News Anchor Huw Edwards Arrested, Pleads Guilty to ‘Making Indecent Images of Children’

Former BBC news anchor Huw Edwards pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent pictures of children on Wednesday, July 31, at Westminster magistrates’ court, according to Reuters. The 62-year-old broadcaster, who announced Queen Elizabeth’s death on air in 2022, was arrested last November and charged in June, authorities revealed ahead of his plea.

Edwards’ charges concern images shared in a WhatsApp chat between 2020 and 2022, the Metropolitan Police confirmed following his arrest. Reuters reports that Edwards had received 377 sexual images, including 41 of children, in a WhatsApp group. Seven of the 41 images, prosecutor Ian Hope said, were of the most serious kind of offenses, and two of those seven were sexually explicit videos of a child possibly aged between seven and nine years old.

The last illicit image was sent to Edwards in August 2021, Hope alleged, saying that the man who sent the images said “the male in the film was quite young-looking and that he has more images which are illegal.” Edwards then told the man “not to send him illegal images and no more are sent from this point,” although the chat continued with other legal pornographic images being sent. 

Edwards’ lawyer Philip Evans emphasized in court, “There is no suggestion in this case that Mr Edwards has in any way made, in the traditional sense of the word, any images in any physical way or created any images of any sort.” According to the Crown Prosecution Service website, “making indecent images can have a wide definition in the law and can include opening an email attachment containing such an image, downloading one from a website, or receiving one via social media, even if unsolicited and even if part of a group.”

Edwards’ wife, Vicky Flind, released a statement to the BBC reading in part, “Huw is suffering from serious mental health issues. As is well documented, he has been treated for severe depression in recent years. The events of the last few days have greatly worsened matters, he has suffered another serious episode and is now receiving in-patient hospital care where he’ll stay for the foreseeable future.”

Edwards will be sentenced on Sept. 16, as per The Telegraph. The public figure previously left the BBC in April after reportedly being accused of paying a young person for sexually explicit photos. Thursday, BBC’s director general Tim Davie maintained that the organization acted appropriately when it did not terminate Edwards’ employment after learning of his November arrest. The executive said BBC leadership had not been made aware of the ages of the children involved in Edwards’ case and had been asked by law enforcement to withhold information about Edwards’ charges.