Married Huw Edwards 'invited young producer to hotel room after presenting Prince Philip's funeral coverage'
1 August 2024, 15:24 | Updated: 2 August 2024, 10:33
Huw Edwards has been accused of inviting a young television producer to his hotel room after fronting the coverage of Prince Philip's funeral.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Edwards, who pleaded guilty to making indecent child images this week, is said to have sent a picture of the hotel suite to his young colleague in 2021, in a separate event.
The producer declined, because such a meet-up would have breached Covid rules, the Sun reported.
The paper claimed this was part of a pattern of invitations given by Edwards, who was among the BBC's top news presenters.
Edwards, 62, left the corporation in April this year, having come off the air last year after the revelations that he had paid a youngster to send explicit photos.
The police decided that Edwards had not committed any crimes in that instance, but the episode effectively ended the presenter's career.
In a later incident, police found Edwards' number in the phone of a paedophile in Wales.
That led to him being arrested in November last year and charged with three counts of possessing indecent images of children. He pleaded guilty to the offences on Wednesday, and will be sentenced in September.
Prince Philip's funeral took place in April 2021 at St George's Chapel in Windsor, when indoor mixing was still banned under pandemic rules.
Edwards reportedly told the producer he was staying overnight in Windsor, and sent him photos of the suite and told them they could have stayed there.
When asked if there was a spare room, he said no but added that there was "plenty of room".
Edwards is also said to have sent the producer invitations to spend time together in London.
He began messaging the younger colleague after they followed him on social media.
The producer said that Edwards "put quite a lot of pressure" to meet up, which they found "odd and very inappropriate".
The invitation after Prince Philip's funeral came during the same period that Edwards was being sent the indecent child photos. He will be sentenced for the offences on September 16.
After Edwards' guilty plea on Wednesday, the BBC said: "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."
The corporation added: "The BBC is shocked to hear the details which have emerged in court today. There can be no place for such abhorrent behaviour and our thoughts are with all those affected.
"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."
