Huw Edwards, who was one of Britain’s top television anchors, admitted to offenses in a London court on Wednesday.
Huw Edwards, who left the BBC in April after many years leading the British national broadcaster’s coverage of major events, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three offenses involving indecent images of children.
Mr. Edwards, 62, admitted to accessing illegal images through messages on WhatsApp.
The guilty plea marks a stunning fall for the television anchor, who presented the BBC’s flagship 10 p.m. newscast and was a familiar face in many British households. In 2022, he announced to the nation that Queen Elizabeth II had died, and he presided over coverage of her funeral and the subsequent coronation of King Charles III.
Sharing or possessing indecent images of someone under 18 is a crime in Britain. Mr. Edwards is charged with “making” such images, which in English law can refer to such actions as downloading, accessing, receiving or storing indecent images, according to the Crown Prosecution Service, Britain’s public prosecutor.
Mr. Edwards had received 41 indecent images of children on WhatsApp, according to a statement from the Crown Prosecution Service. Seven were considered “category A images,” the most serious type. Two of those, which were moving images, showed a child of around age seven to nine.
Mr. Edwards had engaged in online chat between December 2020 and August 2021 with a man who had initially contacted him via social media, the CPS statement said.
In one message the man asked Mr. Edwards if the children pictured were too young, the BBC and the Press Association, a British news agency, reported. Lawyers told the court that Mr. Edwards told his correspondent to not send any underage images.
When the man sent Mr. Edwards a film of a young-looking boy and told him that he had illegal pictures, Mr. Edwards again told him to not send any, according to court reports from the British media. He complied and did not send Mr. Edwards any more illegal pictures.
Mr. Edwards worked at the BBC for four decades. On Wednesday, the broadcaster said in a statement that it was “shocked to hear the details which have emerged in court today. There can be no place for such abhorrent behavior and our thoughts are with all those affected.”
The BBC said that it had been made aware “in confidence” in November 2023, while Mr. Edwards was suspended, that he had been arrested on suspicion of serious offenses and released on bail while the police continued their investigation. “At the time, no charges had been brought against Mr. Edwards,” the broadcaster said, adding that by the time charges were brought, he was no longer an employee.
The Metropolitan Police said that the allegations to which Mr. Edwards pleaded guilty on Wednesday were separate from those that were widely reported and investigated last year.
He was suspended from the British broadcaster a year ago after a tabloid report about an unnamed BBC on-air personality who had paid about $45,000 for sexually explicit images. The police found last year that there was “no information to indicate that a criminal offense has been committed” and said they would take no further action.
Mr. Edwards is scheduled to next appear in court on Sept. 16 for a pre-sentencing hearing.
“Accessing indecent images of underage people perpetuates the sexual exploitation of children, which has deep, long-lasting trauma on these victims,” Claire Brinton, a prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said in a statement.
