
1st August 2024 – (London) The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is facing intense scrutiny over its handling of the child abuse image scandal involving one of its highest-paid former presenters, Huw Edwards.
Edwards, a renowned BBC newsreader known for covering high-profile events such as the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of making indecent images of children. Under U.K. law, “making” such images can include actions like opening, accessing, downloading, storing content, or receiving unsolicited images via social media.
In a statement following Edwards’s guilty plea, the BBC expressed shock at the court’s revelations, stating, “There can be no place for such abhorrent behaviour.” Court records indicate that Edwards received 41 indecent images of children between December 2020 and August 2021, with seven images classified as category A, the most serious.
The Metropolitan Police began investigating Edwards after discovering his WhatsApp conversation with Alex Williams, a convicted paedophile, during an unrelated probe. Edwards is scheduled to appear in court in September.
The BBC’s handling of the case has come under intense scrutiny, with questions being raised about why the broadcaster did not terminate Edwards’s employment upon learning of his arrest and why he continued to receive his salary for five months until his resignation.
The BBC stated that at the time of Edwards’s arrest, “no charges had been brought against Mr. Edwards and the BBC had also been made aware of significant risk to his health.” They 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. In the end, at the point of charge, he was no longer an employee of the BBC.”
However, this explanation has been met with scepticism, as the BBC acknowledged that it was aware of Edwards’s arrest on suspicion of serious offences in November 2023, and he was formally charged in June.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and BBC Director General Tim Davie are expected to discuss the BBC’s handling of the Edwards case via phone on Thursday. The BBC’s decision to continue paying Edwards’s substantial salary, which was between 475,000 pounds (606,502 U.S. dollars) and 479,999 pounds (612,885 U.S. dollars) in the 2023-24 financial year, making him the broadcaster’s third-highest-paid presenter, has also come under intense scrutiny.
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