Huw Edwards, the BBC’s most senior news anchor before being pulled off the air last July, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of making indecent images of children.
The 62-year-old, who ultimately left the British broadcaster in April, admitted the charges at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London. Edwards, who was the man the BBC trusted to deliver major news stories including the death of Queen Elizabeth II, now faces up to 10 years in prison.
The plea comes after Edwards was suspended from the BBC in July 2023 over separate allegations. He was arrested in November and then charged last month.
ADVERTISEMENT
The court heard that Edwards was sent 377 sexual images—including 41 indecent images of children—by a man on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021. Seven of the images Edwards had on his phone were in the most serious classification of indecent images—category A—while he also had 12 category B photos and 22 category C images, prosecutors said.
Prosecutor Ian Hope told the court there was “no suggestion” Edwards had anything to do with “making the images or indeed doing anything beyond the opening of the images,” according to the Daily Mail. Most of the children in the category A images were estimated to be between the ages of 13 and 15, the court heard, though one was thought to be between 7 and 9.
The guilty plea comes after Edwards was yanked off the air last year amid allegations that he’d paid a teenager for explicit images. Scotland Yard and South Wales Police said no action would be taken in that case due to a lack of evidence that a crime had been committed.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the new allegations “did not form part of the matter which was considered by police in July 2023” and were instead “investigated separately as a standalone case.”
Last summer, Edward’s wife said he’d been hospitalized with “serious mental health issues.” Despite his suspension, he nevertheless remained the BBC’s highest-paid newsreader last year, receiving a salary of around $610,000 to $616,000 between April 2023 and April 2024 in line with the corporation policy of keeping stars paid during suspensions.
Edwards then resigned in late April, citing “medical advice” from his doctors. He is now set to be sentenced in September.
