Former BBC News at 10 presenter Huw Edwards has been given a six-month sentence after admitting in July to having 41 indecent images, sent to him via WhatsApp.
Edwards was sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to six months imprisonment suspended for two years after admitting to accessing indecent images of children.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring explained when delivering the ruling that Edwards did not pose a risk to the public or children and an immediate custodial sentence was not necessary because the evidence showed he could be rehabilitated.
Speaking on X, No Farmers No Food founder James Melville hit out at the BBC’s coverage of the sentencing describing it as “ridiculous.”
Huw Edwards sentencing: As described on the BBC:
“Emotional, as the court heard about his mental health problems…and an upbringing where his failure to get into Oxford left him feeling like an outsider at the BBC.”
Ridiculous. There is absolutely no excuse for what he did. pic.twitter.com/dikQCH4XIj
— James Melville 🚜 (@JamesMelville) September 17, 2024
The BBC described the sentencing as: “Emotional as the court heard about his mental health problems, his suicide risk and an upbringing where his failure to get into Oxford left him feeling like an outsider at the BBC.”
Melville blasted the coverage stating on X: “Ridiculous. There is absolutely no excuse for what he did.”
The court was told that Edwards sent hundreds of pounds to convicted paedophile Alex Williams after he sent him pornographic images. Edwards had also previously pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.
Other users rushed to comment on Melville’s post with one person stating: “An utter insult to people who suffer from mental health problems yet don’t, and never would, obtain disgusting child abuse images. How the two can be linked is beyond me.”
James Rolsche added: “The empathy shown by the #BBC to the perpetrator, ignoring the victims especially children constantly shows the rot in the BBC. They are not fit for purpose.
“They have constantly done this both in the organisation & with grooming gang reporting. #DefundTheBBC”
Another commented: “Bizarre language to think the BBC are describing a convicted paedophile Huw Edwards who is now on the sex offenders register!?”
Goldspring said Edwards would be “vulnerable” in prison and that he would be subject to 25 rehabilitation sessions and be placed on a sex offender treatment programme for 40 days.
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The former BBC employee was also added to the sex offenders’ register for seven years and will pay £3,128 in costs, plus a victim surcharge.
The broadcasting giant has since asked Edwards to repay the £200,000 salary he’s received since his arrest, but has been met with silence.
Hitting out at the sentencing, GB News host Bev Turner argued that it is “dark and depraved” of Edwards to be “soliciting” such content without the “harshest of sentences”.
Bev fumed: “It’s so dark and so depraved actually, it still baffles me how we can live in a society where somebody that is asking for these images, it’s not just the case that he turned on his phone and somebody accidentally sent him some pictures. He was soliciting it, and those people need the harshest of sentences.
“It really does play into this idea that we’re living in a two-tier society, particularly two-tier justice under two-tier Keir. It seems if you’re part of the capital establishment, you can walk free even having done something as serious as this.”
