The BBC was aware former newsreader Huw Edwards had been arrested over the most serious category of indecent images of children since last November, the corporation’s director general said.
Edwards was arrested in November 2023 while he was suspended from the BBC after allegations were published in The Sun about an unnamed presenter paying a teenager for explicit photos.
The 62-year-old resigned from the BBC in April on medical advice.
Asked why the corporation chose not to sack Edwards after they were told by police of his arrest, Tim Davie said in an interview with BBC News: “Because quite simply, the police came to us and said, ‘look, we need to do our work in total confidence, we’ve arrested (Edwards) please keep this confidential’.
“And at that point, I think the principle is clear in my mind, and I say we thought long and hard about this, this wasn’t a knee-jerk decision.
“And it was difficult but when the police, if you think about this in terms of precedent, people do get arrested and then we’ve had situations where no charges and there’s nothing there to be followed up on.
“In this case, we knew it was serious. We knew no specifics, apart from the category of the potential offences.”
Edwards pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children on Wednesday.
Last month it emerged that he was paid between £475,000 and £479,999 for the year 2023/24 before he resigned.
He had been found to have received 41 indecent images of children on WhatsApp, with seven of the images classed as category A, while 12 were category B and 22 were category C.
The BBC said in a statement after Edwards appeared in court that it was made aware in November that he had been arrested on suspicion of “serious offences”.
The corporation added: “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.”
BBC to try and recover payments made to Edwards
Meanwhile, Mr Davie suggested in his BBC interview today that the corporation is considering legal action to recover some of the payments it made to Edwards.
When asked about the disgraced newsreader keeping his pension, Mr Davie told BBC News the money would be “very difficult to claw back, nigh on impossible”.
He added: “When it comes to pay, again, (it’s) legally challenging (to recover), but we’ll look at all options.”
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