Former lead BBC news anchor pleads guilty to making indecent images of children

Huw Edwards, the BBC’s former top news presenter, pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of making indecent images of children.

The offenses he pleaded guilty to at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London during a 26-minute hearing involved images shared on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021.

Edwards has been remanded on bail until a sentencing hearing on Sept. 16. He could face up to 10 years in prison.

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The court heard that Edwards, 62, was involved in an online chat with an adult man on the messaging service who sent him 377 sexual images, of which 41 were indecent images of children.

The images that were sent included seven of what are known as “category A,” which are the most indecent. Of those, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, but one was aged between 7 and 9, the court was told.

The court also heard that the unnamed male asked Edwards on Feb. 2, 2021 whether what he was sending was too young. Edwards told him not to send any underage images. Five more, though, were sent, and the exchange of pornographic images continued until April 2022.

Speaking in Edwards’ defense, his lawyer Philip Evans said there is “no suggestion” that his client had “in the traditional sense of the word, created any image of any sort.”

Edwards, he added, “did not keep any images, did not send any to anyone else and did not and has not sought similar images from anywhere else.”

Edwards was one of the BBC’s most prominent figures, as well as one of its highest-paid before he was suspended in July 2023 for separate claims made last year. He later resigned for health reasons.

His lawyer Evans told the court that Edwards had “both mental and physical” health issues, and that he is “not just of good character, but of exceptional character.”

In a four-decade career at the BBC, Edwards had become one of its trusted voices. He was the lead anchor on the BBC’s nighttime news and led BBC coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.