Huw Edwards pleads guilty to making indecent images of children

Former BBC news presenter Huw Edwards has pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children.

There were "chaotic scenes" outside Westminster Magistrates' Court this morning as the 62-year-old, accompanied by a police escort, "made his way through the media scrum", said The Independent. A photographer's camera was "smashed to pieces in the melee", The Telegraph reported. 

Edwards was "expressionless outside court" and throughout the hearing, which lasted less than 30 minutes, said the BBC. The court heard that the long-time newsreader had been involved in a WhatsApp chat with an adult man from 16 December 2020 to August 2021, in which he was sent 377 explicit images, of which 41 included children. 

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The indecent images included 22 category C images, 12 category B, and seven category A, the most serious classification. The category A images were largely of children thought to be aged between 13 and 15 years old. There was also an image of a child estimated to be between seven and nine years old, prosecutors said. 

A category A video of a young boy was sent to Edwards in August 2021. The man in WhatsApp correspondence with him said the boy was quite young-looking, and that he had further illegal images. Edwards told the man not to send him any illegal images, the court heard.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the term "making" images can relate to the opening, downloading, storing, or receiving of an image via social media. 

The former presenter resigned from the BBC in April, and hadn't appeared on air since July last year. He was one of the broadcaster's "most prominent and highest-paid news anchors", having had fronted "News At Ten" for 20 years, said The Independent. He anchored coverage during a number of important national events, announcing the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 and leading the coverage of her funeral. 

Edwards, who was arrested in November and charged last month, will be sentenced on 16 September. Police confirmed that the current charges are not linked to other claims involving the presenter widely reported last year.