Edwards spared prison over indecent images of children

Disgraced former BBC presenter Huw Edwards has avoided jail but has been left with a reputation in tatters after accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.

- TARA COBHAM

The veteran broadcaster, 63, was handed a six-month suspended sentence after previously admitting three charges of “making” indecent photographs, sealing an extraordinary fall from grace following a four-decade career at the corporation.

It emerged yesterday that the 63-year-old paid up to £1,500 to Alex Williams, 25, who sent Edwards 41 illegal images, seven of which were of category A, the very worst kind.

Of those images shared over WhatsApp, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, while one was aged as young as between seven and nine.

Among the vile messages the pair exchanged was one in which Edwards told Williams to “go on” when asked if he wanted “naughty pics and vids” of somebody described as young. In another, the former BBC News at Ten anchor wrote “yes xxx” when asked whether he wanted sexual images of a person whose “age could be discerned as being between 14 and 16”.

Passing sentence, the chief magistrate, District Judge Paul Goldspring, told the previously beloved household name that his “long-earned reputation is in tatters” after committing the “extremely serious” offences, stressing that the financial and reputational damage he suffered was “the natural consequence of your behaviour which you brought upon yourself”.

The BBC marked the end of Edwards’s astonishing downfall by condemning the former broadcaster, who announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II and led the coverage of her funeral, accusing him of having “betrayed not just the BBC, but audiences who put their trust in him” – adding that the corporation was “appalled by his crimes”.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “shocked and appalled” by the case.