Huw Edwards, once BBC’s highest-paid news anchor, pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent pictures of children during an appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London.
Edwards on Wednesday admitted to receiving 377 sexual images in a WhatsApp group, 41 of which featured children.
Seven of those images were classified as category A, the most serious classification of indecent images. Another 12 fell into category B while 22 others were labeled category C, according to prosecutors.
Most of the images showed minors between the ages of 13 and 15, though one was aged between 7 and 9.
Huw received the indecent images between December 2020 and August 2021, though he continued to trade pornographic content with the unnamed sender until April 2022.
“Accessing indecent images of underage people perpetuates the sexual exploitation of children, which has deep, long-lasting trauma on these victims,” said Claire Brinton of the Crown Prosecution Service, which decides whether a case should go to court.
Edwards, BBC’s top nightly news anchor for nearly 20 years, left the network in April for health reasons, months after he was suspended over allegations that he paid a young person for sexually explicit images.
The Metropolitan Police said they found no evidence of criminal behavior in relation to those allegations, and that the current case was unrelated.
Edwards continued to receive his paycheck, even after he was arrested in November.
He is currently out on bail and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 16. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
With News Wire Services
