Former BBC presenter Huw Edwards is due to be sentenced for accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.
The veteran broadcaster admitted three charges of “making” indecent photographs after he was sent 41 illegal images over WhatsApp.
Edwards is on conditional bail and scheduled to be sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this morning, following his guilty pleas in July.
Seven of the indecent images shared with Edwards were of the most serious type.
Of those images, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, but one was aged between seven and nine.
Overall the charges cover a period between December 2020 and August 2021.
The BBC has admitted it was informed that the former TV presenter had been arrested in November but continued to employ him for around five months until he left on medical advice.
It has asked Edwards to repay the £200,000 salary he has received since his arrest.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie said the money should be returned and that the corporation will “explore” the legal process if Edwards refuses.
Speaking in Edwards’ defence, his barrister Philip Evans KC has said that his client had not “created” the images “in the traditional sense of the word”.
The maximum prison sentence for making an indecent image of a child is ten years.
Sentencing guidelines set the starting point for any jail term for possession of a Category A image at 12 months, with a range of 26 weeks to three years.
The starting point is 26 weeks for a Category B image and a community order for Category C.
A number of potential defences to the charge exist, including not seeing the images and having no reason to believe that the images were indecent, having a legitimate reason to possess the images, or if the images were unsolicited and not kept for an unreasonable amount of time.
Aggravating features to be taken into account for Edwards include that the images included moving images, and the young age of the child thought to be seven to nine years old in two of the Category A images.
Mitigating factors are Edwards’ early guilty plea, his previous good character, his mental health issues, and his remorse.
During his four decades at the corporation, Edwards was among the broadcasting teams leading coverage of historic British events including the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 and most recently the coronation of King Charles in May 2023.
Edwards also announced the late Queen’s death on the BBC in September 2022.