BBC asks ex-presenter Huw Edwards to pay back $250,000 after he pleads guilty to having images of child sexual abuse

By Anna Cooban, CNN

London (CNN) — The BBC has told former presenter Huw Edwards to hand back the more than £200,000 ($254,767) he received in salary payments following his arrest last November on suspicion of possessing “indecent images of children” — crimes he pleaded guilty to last week.

“Mr. Edwards pleaded guilty to an appalling crime,” the publicly funded broadcaster said in a statement Friday. “Had he been upfront when asked by the BBC about his arrest, we would never have continued to pay him public money. He has clearly undermined trust in the BBC and brought us into disrepute.”

A BBC news article, published Friday, said Edwards had earned more than £200,000 between his arrest in November and April this year, when he resigned.

CNN has contacted Edwards for comment via his lawyers but has not heard back.

On Wednesday last week, Edwards pleaded guilty to having 41 “indecent images of children,” all under the age of 18, on the messaging app WhatsApp, according to PA Media. In a statement last week, the BBC said it was aware in November that the 62-year-old had been arrested on “suspicion of serious offenses and released on bail,” noting that at the time no charges had been brought against Edwards.

The statement continued: “If at any point during the period Mr. Edwards was employed by the BBC he had been charged, the BBC had determined it would act immediately to dismiss him.”

Edwards was one of the most recognizable faces in British television news, having anchored coverage of major state events such as royal weddings and funerals. He famously announced on air the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.

The BBC’s annual report, published last month, revealed that Edwards was paid between £475,000 ($605,046) and £479,999 ($611,413) in the financial year ending in March — making him the corporation’s third-highest paid employee over that period. The BBC said in the report that it discloses staff salaries in ranges rather than as single figures.

According to PA Media, Edwards’ offenses took place between December 2020 and August 2021. London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where Edwards pleaded guilty, heard that the presenter had been in contact with an adult man on WhatsApp who sent him 377 sexual images, 41 of which were indecent images of children.

The court also heard that Edwards had told a man on WhatsApp not to send him images of minors. The final indecent image was sent in August 2021, involving a category A video of a young boy — a classification of child abuse images under English law for “images involving penetrative sexual activity, sexual activity with an animal, or sadism.”

Edwards pleaded guilty to the offense of “making indecent images of children.” According to guidance from the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service, the term “making” can have a wide legal definition, including downloading an image from a website or being sent an image via social media, even if unsolicited or part of a group.

Speaking in Edwards’ defense, his lawyer Philip Evans said: “There’s no suggestion in this case that Mr. Edwards has… in the traditional sense of the word, created any image of any sort.”

“Mr. Edwards did not keep any images, did not send any to anyone else, and did not and has not sought similar images from anywhere else,” Evans added.

The BBC has faced stinging criticism over its decision to keep Edwards on its payroll after his arrest.

The corporation said in its statement Friday that members of its board had met several times over the past week to discuss “what was known in the lead-up to Mr. Edwards being charged and pleading guilty” as well as how it had handled complaints and conducted its own investigations into the presenter’s behavior.

The BBC said it plans to commission an independent review to produce recommendations on how it can “strengthen a workplace culture” in line with its values.

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