Former BBC news anchor Huw Edwards leaves after a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London. Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP
By Ian Youngs, BBC culture reporter and Lucy Manning, BBC News
Huw Edwards, once the BBC's most senior news presenter, has pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.
He admitted having 41 indecent images of children, which had been sent to him by another man on WhatsApp, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard.
They included seven category A images, the most serious classification - two of which showed a child aged between about seven and nine.
Police later revealed the man who sent the images to Edwards was a convicted paedophile.
Until last year, Edwards was one of the main presenters on BBC One's News at Ten and often fronted coverage of major national events.
The BBC said it was "shocked" and he would have been sacked if he had been charged before he left the corporation in April.
"There can be no place for such abhorrent behaviour and our thoughts are with all those affected," it added.
The BBC also said it had been "made aware in confidence that he had been arrested on suspicion of serious offences and released on bail" last November.
Edwards had already been suspended in relation to different allegations but remained employed on full pay until he left on "medical advice" three months ago.
He was charged last month and could now face a jail sentence. He will next appear in court on 16 September.
Edwards was flanked by police officers and surrounded by photographers as he entered and left the court on Wednesday.
He was expressionless outside court and inside the hearing, which lasted for less than half an hour.
As the charges were read to him, he replied "guilty" three times, quietly and calmly.
The court heard he had been involved in online chat on WhatsApp from December 2020 with an adult man, who sent him 377 sexual images, of which 41 were indecent images of children.
Under the law, images can mean both video clips and still pictures. The Crown Prosecution Service said most of the category A images were estimated to show children aged between 13 and 15. Two clips showed a child aged about seven to nine.
Category A images show serious abuse including penetrative sexual activity.
He also had 12 category B pictures, which involve non-penetrative sexual activity, and 22 photographs in category C, which covers other indecent images. The category B and C pictures showed children aged between 12 to 15.
After the hearing, police said officers started investigating Edwards after seizing a phone as part of an unrelated probe, which revealed his participation in a WhatsApp conversation.
The Metropolitan Police said a 25-year-old paedophile called Alex Williams, who was sentenced to a suspended 12-month jail sentence at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in Wales on 15 March, had shared indecent images of children with Edwards.
The court was earlier told that, on 2 February 2021, the other man asked whether what he was sending was too young, to which Edwards asked him not to send any underage images.
The final indecent image was sent in August 2021 - a category A film featuring a young boy.
The man told Edwards the boy was quite young looking, and that he had more images which were illegal, the court was told.
Edwards told him not to send any illegal images.
No more were sent, and the pair continued to exchange legal pornographic images until April 2022.
Edwards's barrister Philip Evans KC told the court: "There's no suggestion in this case that Mr Edwards has... in the traditional sense of the word, created any image of any sort."
He added that 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 also said the former broadcaster had experienced "both mental and physical" health issues.
The barrister told the court his client "was not just of good character, but of exceptional character".
Edwards has not been on air since last July following high-profile reports in the Sun newspaper claiming he paid a young person for sexually explicit images.
The Metropolitan Police said they found no evidence of criminal behaviour in relation to those allegations, and that the current case was separate.
"These allegations did not form part of the matter which was considered by police in July 2023. They were investigated separately as a standalone case," a police spokesperson said.
Edwards was suspended by the BBC last July and executives began an internal investigation, which has not revealed its conclusions. He resigned in April.
Edwards received between £475,000-£479,999 (NZ$1,025,000 - NZ$1,034,000) between April 2023 and April 2024, an increase of £40,000 on the previous year.
'Making' indecent images - what does the law say?
Edwards pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent photographs of a child. In the law, a photograph can also mean video footage.
"Making" indecent images can have a wide legal definition, and covers more than simply taking or filming the original picture or clip.
The Crown Prosecution Service says it can include opening an email attachment containing an image; downloading an image from a website to a screen; storing an image on a computer; accessing a pornographic website in which an images appears in an automatic "pop-up" window; receiving an image via social media, even if unsolicited and even if part of a group; or live-streaming images of children.
A court must also decide whether an offence falls into the category of possession, distribution or production.
According to the Sentencing Council, creating the original image counts as production - the more serious of the three categories. It adds that "making an image by simple downloading should be treated as possession for the purposes of sentencing".
In such cases, sentences can range from six months to three years in prison. However, a community order with a sex offender treatment programme requirement can be an alternative to jail time "where there is a sufficient prospect of rehabilitation".
'Long-lasting trauma'
In a statement after Wednesday's hearing, Claire Brinton of the CPS said: "Accessing indecent images of underage people perpetuates the sexual exploitation of children, which has deep, long-lasting trauma on these victims.
"The CPS and the Metropolitan Police were able to prove that Edwards was receiving illegal material involving children via WhatsApp."
Children's charity the NSPCC said: "Online child sexual abuse offences can have a devastating impact on victims and we should be in no doubt about the seriousness of Edwards' crimes."
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) also said: "This is criminal material, including images depicting the most extreme category of sexual abuse, which have real and lasting effects on victims."
- BBC