‘Creepy’ new details of British television star’s ‘grooming’ acts, including while on air covering the Royals
The media industry has been rocked by new revelations of a major star’s depraved chat with a convicted pedo and attempts to groom young people.
Chilling new details have emerged of the lengths British television star Huw Edwards went to in a bid to allegedly groom boys, including while on air covering major Royal events.
Disgraced BBC anchor Huw Edwards has admitted to possessing child abuse material, including videos of children as young as seven-years-old.
Now, a dossier published by The Sun newspaper exposes the alleged depraved acts of the 62-year-old, which have rocked the media industry and engulfed the public broadcaster in scandal.
Appearing in court last week, Edwards admitted to receiving a number of images, including videos of young children and several images of abuse classified as Category A, the most serious criminal classification.
The Sun has produced a meticulous timeline of alleged offending, including Edwards’ attempts to “groom” young people while on the job, including in the middle of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s star-studded wedding in 2018.
BBC knew about nature of offences
The BBC is under fire for its decision to continue paying Edwards his enormous £480,000 (AU$941,000) salary despite knowing the serious nature of allegations against him.
The broadcaster’s director general Tim Davie fronted BBC News overnight, and sensationally confirmed British police had told the organisation in November its star allegedly possessed 41 child abuse pictures and videos.
The BBC was told seven pieces of material were deemed to be Category A, while a further 12 were Category B and 19 more were Category C.
Police allege he received the materials via the messaging services WhatsApp between late 2020 and mid-2021.
Edwards was suspended in November but continued to bank his pay cheque until April when he quit the BBC citing “medical” issues.
“We knew it was serious,” Mr Davie told BBC News of the first contact by police. “We knew no specifics, apart from the category of the potential offences.”
Senior officials at the BBC made a “difficult decision” in November to not sack Edwards, he said, saying there were “duty of care” considerations that required careful handling.
There are calls for the organisation to claw back at least some of the money paid to the fallen star over five months.
Mr Davie insisted that would be “very difficult, nigh on impossible”.
“I think when it comes to pay - again, legally challenging, but we’ll look at all options.”
Chats with notorious pedophile
Westminster Magistrates Court was told Edwards engaged in conversations via WhatsApp with convicted pedophile Alex Williams between December 2020 and August 2021.
Williams sent Edwards 377 sexual images of young people, of which 41 have been deemed indecent by investigators.
Williams, 25, was being investigated by police over an “entirely unrelated” matter when the seedy conversation was uncovered.
The pedophile was convicted of seven offences related to child abuse material and received a 12 month suspended sentence in March.
While sending a cache of indecent pictures and videos to Edwards, Williams asked if the young people depicted were “too young” for the star.
In response, Edwards told the pedophile not to send any illegal content, Sky News reports.
Most of the children in the images classified as Category A are estimated to be between 13 and 15, although one video is of a boy believed to be about seven-years-old, a court last week heard.
Edwards has pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.
Attempted grooming during Royal funeral
The Sun has revealed that Edwards tried to groom young people while working on major stories about the Royal Family.
He invited a young TV producer to stay in his room at a posh hotel while covering the funeral of Prince Philip, sending a picture of his suite and writing: “You could have stayed here.”
The staffer, who was 20 at the time, declined the invitation.
Edwards first messaged the young man on Instagram in April 2021, writing “Hello beauty” and striking up a conversation.
“He then followed up, asking the man: ‘You live with family?’” The Sun reports.
“When the man said he lived in a house-share, Edwards said: ‘So I could pop in to have some tea?’”
The newspaper reports Edwards regularly invited the young man to an apartment in central London, far from the home he shared with his wife and children in Dulwich in the city’s south.
“It started off friendly,” the producer told The Sun of the online contact from Edwards.
“I thought it would be good to be in touch with him and potentially to meet him for career advice and hoped he might give me some help.
“But he wanted to meet in private and tried to get me to go to his flat. I thought it was a bit odd and very inappropriate given his position and the age gap.
“He even invited me to his hotel room at Prince Philip’s funeral. I thought that was incredibly inappropriate and also against the Covid rules, which I was abiding by.
“I batted off the invitation — but he just seemed to think he was above it all.”
Edwards sent the man a selfie from inside the studio where he presented the News at Ten program.
The Sun published a number of increasingly hostile messages sent by Edwards to the man over several months, showing frustration that he would not meet the star at his apartment.
“I now find what he has done disgusting, shocking and upsetting. I find it deeply unpleasant that he was messaging me at the same time he was receiving these images.
“I also think the BBC should take responsibility for its actions and apologise. They have not been transparent with what they’ve done.”
Buying sex pics during Royal wedding
Edwards sent a number of selfies while on the job to another young man and offered him thousands of dollars in exchange for explicit images, The Sun reports.
The man, 21, received a photo of the presenter outside Windsor Castle while he was covering the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018.
Edwards sent the man £500 (AU$979) in exchange for a shirtless image, then another £2000 (AU$3918) for a naked photo.
The man never sent a nude shot, which angered Edwards, The Sun reports.
“F*** that. F*** that. Really not impressed by you. I believed you were serious. But you’re not. You chase me for cash.
“But you then ‘forget’ to deliver. F*** that.”
Over the space of several months, he repeatedly tried to organise a meeting with the man, including at one point demanding: “You owe me.”
Speaking with The Sun, the man said: “It’s disgusting.
“It was clear he was always trying to groom me and trying to use his position and money for his own perverse gratification.
Schoolboy’s ‘lucky escape’ from Edwards
The Sun also spoke with a 17-year-old high school student who was contacted by Edwards out of the blue on Instagram.
He recalled being surprised when he received an unsolicited love heart emoji in October 2018, which resulted in a conversation that in hindsight feels “creepy”.
“I was utterly shocked to see what came out in court about Huw,” the man, now 23, told The Sun.
“It is distressing to think back to the messages we exchanged that this could have ended a lot differently.
“At the time it felt creepy and knowing what I know now, I feel like I had a lucky escape.”
In July last year, the newspaper published explosive reports about a major British television personality, then unnamed, who paid another vulnerable teenager for sexually explicit images.
It alleged the man, later revealed to be Edwards, paid more than £35,000 (AU$68,000) to the teenager for explicit content.
Police investigated the claims made and found there was no criminal wrongdoing.
That expose is unrelated to the serious charges Edwards has now pleaded guilty to, and for which he will be sentenced in September.
During a subsequent investigation by the BBC, an employee provided evidence of flirtatious and inappropriate messages he received from Edwards.
“I certainly don’t feel like I’ve heard anything of substance about how the investigation went,” the unnamed BBC staffer told The Sun.
“In a way that’s disappointing because it was quite a stressful thing to go through. It was all a big ordeal.”
In a statement about the child abuse material revelations made in court last week, the BBC defended its handling of the matter.
“The BBC is shocked to hear the details which have emerged in court. There can be no place for such abhorrent behaviour and our thoughts are with all those affected.
“The police have confirmed that the charges are not connected to the original complaint raised with the BBC in the summer of 2023, nevertheless in the interests of transparency we think it important to set out some points about events of the last year.
“In November 2023, whilst Mr Edwards was suspended, the BBC as his employer at the time was made aware in confidence that he had been arrested on suspicion of serious offences and released on bail whilst the police continued their investigation.
“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.
“Today we have learnt of the conclusion of the police process in the details as presented to the court. 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. During this period, in the usual way, the BBC has kept its corporate management of these issues separate from its independent editorial functions.
“We want to reiterate our shock at Mr Edwards’ actions and our thoughts remain with all those affected.“
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