Huw Edwards, the BBC’s former top news presenter, pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of making indecent images of children.
The offences he pleaded guilty to at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London during a 26-minute hearing involved images shared on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021.
Edwards has been remanded on bail until a sentencing hearing on Sept. 16. He could face up to 10 years in prison.
The court heard that Edwards, 62, was involved in an online chat with an adult man on the messaging service who sent him 377 sexual images, of which 41 were indecent images of children.
In the UK, if you download an image, or you receive it into any kind of electronic device, it’s considered to be “making” it, because you’re creating a copy of it (digitally).
It’s an outdated law written for like, you know, someone developing film to distribute photographs, I suppose? But it has followed us into the digital age and no longer makes much sense.
He didn’t take any of the photos himself, he didn’t print them out or distribute them or anything. He just received them on his phone.
thank you.