Huw Edwards charged with making indecent images of children
Former BBC newsreader Emily Maitlis previously rushed to defend Huw Edwards before the full extent of his scandals came to light. Edwards, 62, pleaded guilty when he attended Westminster Magistrates' Court today (July 31).
It comes after he was charged with making indecent images of children. Police have said that the alleged offences took place between December 2020 and April 2022.
The criminal allegations come after Edwards faced an investigation from his former employer, the BBC, earlier in the year, which saw him hospitalised before stepping down from his role. At the time, it was alleged that Edwards had paid a young person who sent him explicit images.
When the news broke, Emily, who worked for the BBC for more than two decades, said on her podcast The News Agents: "There is something a bit distasteful.
"If you know this stuff about a colleague, why isn’t your first duty to then go to HR or a senior manager... or to say I think this is going on...rather than to turn it into a news story."
The corporation said BBC News had "reported on itself as it would on any other media organisation — with transparency and independence".
In a statement, it added: “This has been a complex and fast-moving story involving serious allegations about a high-profile public figure, who was suspended by his employer and was at one point the subject of a police investigation, which is of great interest to our audiences. There was a clear public interest in covering it."
Edwards resigned from the BBC on medical advice after last year being named as the presenter at the centre of days of allegations and speculation.
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He has been absent from screens from when newspaper allegations first broke in July 2023 until his departure from the broadcaster in April 2024.
The court heard today that the broadcaster admitted to having 37 photographs on WhatsApp, including six category A images, 12 category B and 19 category C photographs on WhatsApp between December 2020 and April 2022.
On February 2 2021, Edwards was asked if the images he was receiving was too young. He responded to tell him not to send any underage images.
