Disgraced Ex-BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Handed 6-Month Suspended Prison Sentence Over Child Sex Abuse Images

Former BBC News presenter Huw Edwards has been handed a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years after pleading guilty to making indecent images of children.

The 63-year-old said he was “profoundly sorry” for the “repugnant” images before he was sentenced Monday at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court in a case that has shocked the U.K.

He must also attend a sex offender rehabilitation program, of which there are 25 sessions in total. The suspended sentence means that Edwards will only serve jail time if he reoffends in the next two years.

The former newscaster was arrested in November and charged in July after he was found to have 41 indecent images of children sent to him by another man, a convicted pedophile, on WhatsApp.

The offenses are alleged to have taken place between 2020 and 2022. Seven of the photos were category A images, the most severe classification, two of which showed a child between seven and nine, the court heard.

A BBC spokesperson said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter after the sentencing news: “We are appalled by his crimes. He has betrayed not just the BBC, but audiences who put their trust in him.”

The anchorman, who hosted the BBC’s flagship News at Ten program and led landmark coverage for the corporation — including the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the London 2012 Olympics — arrived at the court to a swarm of photographers. He was suspended by the BBC in July 2023 after allegations in The Sun emerged that he paid a teenager for sexually explicit photos (police did not take any action against Edwards relating to those charges, saying there was no evidence a criminal offense had been committed). He officially resigned from the channel in April this year.

But the U.K.’s leading news organization faced a grilling on exactly what they knew and when. Edwards was paid between 475,000 and 479,999 pounds (around $627,000 to 632,000) from April 2023 to April 2024. Last month, he was asked to pay back the BBC around 200,000 pounds ($255,000).

The BBC was told by the Metropolitan Police “in strict confidence” that Edwards was arrested in November. Director-general Tim Davie said: “We knew it was serious, we knew no specifics, apart from the category of the potential offenses.”

He added bosses at the BBC were not aware of the ages of the children in the images, and when asked why Edwards was not sacked at the time of his arrest, Davie responded: “Because the police came to us and said they need to do their work in total confidence, [and said], ‘please keep this confidential.’”

“We thought long and hard about this. This wasn’t a knee-jerk decision. When you think about this in terms of precedent, people do get arrested, and then we’ve had situations where [there are] no charges, and there’s nothing there to be followed up on.” Davie said that the BBC also had to consider its duty of care to Edwards.

Even the U.K. government’s culture secretary Lisa Nandy intervened to probe the BBC on its handling of the case. A spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) told The Hollywood Reporter in August that Nandy was “shocked” by Edwards’ “abhorrent actions.” The DCMS said it was up to the judiciary to decide on “an appropriate sentence” for the former news anchor.

Under British law, images can mean photos or videos. “Making” indecent images covers a range of actions per its legal definition. It can, for example, include opening an email attachment with an image, downloading an image from a website to a screen; storing an image on a computer; accessing a pornographic website in which images appear in “pop-up” windows; receiving an image via social media, even if unsolicited and if part of a group; as well as live-streaming images of children.

After the news of Edwards’ guilty plea was announced, a Doctor Who episode co-starring the former news anchor was removed from BBC iPlayer. Fans are also called for his scene in the James Bond film Skyfall to be cut.