeatedly asked for details of the children featuring in the images and videos, and was sent some material on a dropbox link which has not been recovered by police.
Edwards sent £200 to Williams as a Christmas gift so that he could buy a pair of Air Force 1 trainers, after being provided with child abuse images.
In January 2021, Edwards received a file titled “Boys Town Adolescents Presents 13yo”, and the following month he received images featuring a child aged seven to nine and another involving an 11-13-year-old.
Mr Hope said the file was marked as “read” by Edwards, though he did not respond directly. The following week Williams asked: “Is the stuff I’m sending too young for you”.
A few days later, Edwards messaged to say “don’t send underage”, but in August 2021 he was offered “naughty” videos and replied: “Go on”.
Mr Hope said a video was sent, featuring graphic sexual abuse of a boy aged seven to nine, and Edwards “enquires where the video is from”.
The court heard Williams “says an image sharing group on another social media platform which they have both also used, Telegram.
“Alex Williams says the subject is ‘quite yng looking’ to which Mr Edwards responds it ‘can be deceptive’ and asks if he has ‘any more?’
“Alex Williams says he has but he is not sure if Mr Edwards would like them as they are illegal. Mr Edwards says ‘Ah ok don’t’.”
Edwards’ barrister, Philip Evans KC, told the court: “Mr Edwards wishes to apologise to the court, he wishes the court to know how profoundly sorry he is.
“He recognises the repugnant nature of such indecent images and the hurt done to those who appear in such images.
“For his part in that, he apologises sincerely and he makes it clear he had the utmost regret. He recognises he has betrayed the priceless trust and faith of so many people.
“He knows he has hurt and damages his family and loved ones around him. And for all of these things, he is truly sorry.”
Mr Evans said the newsreader was suffering from poor mental and physical health when he offended.
“It had an effect on his cognition, the defendant has no memory of actually viewing any particular image”, he said.
“He did not store any of these images on any device, he did not use them for any personal gratification, and he did not gain gratification from indecent images.”
In passing sentence, Judge Goldspring read from medical reports into Edwards, revealing he had been “managing” his sexual interest in men since 1994.
He had used social media to interact with men and women to “boost his fragile self-esteem”, and he had put himself at risk of blackmail with several “sexual infidelities”.
Dressed in a blue cardigan over a white shirt with grey jeans, Edwards arrived in a taxi and dragged a wheelie suitcase into court at shortly after 9am on Monday.
He was whisked past the queue of people waiting to go through security to enter the courthouse, and went straight to a private conference room to meet with his legal team
The medical reports also said Edwards had been assessed as a suicide risk.
“He remains concerned about how the events have and will impact on his family”, the judge set out, adding that Edwards contemplated that his “family situation may be improved if he was not alive”.
The court was also told that Edwards had been psychologically damaged by his upbringing with a “monstrous” father, and he felt like an “outsider in the BBC” after failing to get into Oxford or Cambridge university.
He had also been misusing prescription medication, the court heard.
After news of the charges broke, the BBC confirmed it had continued to pay Edwards his annual salary of up to £479,000 between his arrest on child abuse images charges in November last year and his resignation in April.
Last week, the corporation said talks are ongoing, but Edwards is yet to pay back the estimated £200,000 he has been asked to return.
At his first court hearing, it emerged Edwards had been sent two videos and five images in the most serious category of child abuse, with the videos involving children aged between seven and nine-years-old.
Mr Hope said the illegal material was recovered from Williams’ phone when he was arrested for an unrelated matter. No illegal material has been recovered from a phone belonging to Edwards, but his phone used for contact with Williams has not been found.
Among 377 pictures and videos sent by Williams, there were 41 involving children.
In his police interview in April, Edwards told officers of “significant and long-standing mental health struggles for a number of years”, as well as a December 2023 diagnosis of arteriosclerosis.
“He set out that the effect of these conditions includes impact on and impairment of mood, behaviour and judgement”, said Mr Hope.
The prosecutor read out parts of Edwards’ probation report, in which he admitted to a “fixation” on online sexual communication, use of alcohol, the deterioration of his marriage, and struggles to find work after his BBC axing.
Mr Evans said Edwards has lost his good character “in a very public way”, as he set out the former newsreader’s mitigation.
“He did not use his position to commit these offences”, he said.
“Alex Williams sought him out on Instagram, at a time when Mr Edwards can properly be described as vulnerable.”
He added that experts who have assessed Edwards concluded that he was “mentally vulnerable”, while Williams sent many more messages in the relationship than Edwards.
Edwards has split from his TV producer wife Vicky Flind since departing from BBC screens under a cloud, and he is now living away from the family home.
Edwards, who gave his address to the court in Allfarthing Lane in Wandsworth, was first arrested on November 8, 2023 over images allegedly found on a WhatsApp chat, and was charged on June 26 this year.
The Metropolitan Police, which carried out the investigation, and the Crown Prosecution Service which authorised the charges, made no public announcement of the criminal case being brought against Edwards.
But a senior police officer reportedly phoned BBC management two days before Edwards’ first court hearing to tip them off about the case.
Edwards resigned from his BBC newsreader role in April after allegations about his personal life were published in The Sun newspaper.
The scandal involving Edwards began last summer when it was said he had paid £35,000 to a teenager in exchange for sexual images.
Scotland Yard said at the time that it did not believe anything illegal had taken place in relation to those claims.
The BBC commissioned an investigation into its complaints policies and processes, and in February this year it issued an apology to the family of the young person involved.
The corporation said an initial complaint about Edwards had not been properly logged, so that it would be seen by senior management.
Mr Hope told the court on Monday of concerns as a result of medical assessments of Edwards that there is a “significant lifetime risk of relapse”.
“There is a real risk of some or all of the circumstances he himself says led to him being here may arise again in the future”, he said.
“There must be a risk he may seek to view indecent images of children in the future, and a risk of potentially engaging in sexual communication with others.”
When the scandal first broke, Edwards disappeared from screens and his wife issued a statement saying he was “suffering from serious mental health issues” and was receiving hospital care.
Edwards has admitted having seven images of a child in the most serious category A, as well as 12 in category B and 22 in category C.
Edwards, who was born in Bridgend and brought up in Llangennech, Carmarthenshire, joined the BBC as a trainee in 1984.
In four decades at the corporation, he was among the broadcaster’s most recognisable faces, leading coverage of historic events including the late Queen’s funeral in 2022 and most recently the coronation of the King in May 2023.
He also headlined coverage of other major events on the BBC, including the late Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and Platinum Jubilee in 2022, the wedding of the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011 and the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018.
Edwards was ordered to pay £3000 in costs and a £128 victim surcharge. He will be on the Sex Offender register for the next seven years.
The judge declined to make a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Reacting to the sentence, a BBC spokesperson said: “We are appalled by his crimes. He has betrayed not just the BBC, but audiences who put their trust in him.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was "shocked and appalled" by the case, adding that Edwards' sentence was "for the court to decide, having looked at all the available evidence".
Williams, now 25, from Merthyr Tydfil, was sentenced in March at Merthyr Tydfil crown court to a 12-month suspended prison sentence.
He had pleading guilty to seven offences related to possessing and distributing indecent images.
