Huw Edwards mugshot released after he's spared jail over indecent images
Huw Edwards has been sentenced today after admitting to having 41 indecent pictures of children. The ex-News at Ten presenter, 63, was handed a six-month sentence, suspended for two, by Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring during a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring also declined to make Edwards the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He said he “did not pose a risk to the public” but said he would be on the Sexual Offenders’ Register for seven years.
Edwards suffered from depression and other mental health conditions, the court heard, and had been diagnosed with arteriosclerosis, a form of heart disease, in December 2023. Edwards’ defence barrister, Philip Evans KC, said the evidence that his client had expressly asked Williams not to send illegal images was a significant mitigation and that there was nothing to suggest that Edwards had used his position at the BBC to gain indecent images.
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He said Edwards, who has separated from his wife with whom he has five adult children, wished “to apologise to the court” and those he had hurt. Evans said: “He wishes the court through me to know how profoundly sorry he is. He recognises the repugnant nature of such indecent images and the hurt that he has done those who appear in such images.
“For his part on that he apologises sincerely and he makes it clear he has the utmost regret. He recognises that he has betrayed the priceless trust of so many people. He recognises he has hurt and damaged his family and his loved ones around him. For all those things he is truly sorry and he is truly sorry he has committed these offences.”
The father-of-five pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children on July 31. Westminster Magistrates Court heard that he was involved in an online chat with convicted paedophile Alex Williams on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021, who sent him 377 sexual images, of which 41 were indecent images of children.