Huw Edwards – latest: BBC faces questions after admitting paying ‘£479,000’ salary despite knowing of arrest
Newsreader pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three charges of making indecent images of children
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Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has called an urgent meeting with BBC boss Tim Davie after the corporation admitted it knew of Huw Edwards’ arrest in November and continued to pay his salary, which rose to as much as £479,000 this year.
The 62-year-old, previously the BBC’s highest-paid newsreader, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three charges of making indecent photographs of children, after he was sent 41 illegal images by convicted paedophile Alex Williams, with seven being of the most serious type.
After his guilty plea, the BBC said it had been made aware in confidence in November that he had been arrested on suspicion of serious offences and released on bail while police investigations continued.
“At the time, no charges had been brought against Mr Edwards and the BBC had also been made aware of significant risk to his health,” the broadcaster said.
Edwards resigned in April “on the basis of medical advice from his doctors” after unrelated allegations that he paid a young person for sexually explicit photos.
Ms Nandy is expected to meet Mr Davie on Thursday to discuss the organisation’s handling of the case.
Man who sent indecent images of children to Huw Edwards revealed
The man who shared indecent images of children with ex-BBC presenter Huw Edwards was 25-year-old convicted paedophile Alex Williams, the Metropolitan Police said.
The images, shared with Edwards by Williams via WhatsApp, came to light during an unrelated investigation by South Wales Police.
Edwards’ case was then passed to the Metropolitan Police, who arrested the veteran TV presenter in November last year.
The Met Police said Williams, of Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing category A, B and C images as well as possessing prohibited images of children. Williams was convicted of seven offences – receiving a 12-month suspended sentence on March 15.
Read more in this report:
Man who sent indecent images of children to Huw Edwards revealed
Alex Williams, 25, shared the images with the veteran BBC presenter via WhatsApp, the Metropolitan Police said.
Broadcaster Nicky Campbell hits out at Edwards and other ‘disgusting men trading misery’
Broadcaster Nicky Campbell, who himself suffered sexual abuse by teachers at Edinburgh Academy, has hit out at his ex-BBC colleague Huw Edwards and the other “disgusting” men who “trade and swap” human misery.
The 63-year-old broadcaster said: “Let’s think about the children in these images. Callously exploited and psychologically destroyed.
“They are not images. They are humans who will live with this forever and all for the twisted pleasure of the disgusting men who trade and swap this misery.’
He added: “And if mental health was mitigation for every custodial crime the prisons wouldn’t be at bursting point. They’d be half full.”
Anti-licence fee campaigners criticise continued payment of Edwards’ salary
The campaign group Defund the BBC – which seeks to decrminalise non-payment of the licence fee – has warned that many people will be “incensed” to learn that Huw Edwards continued to receive his salary for months after his arrest.
“Huw Edwards pleading guilty to making indecent images of children is utterly sickening,” said the group’s campaign director Rebecca Ryan.
“Finding out that the BBC used hardworking License Fee payers money to pay his £479,000 salary for five and a half months after the public broadcaster found out about his arrest, will rightly incense many people across the country – not to mention the £40,000 pay rise Edwards received.
“What were the BBC thinking in continuing to pay someone arrested for such heinous crimes?
“Defund the BBC often accuses the broadcaster of being out of touch. On this occasion, “out of touch” does not begin to describe it. The BBC has extremely serious questions to answer on this. License Fee payers have once again been treated appallingly. The corporations reputation is, once again, in tatters.”
BBC ‘would have been penned in’ legally in response to Huw Edwards arrest, says Tory peer
Asked about the fact that the BBC continued to pay Huw Edwards after finding out in November that he had been arrested on suspicion of serious allegations, Tory former culture minister Lord Ed Vaizey said: “I think that is the issue the BBC has to front up.
But the Tory peer told the Today programme: “The BBC deserves, as it were, an advocate on its side, which is to say obviously it cannot have known when Huw Edwards was presenting major coverage what was going on in the background. And I think a fair-minded person would assume that was the case.
He added: “And secondly, we don’t actually know the technical legal framework surrounding all this. There is a duty of confidentiality I think when somebody is arrested and not charged.
“In terms of his contract with the BBC, would the BBC have been within its rights to simply, while he was suspended, to stop paying him? No.
“Would they potentially have been in their rights to sack him on the basis of him being arrested but not charged. I’m not sure they would have technically been right. It would have been a bold decision, and obviously legal action depends on both parties taking a case.
“So they would have been penned in to a certain extent by legal requirements that apply to any organisation where somebody is under suspicion in the way Huw Edwards was.”
Lisa Nandy’s meeting with Tim Davie will be ‘very important’ for BBC’s future, Tory peer says
Lisa Nandy’s discussions with BBC director-general Tim Davie today “will be a very important meeting”, a Tory peer has warned, as he suggested that the question of public trust in the BBC was at stake over its handling of the Huw Edwards scandal.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lord Ed Vaizey said: “Don’t forget that next year, probably, the government will start to kick off charter review for the BBC. The charter runs out in 2027, it’s a long process.
“So it’s not a great thing for the BBC to be going in to see Lisa Nandy just when she’ll be beginning to think about this kind of thing.
“It’s going to be a very important meeting and these kinds of issues, I’m afraid – because the BBC is such a public institution – do matter.”
Lisa Nandy ‘right to call in’ Tim Davie, says Tory former culture minister
Lord Ed Vaizey, a Tory former culture minister, has said that Lisa Nandy is “right to call in” BBC director-general Tim Davie over the corporations handling of Huw Edwards’ case.
The Tory peer told BBC Radio 4: “Sometimes one is nervous when politicians interfere with the BBC but I think Lisa Nandy is right to call in Tim Davie, the director-general, because ultimately the BBC belongs to everyone and the DCMS [Department for Culture, Media and Sport] is not directly the regulator of the BBC but has an overall responsibility.
“So she’ll want answers to questions – the traditional ‘who knew what when?’ The fact that the BBC have put out this statement in the passive tense that ‘they were told’ that Huw Edwards had been arrested – who told them? What was their duty of confidentiality and what action could they or should they have taken when that happened?
“It does go to [to the issue of] trust” in the BBC.
BBC not expected to erase Huw Edwards entirely from news archive
The BBC is not expected to delete moments presented by Huw Edwards from its online news archives, The Times reports.
With Edwards having been present for moments such as the death of Queen Elizabeth II over his 40-year career, staff members at the BBC said it was unlikely the broadcaster would erase many clips because of their historical significance.
“News is a matter of public record,” a BBC executive said, adding: “What a nightmare.”
Staff were busy on Monday night and Tuesday removing any content that features Edwards and blocking everything in the archive so it can’t be downloaded without high-level permission, another staff member said.
They added: “They can take down documentaries and other content that doesn’t relate to news but they can’t take that down because it is considered social history.”
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy to meet BBC boss Tim Davie
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy will hold an urgent meeting with BBC boss Tim Davie after Huw Edwards admitted accessing indecent images of children.
It comes after the corporation said it knew of the veteran broadcaster’s arrest on “suspicion of serious offences” in November, but kept employing him until he resigned in April “on the basis of medical advice from his doctors”, after unrelated allegations that he paid a young person for sexually explicit photos.
According to reports, Ms Nandy is expected to meet Mr Davie on Thursday to discuss the organisation’s handling of the case.
Full report: Huw Edwards pleads guilty to making indecent images of children
Huw Edwards faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to making indecent images of children – including two sexual videos of a boy as young as seven.
The former BBC News at Ten anchor, aged 62, admitted at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to having 41 indecent images of children on his phone, seven of which were category A – the very worst kind.
Also among the 377 sexual images discovered by police – sent to him by 25-year-old convicted paedophile Alex Williams from Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, between December 2020 and August 2021 – were 12 category B images, and 22 category C images.
My colleague Athena Stavrou has more in this report from Westminster Magistrates’ Court:
Huw Edwards pleads guilty to making indecent images of children
Veteran broadcaster faces jail over shocking child abuse images
We’ll be using this blog to bring you live updates as culture secretary Lisa Nandy is reportedly set to meet BBC boss Tim Davie over the corporation’s handling of Huw Edwards’ case.
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