One dead and seven missing in Czech Republic due to storm Boris

A British court on Monday sentenced former BBC star presenter Huw Edwards to six months in prison, suspended for two years, after being caught up in a child pornography scandal.

With this sentence, the former presenter of the BBC’s 10:00 p.m. news programme for 20 years avoids prison and will only serve six months in jail if he reoffends within a two-year period.

Following the scandal that led to his departure from the British public broadcaster just over a year ago, Edwards, 63, pleaded guilty in July to “making indecent images of children”, which saved him from a long and media-heavy trial.

The former presenter, who covered the most important events in the UK on air since the early 2000s, was facing a ten-year prison sentence.

However, the judge at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London accepted the prosecution’s arguments, which highlighted his psychological problems and the “sincere remorse” he had expressed.

“Your reputation is in tatters,” Judge Paul Goldspring told the defendant as he handed down the sentence.

During the hearing, Huw Edwards’ lawyer Philip Evans said his client acknowledged the “repugnant nature” of the images he had received and was “deeply remorseful”.

“He has betrayed the invaluable trust of many people,” he added, at a hearing in which Huw Edwards only spoke at the beginning of the hearing, to confirm his identity.

The affair had a huge impact in the UK. In early August, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “shocked and dismayed”.

The former presenter made headlines in 2023 when The Sun tabloid reported that he had paid a teenager for sexually explicit photographs, after which he was suspended by the BBC.

According to the investigation opened against Edwards, the former presenter was in contact via WhatsApp with a man who sent him 41 images of child pornography, some of which show a child between seven and nine years old, received between December 2020 and August 2021.

The images had been “clearly sent with Mr Edwards’ consent,” according to the prosecution.

Edwards’ lawyer insisted that his client had only received these images, without sharing them.

Related