He was one of the country’s best-loved broadcasters, but is now a convicted criminal
Huw Edwards was the face of the nation and the man the BBC entrusted to broadcast almost all the major news events to hit the United Kingdom.. He announced election results, covered royal deaths, and he famously never missed an opportunity to promote Wales and the Welsh language.
However, his fall from being the BBC’s highest-paid journalist and a British National Treasure, was mighty. Born in Bridgend, the now 64-year-old TV presenter saw his life very publicly unravel when allegations about his conduct emerged in the national press, and ended up in him appearing in court in July, 2024.
He admitted having 41 indecent images of children, which were sent to him by another man on WhatsApp. They included seven category A images, the most serious classification. As the charges were read to him in Westminster Magistrates’ Court, he replied “guilty” three times.
Police said officers started looking into Edwards after seizing a phone as part of an unrelated investigation, which revealed his participation in a WhatsApp conversation with convicted paedophile, Alex Williams.
Williams, now 27, from Merthyr Tydfil was sentenced to a suspended 12-month jail sentence in March 2024 after he shared indecent images of children with Edwards.
At the time, Westminster Magistrates’ Court was told that, on February 2, 2021, Williams asked whether what he was sending was too young, to which Edwards asked him not to send any underage images. A final indecent image was sent in August 2021 – a category A film featuring a young boy. The man told Edwards the boy was quite young looking, and that he had more images which were illegal, the court was told.
Edwards told him not to send any illegal images. No more were sent, and the pair continued to exchange legal pornographic images until April 2022.
Aside from the criminal conviction, his private life has been laid bare, he has lost the career he had built up over decades, and he has already lost and is likely to further lose, a number of honours he had been awarded.
This is the story of the downfall of Huw Edwards. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter
Huw grew up in Llangennech, near Llanelli, with his sister. His father, Hywel Teifi Edwards, was a Plaid Cymru and Welsh-language activist, author, and academic who taught at University College in Swansea. His mother, Aerona Protheroe, was a teacher at Llanelli’s Ysgol Gyfun y Strade for 30 years.
He graduated with a first-class honours degree in French from Cardiff University in 1983, and then studied a postgraduate course, also in Cardiff, before becoming a reporter for local radio station Swansea Sound and then joining the BBC as a trainee in 1984.
His career saw him become a staple in Westminster as a political correspondent and he progressed to becoming the BBC’s highest-paid newsreader.
He presented a range of programmes on television and radio including documentaries on classical music, religion, and the Welsh language, on a range of channels, including S4C and in both English and Welsh.
At his peak Edwards earned between £550,000 to £599,999 as a BBC presenter but when gender pay differences came to light he voluntarily took a paycut.
Huw, a dad to five children, married TV producer Vicky Flind in 1993. It was her who took the decision to name Edwards as the man at the centre of allegations which first came to light in July 2023. At that stage The Sun ran a story that an unnamed but well-known BBC presenter had paid a teenager more than £35,000 since they were 17 in return for images. The story was based on allegations by the mother and stepfather of the teenager.
Days of speculation followed about who the presenter was including false allegations about who it was on social media.
Five days after the story broke Edwards’ wife named him as the subject of the allegations “primarily out of concern for his mental wellbeing and to protect our children”.
She said he was in the midst of a serious episode of depression and was receiving in-patient care. Huw had spoken openly about his depression since 2002.
Shortly before Edwards was named the Metropolitan Police investigated and said it had found no evidence of crime and said it would not investigate further.
It later emerged that two months before that story a family member of a young person attended a BBC building seeking to make a complaint about the presenter and a day later contacted BBC Audience Services who referred a complaint to the corporation’s investigations team.
The BBC Director General at the time, Tim Davie, and executive directors were only made aware of the case once it had made the national press. Three days after the news report Edwards was suspended.
A report from an inquiry carried out by the BBC was given to Edwards in November 2023. That has never been made public and there are growing calls for that to now happen. Five months later, in April 2024, he resigned from the corporation on “medical advice”.
In February 2024, the BBC apologised to the parents of the young person who made a complaint about Edwards and admitted the broadcaster should have acted more quickly. Auditors Deloitte had detailed how the family’s complaint had not been brought to senior managers’ attention and there was “insufficient” documentation of attempts to contact the family.
The BBC launched a review into its complaints procedure after the scandal in July 2023. It led Mr Davie to admit it had been “clearly damaging” and while there could be “learning” he stood by his corporate investigation team.
It has now emerged that in November 2023, the Met told the BBC corporation Edwards had been arrested and was being investigated for serious offences but the detail about how many images there were, the ages of those in the pictures, and how he received them was not disclosed by police.
The criminal matter became public knowledge on July 29, 2024 when the Met Police said it had charged Edwards. It has further emerged the Met gave the BBC corporation, not the news team, a 30-minute warning that it would confirm in an answer to a journalist that Edwards had indeed been charged. His former colleagues, including many friends, at the BBC did not receive any advance warning about the charge.
Two days later Edwards arrived at Westminster Magistrates’ Court with a crowd of journalists and photographers surrounding him as he made his way inside. Once he was asked how he intended to plead he confirmed he was guilty of making indecent images of children.
He admitted to having 41 indecent images of children that had been sent to him at his request by another man on WhatsApp. They included seven category A images, the most serious, showing abuse including penetrative sexual activity, two of which showed a child aged between about seven and nine.
The police confirmed on the day Edwards appeared in court the indecent image charges were not connected to the original complaint raised with the BBC but a separate investigation.
After his court appearance the BBC issued a statement about what it was told in November 2023. A statement read: “At the time no charges had been brought against Mr Edwards and the BBC had also been made aware of significant risk to his health.”
It added that the BBC would have sacked him if he had been charged, saying: “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.”
As Edwards left court, knowing he has around six weeks until he finds out his sentence, the aftershocks continued. His former colleague and co-presenter Sophie Raworth, during a live news segment, confirmed she and her colleagues were only made aware of his arrest when police issued a statement.
Speaking on BBC News at Six a the time, she told viewers: “We here at BBC News are editorially independent when reporting on the corporation and we only learnt about his arrest and the charges when the rest of the media did on Monday.”
BBC staff received a message signed by senior management saying they were “appalled” and there is “no place for such behaviour”.
The note continued: “Some of you may feel shocked and saddened by this news and some of you will have worked closely with Huw Edwards over the years. Many of you will be working on this story and we want to thank you for your professionalism in carrying on with your jobs in difficult circumstances.”
The organisations which Edwards had worked closely with began distancing themselves. Cardiff University, where Edwards is honorary professor of journalism, said it was “actively reviewing” his fellowship. He later resigned from his honaroary posts. The National Churches Trust axed him as vice president. He was later expelled from the Gorsedd of the Bards.
After such a long and distinguished career it is no surprise he had many friends in the world of journalism. Adam Boulton, the former Sky News political editor, described Edwards, and his wife Ms Flind, as friends. He told Newsnight he agreed with all those who said they were shocked. He said he not had any contact with Edwards since the story broke in July last year but said for Edwards personally, and also his family, it was “disastrous”.
Huw and his wife, Vicky Flind, have since separated following the revelations and she filed for divorce in October 2024. Their family home in Dulwich, London was promptly put up for sale in 2024, but it doesn’t seem to have sold and has dropped in price by nearly £1m.
The entire scandal put the BBC under increased pressure. Within hours of Edwards’ pleas the then Director General Mr Davie was summoned to a meeting with the culture secretary Lisa Nandy. There are questions why, having been told in November 2023, Edwards was facing serious offences he was allowed to quit and continued to be paid by taxpayers in between.
The BBC made it clear in its statement it had a duty of care to Edwards whose mental health had caused serious concern. Lord Falconer, a former Lord Chancellor, told Newsnight it was “inconceivable” that having been told about the allegations, even without the detail, the BBC did not take action.
It had already highlighted the tricky position the BBC has between being a corporation and employer with responsibilities to their employees and also a journalistic enterprise. It was widely reported in 2023 that BBC journalists including Victoria Derbyshire had been “taking initial soundings” in relation to claims against Edwards in the days before The Sun released its original story.
Other questions emerged about the atmosphere within the corporation. Edwards’ former colleague Sir Craig Oliver said the former presenter could be a “very, very difficult and complicated” man who “clashed with staff”.
He said: “There were also, I think, a number of people who were worried about his behaviour within the BBC – was he actually throwing his weight around and behaving well enough to other staff? But I don’t think anybody suspected that there was child abuse imagery in his private life in any way, shape, or form.”
Aside from how it looks publicly it has affected internal relations too. Former BBC journalist Jon Sopel, now host of The News Agents podcast, said he had “been struck by how many of my former BBC colleagues, some very senior, have been in touch to express their anger and dismay at their own coverage of this”.
There are further questions about whether the complaints process was adequate. The family who originally raised concerns have criticised the handling of their complaint to the BBC.
It has, inevitably, led to calls from its critics outside the newsroom too.
Rebecca Ryan, campaign director of Defund the BBC, said: “What were the BBC thinking in continuing to pay someone arrested for such heinous crimes? Defund the BBC often accuses the broadcaster of being out of touch. On this occasion ‘out of touch’ does not begin to describe it. The BBC has extremely serious questions to answer on this.”
The BBC tried to claw back some of the salary he earned after being arrested in November 2023. Speaking at a House of Lords committee in September 2024, Tim Davie said: “We’ve made the formal request and I can’t go into too much detail but discussions are under way. The money should be returned and we made the request.”
Asked by the communications and digital committee’s chair Baroness Stowell whether the BBC had set Edwards a deadline, Davie said no. He added: “But we do expect to make progress and get an answer.”
Huw Edwards was publicly asked to hand back part of his BBC salary from the five months he was under arrest. The BBC chairman, Samir Shah, confessed they had repeatedly asked him to hand back over £200,000 and called for the disgraced star to “give it back”.
Talking on Times Radio on Saturday, May 3, 2025, Samir said: “Frankly, if Huw is listening to this: Give it back Huw, just give it back. Really, just give it back. You know you should and you should do it.
“We’ve been asking him and asking him and asking him … we’re getting legal advice on it.”
You can watch Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards on Channel 5 from 9pm on Tuesday, March 24.
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