Former BBC TV news presenter Huw Edwards, a household name in Britain, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of making indecent pictures of children.
Edwards, 62, who was the BBC’s highest paid journalist and top news anchor until he quit in April, had arrived at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court wearing sunglasses through a throng of photographers and camera crews.
After confirming his identity, he was asked if he wished to indicate a plea to the three charges, which relate to three different categories of indecent images. Edwards said: “Guilty.”
Judge Paul Goldspring said Edwards would be sentenced on Sept. 16. The maximum penalty for the offences is 10 years in prison.
During the 25-minute hearing, prosecutor Ian Hope said Edwards had been sent a total of 377 sexually explicit images by an adult male on WhatsApp, 41 of which were indecent, illegal images of children.
Hope added that seven of the 41 images were of the most serious kind and that two of that seven were pornographic videos of a child possibly aged between seven and nine years old.
Didn’t solicit or keep images: lawyer
Hope told the court that Edwards’ “genuine remorse” was one reason why a suspended sentence might be considered. Edwards told the male “not to send him illegal images,” court heard.
Edwards’ lawyer Philip Evans emphasized that the charges to which his client had indicated guilty pleas related only to unsolicited images that were sent to him via WhatsApp. He said Edwards neither kept nor sent any images.
“There is no suggestion in this case that Mr Edwards has in any way made, in the traditional sense of the word, any images in any physical way or created any images of any sort,” Evans said.
Edwards joined BBC in the 1980s. He announced the death of Queen Elizabeth to the nation in 2022 and led coverage of elections, royal weddings and the 2012 London Olympics, but has not been on TV screens for a year, and the court appearance was his first in public since then.
Claire Brinton of Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement: “Accessing indecent images of underage people perpetuates the sexual exploitation of children, which has deep, long-lasting trauma on these victims.”
Edwards, who quit the BBC on medical grounds in April, made no comment to reporters as he left the court building on Wednesday.
