Huw Edwards handed sentence over child abuse images

He admitted to having 41 indecent images of children earlier this year

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 sentence is suspended for two years, so Edwards will not go to jail unless he reoffends in that period.

He must also complete a sex offender programme.

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. Two of the images involved a child between the ages of seven and nine.

The maximum sentence Edwards could have been handed by the magistrates was 12 months behind bars.

Sentencing him, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said he accepted Edwards didn't remember viewing any of the indecent images, the BBC reports.

He said: “You did not keep them and you did not send them on to anyone else. I accept that you had issues with your mental health. The degree that you received sexual gratification from the images is difficult to assess.”

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.

After Edwards received the offending images, he told Williams not to send up any images of underage people, according to his lawyer.

Williams was handed a 12-month suspended sentence in Wales in March for sharing the images.

An psychosexual told the court Edwards had been in a "perfect storm" at the time of offending. The expert said he had a risk of taking his own life and is a “complex individual” due to psychological factors in his childhood

Edwards, who was one of the BBC’s most recognisable faces, was suspended by the corporation 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 is yet to do 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 major news events such as the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and general elections.

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.