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Former BBC information presenter Huw Edwards has been sentenced to a six-month jail sentence — suspended for 2 years — and a intercourse offender remedy programme by a London court docket for accessing indecent pictures and movies of youngsters.
The sentence means the veteran presenter won’t serve jail time except he commits every other offences within the subsequent two years.
Handing down the sentence at Westminster magistrates’ court docket on Monday, chief Justice of the Peace Paul Goldspring mentioned Edwards’ “long-earned popularity is in tatters”.
Edwards, 63, was the highest-paid newsreader on the UK nationwide broadcaster when he resigned in April. In court docket, he seemed straight forward along with his chin resting on his arms because the sentence was learn out.
In July, he pleaded responsible to a few expenses of constructing indecent pictures of youngsters between December 2020 and August 2021, admitting to receiving 41 unlawful photos and movies from a person on the WhatsApp messaging platform.
Seven of the photographs and movies have been deemed to be Class A, essentially the most critical kind. A number of have been believed to be of a kid aged between 13 and 15, whereas one other was of a kid probably as younger as seven.
The prosecution informed the court docket that Edwards had paid about £1,000 to £1,500 in whole to Alex Williams, the person who despatched him the pictures, at instances after receiving the content material. Nonetheless, the choose mentioned that he accepted the defence’s clarification that the funds have been extra of a “thanks” somewhat than cost for buying the pictures.
Monday’s sentencing sealed the downfall of Edwards, who fronted the BBC’s flagship Information at Ten programme and led protection of necessary state and worldwide occasions, together with the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and the coronation of King Charles.
The Welshman was on the centre of a media frenzy final summer time after experiences emerged {that a} senior BBC presenter had alleged relationships with a sequence of younger individuals.
His spouse Vicky Flind, who confirmed his identification because the individual on the centre of the allegations after days of hypothesis, mentioned Edwards was affected by critical psychological well being points. The police concluded that Edwards had not damaged any legal guidelines.
In April, Edwards resigned from the BBC, the place he earned about £475,000 a yr, having been arrested on suspicion of great offences in November final yr. He was charged in June this yr with making indecent pictures of youngsters.
The company final month mentioned it could search to claw again a whole bunch of 1000’s of kilos in wage it paid the veteran presenter between his arrest and his resignation. Edwards had “clearly undermined belief within the BBC and introduced us into disrepute”, the company mentioned.
“These are extraordinarily critical offences,” mentioned Goldspring, who informed Edwards he had been “compelled to confront your wrongdoing in a really public approach”.
“[However], you don’t current a threat or hazard to the general public at massive and particularly to kids,” Goldspring added in his clarification for why Edwards was not receiving an instantaneous custodial sentence.
In mitigation submissions on Monday, the court docket was informed that Edwards had requested the person he was in touch with on WhatsApp to not ship him unlawful underage content material.
Whereas the fees are described as “making” indecent pictures, Edwards’ barrister, Philip Evans KC, reiterated to the court docket that this was a authorized time period and there was no suggestion Edwards had created any of the content material.
Evans mentioned the professional experiences compiled for Edwards’ sentencing confirmed there was an “unlucky storm” happening in his life on the time of the offences and that he was affected by each psychological and bodily well being issues.
Edwards was all the time a person of fine character and “he has misplaced that good character in a really public approach”, Evans mentioned.
