He admitted to having 41 indecent images of children earlier this year
Huw Edwards has been given a suspended six months sentence for child abuse image offences.
He has also been ordered to complete a sex offender programme and 25 rehabilitation sessions.
He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday morning to be sentenced. This was after he admitted in July to three charges of making indecent images of children.
The offences related to 41 images sent to him by a convicted paedophile on WhatsApp.
This included seven category A images, the most serious classification.
The maximum sentence Edwards could have been handed by the magistrates was 12 months in prison.
It has been reported that Edwards was told ‘his reputation is in tatters’ before the sentencing took place.
The 63-year-old was arrested last November and charged in May for offences which took place between 2020 and 2022.
The Met started investigating Edwards for the images after seizing a phone as part of an unrelated investigation.
The former BBC News presenter had been sent the images by 25-year-old convicted paedophile called Alex Williams.
Edwards, who was one of the BBC’s most recognisable faces, was suspended in July 2023 and arrested four months later, although did not resign until April this year.
He had been collecting his salary for five months after he was arrested, amounting to £200,000.
The BBC has been attempting to get him to return the salary he earned following his arrest, but he has not yet done so.
Edwards joined the BBC in 1984 and climbed the ranks until in January 2003 when he became the main presenter of BBC One’s Ten O’Clock News.
The award-winning presenter led the BBC’s coverage of the funerals of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
The BBC has started removing Edwards from some of its archive footage. This has included any appearances he’s made in family and entertainment content.
More to follow.
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