The BBC presenter who allegedly paid a teenager £35,000 for sexually explicit pictures has been named as Huw Edwards, one of the broadcaster’s most prominent news hosts.
Huw Edwards, the host of BBC News at Ten, the flagship evening news programme of the public broadcaster, has been named by his wife Vicky Flind, in order to quell the rampant public speculation over the identity of the “well-known” male presenter who had allegedly paid a teenager for sexual images.
Edwards, 61, is currently the fourth-highest-paid personality on the BBC payroll, with a salary of around £430,000 per year. The longtime news host has been central to the BBC’s coverage of major British events, particularly surrounding the Royal Family, with Edwards being tapped to make the official announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
According to a report from Sky News, Edwards continued to serve in his role as the host of the BBC News at Ten over a dozen times since the family of the alleged victim claimed to have informed the BBC on May 19th of the allegations that he paid their drug-addicted 17-year-old child some £35,000 in exchange for sexually explicit images. The presenter has also been accused of having stripped down to his underwear in a call with the alleged victim, who is now 20 years old.
The BBC has faced accusations of attempting to cover up the scandal, with the broadcaster only going to the police after the allegations were made public in a report from The Sun newspaper last week.
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In a statement provided to the PA News agency on Wednesday evening, Edward’s wife, Vicky Flind said: “In light of the recent reporting regarding the ‘BBC Presenter’ I am making this statement on behalf of my husband Huw Edwards, after what have been five extremely difficult days for our family. I am doing this primarily out of concern for his mental well-being and to protect our children.
“Huw is suffering from serious mental health issues. As is well documented, he has been treated for severe depression in recent years.
“The events of the last few days have greatly worsened matters, he has suffered another serious episode and is now receiving in-patient hospital care where he’ll stay for the foreseeable future.
“Once well enough to do so, he intends to respond to the stories that have been published. To be clear Huw was first told that there were allegations being made against him last Thursday.
“In the circumstances and given Huw’s condition I would like to ask that the privacy of my family and everyone else caught up in these upsetting events is respected.
“I know that Huw is deeply sorry that so many colleagues have been impacted by the recent media speculation. We hope this statement will bring that to an end.”
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Although the legal age of consent in Britain is 16, it is still illegal under the Protection of Children Act of 1978 for an adult to ask someone under the age of 18 to produce a sexually explicit image of themselves.
However, London’s Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police said that they have investigated the allegations and claimed that there was no evidence indicating that a crime had been committed.
The Met said: “There is no further police action. As such, the Met has advised the BBC it can continue with its internal investigation.
“We are aware of media reporting of further allegations against the same individual. No specific details or information about these allegations have been passed to us and therefore there is no police action at this time.
“Should evidence of criminality or safeguarding issues be identified at any point we would expect matters to be referred to the relevant police force.”
A BBC spokesman said: “We have seen the statement from the police confirming they have completed their assessment and are not taking further action. We’re grateful to them for completing this work at speed.
“The police had previously asked us to pause our fact-finding investigations and we will now move forward with that work, ensuring due process and a thorough assessment of the facts, whilst continuing to be mindful of our duty of care to all involved.”
While the BBC had reportedly initially claimed that Edwards had resigned, it later clarified that he has not quit the broadcaster.