Huw Edwards pleads guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children during court appearance

The 62-year-old was arrested in November 2023 and charged earlier this month in regards to incidents relating to WhatsApp messages between December 2020 and April 2022. According to his charge sheet, Edwards faced three charges relating to indecent images, composed of category A, category B and category C photographs. He admitted to these charges during his court appearance today (July 31).

Edwards arrived at Westminster Magistrates’ Court at just before 9.15am on Wednesday morning (July 31) wearing dark suit, blue tie and sunglasses. He refused to answer questions from the huge crowd of journalists gathered outside the court, with photographers allegedly knocked to the ground at journalists pursued him.

Inside the court, he spoke to confirm his name, date of birth, address and entered his guilty pleas. The court heard that Edwards had been involved in an online chat with an adult man on WhatsApp between the dates listed, who had sent him 377 sexual images, 41 of which were indecent images of children.

On February 2, 2021, the male asked whether images he was sending to Edwards featured subjects who were too young, to which Edwards replied to him asking him not to send him any underage images. Of those sent, seven were category A, the most severe, with the age of most of the category A images estimated to feature children aged 13 to 15. There was one image of a child between the age of seven and nine.

Barrister Phillip Evans KC, representing Edwards, told the court that the veteran BBC broadcaster had suffered from “both mental and physical” health issues. He 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. It is important also to remember for context that devices, Mr Edwards’ devices, have been seized, have been searched, and there’s nothing in those devices.

“It is only the images that are the subject of the charges that came via a WhatsApp chat. 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.”

Edwards was bailed and will be sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on September 16.