The BBC was aware that former broadcaster Huw Edwards had been arrested for the most serious category of indecent images of children since last November, the corporation’s director general said.
Edwards was arrested in November 2023 whilst suspended from the BBC after allegations were published in The Sun about an anonymous presenter paying a teenager for explicit photos.
The 62-year-old man, who pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children on Wednesday, resigned from the BBC in April on medical advice.
Asked why the corporation chose not to fire Edwards after the police reported 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 job. ‘.Work with complete confidence, we have arrested (Edwards), please keep this confidential.’
“And at this point, I think the principle is clear in my mind, and I say we thought about it a lot, it wasn’t an automatic decision.
“And it was difficult, but when the police, if you think about it in terms of precedent, people are arrested and then we have had situations where (there have been) no charges and there is nothing to follow up on.
“In this case, we knew it was serious. We didn’t know specific details, beyond the category of possible crimes.”
Davie also stated that as Edwards remained suspended prior to his resignation, this meant there were no issues relating to the safety of BBC staff.
He added: “Another factor at this time was the very significant duty of care considerations.
“I think it was right for us to say ‘look, we’re going to let the police do their job and then, when the allegations come in, we’ll act.’
The BBC said after Edwards’ hearing yesterday that he would have been fired “immediately” if he had been charged while still employed by the corporation.
Addressing the possibility that there was more information that the BBC knew, Mr Davie said the corporation was “not sitting on anything that I think we need to share with the police, or that is of a serious nature that would make me feel that we had not appropriately monitored”.
He continued: “I can say categorically that when it comes to the crimes we have seen, which are truly horrific, any evidence that is out there is not in the hands of the BBC.
“If I saw evidence of that, it wouldn’t be a complicated decision.”
BBC will try to recover payments made to Edwards
Last month it emerged that Edwards was paid between £475,000 and £479,999 for the 2023/24 year before resigning.
David Davie suggested in his BBC interview today that the company is considering legal action to recover some of the payments it made to Edwards.
When asked about the disgraced broadcaster keeping his pension, Davie told BBC News the money would be “very difficult to get back, almost impossible”.
He added: “When it comes to paying, again, (it is) legally challenging (to recover), but we will look at all options.”
What images did Edwards have on his phone?
Following his guilty plea, it emerged that Edwards was arrested after officers seized the phone of a pedophile named Alex Williams in a “completely unrelated investigation.”
When officers from South Wales Police looked at the device, they discovered that Williams had sent 41 indecent images to Edwards in a WhatsApp chat between December 2020 and August 2021.
Of these, seven were classified in category A, 12 in category B and 22 in category C.
The estimated age of most of the children in category A images was between 13 and 15, a court heard.
However, prosecutors said there were moving images of a child, possibly aged seven and nine, among the most serious images.
As a result of the original investigation, Williams was convicted of seven offenses relating to indecent images and prohibited images of children. He was given a suspended 12-month prison sentence at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on March 15.
What does it mean to “make” images?
According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the term “doing” can include opening, accessing, downloading and storing content, or receiving an image on social media, even if unsolicited and even if it is part of a group.
Category A images are the most serious and include penetrative sexual activity and sexual activity with an animal or sadism, while Category B images involve non-penetrative sexual activity.
Category C images do not depict any sexual activity.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
