Huw Edwards’ career lies in tatters but it was only by chance that the presenter’s crimes were uncovered.
In July 2023 the Sun reported allegations around payments the presenter made to a 17-year-old in exchange for sexually explicit images. While the stories effectively ended Edwards’ BBC career, the Met Police found no evidence of a crime.
However, a separate investigation was launched into Alex Williams from Merthyr Tydfil and it was on his phone that WhatsApp messages were found, in which he sent Edwards child abuse images.
Williams said the pair only met once, and prosecutors found evidence of one video call, but the full extent of their relationship will never be known.
Messages on other platforms including Telegram have not been recovered – and neither has the phone used by Edwards.
The former BBC presenter, 63, was first arrested for his crimes in November of last year after a phone belonging to Williams was seized by South Wales Police.
The device contained sickening WhatsApp messages between Williams and Edwards over a 16-month period.
Williams sent the BBC star 377 pictures and videos. While the majority featured young men, 41 pieces of media contained children – and seven of them fell into the most serious Category A type content.
At Edwards’ sentencing on Monday, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that the messages began in December 2020 after Williams, then 19, contacted Edwards on Instagram.
Prosecutor Ian Hope told the court: “In December 2020, Alex Williams said that he had ‘a file of vids and pics for [Huw Edwards] of someone special.’
“Mr Edwards immediately queried who the subject was and was then sent three images of seemingly the same person.”
The young boy in question was between 14 and 16, and when asked if he wanted the “full file” by Williams, Edwards replied: “Yes xxx…”
This prompted Williams to send the presenter more explicit content, including a category A video of a boy whose age was estimated to be between 13 and 15 years old.
When Williams told Edwards that he had more “hot” content to send, he said the files were too large to be exchanged on WhatsApp, prompting the presenter to suggest he use Dropbox.
The court heard that the men communicated on several platforms, including Telegram, which has a self-deleting messages feature.
Edwards’ phone has never been found. The Met Police told The Independent that it had not been in use “for some time” prior to the arrest, adding: “There was no evidence of any obstruction or concealment on Edwards’ part.”
It was only the WhatsApp conversation from Williams’s seized phone that was successfully recovered.
In messages dated 2 February 2021, Williams asked Edwards if the media he was sending featured children who were “too young” and the presenter asked him to refrain from sending underage content.
But in another exchange, when asked if he would like to see “naughty pics and vids” content of a person described as “yng [sic]”, Edwards wrote “go on”.
The court heard that Edwards paid Williams sporadic amounts of money that was described as a “gift” rather than payment for the content.
Mr Hope said: “It is also clear that Mr Edwards was paying not insignificant sums of money – low hundreds of pounds on an occasional basis – to Alex Williams which Mr Williams directly asked for on several occasions, as gifts or presents, apparently off the back of sending pornographic images to Mr Edwards, about which images they chatted.
“Alex Williams has stated that the money was more generally to support him at university and amounted to around £1,000 to £1,500.”
News of the investigation into Edward’s illegal activity was made public in July of this year after he was charged with three counts of making indecent images of children in relation to the WhatsApp chat in June.
He pleaded guilty during a 26-minute hearing that month, with his barrister Philip Evans KC stating that Edwards was suffering from “physical and mental health issues” at the time.
Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring noted on Monday that the presenter’s previous “good character” when sentencing.
He is reported to have knocked three months off the 12-month guided sentence for Edward’s previous good character and a further three months due to Edwards’s prompt guilty plea.
The presenter’s six-month sentence is suspended for two years. He will be on the sex offenders’ register for a total of seven years and have to attend 25 rehabilitation sessions.
Edwards’ barrister said his client recognises the seriousness of his offences and wished to apologise to everyone he has hurt.
Mr Evans said: “He recognises the repugnant nature of such indecent images and the hurt that he has done those who appear in such images. For his part, on that, he apologises sincerely and he makes it clear he has the utmost regret. He recognises that he has betrayed the priceless trust of so many people.
“He recognises he has hurt and damaged his family and his loved ones around him. For all those things he is truly sorry and he is truly sorry he has committed these offences.”