BBC asks Edwards to return 200,000 he was paid after November arrest

The BBC has asked Huw Edwards to return £200,000 that he was paid after his arrest in November last year, in the wake of the disgraced presenter admitting making indecent images of children.

- Jim Waterson

Samir Shah, the BBC chair, called Edwards a "villain" who had "betrayed the trust of staff and our audiences in the most egregious possible way" while living a "double life". In an email to staff, Shah said the newsreader had deceived the BBC by failing to acknowledge his guilt at the time of his arrest: "Mr Edwards knew what he had done but he still took licence fee money to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds." Shah said Edwards should repay the money to the BBC - saying the real victims were "those children for whose degradation Huw Edwards provided a market for".

The BBC does not have an easy legal route to claw back the £200,000, so it is appealing to Edwards to return the funds on the basis that he was not "upfront" about his guilt when questioned about his arrest.