He was one of the BBC’s best paid and best known stars. A newsreader with real authority who helmed the corporation’s coverage of Elizabeth II’s funeral. But on Monday, he was given a suspended sentence for accessing indecent images of children – some as young as seven years old.
Daniel Boffey, the Guardian’s chief reporter, was at the court to see Edwards being sentenced. He explains how the journalist was in touch with a convicted paedophile who sent him more than 40 indecent images of children – including some as young as seven years old. He watched as the magistrate sentenced him to a six month suspended sentence, and said his reputation was now in “tatters”.
The writer and broadcaster Mark Lawson has been following the way the BBC has handled the fall out. He tells Helen Pidd why the BBC’s director general felt he could not sack Huw Edwards after the Sun published a story about Huw Edwards paying a 17-year-old for explicit pictures. And how complaints from BBC colleagues about his behaviour were raised as well as when bosses discovered the police were going to take action over the child abuse images. He explains what lessons the institution should learn from this awful case.
- This episode was amended on 17 September 2024 to reflect the fact Huw Edwards took over anchoring BBC election coverage from David Dimbleby, not Jonathan Dimbleby.
