Former BBC News presenter Huw Edwards has been given a suspended six-month sentence for child abuse image offences, meaning he avoids jail
He is also required to complete a sex offender programme, and will be on the sex offenders' register for seven years
In July Edwards admitted having 41 such images which were sent to him on WhatsApp
The sentencing hearing is told Edwards, 63, paid another man, Alex Williams, hundreds of pounds for gifts and presents in exchange for the images
At one point, Williams said he had "naughty" and "young" images, to which Edwards replied: "Go on"
The estimated age of the children in most pictures was between 13 and 15, but one was aged between seven and nine
Edwards' lawyer told the court Edwards is "profoundly sorry" and recognises the "repugnant nature" of the images
After sentencing, the BBC says: "We are appalled by his crimes. He has betrayed not just the BBC, but audiences who put their trust in him"
Huw Edwards leaves court after sentencing
Helena Wilkinson
BBC News
The sentence Edwards will receive won’t be known until towards the end of the sentencing remarks.
Before that chief magistrate Paul Goldspring is going through some of the facts of the case.
He’ll also explain how he has reached the sentence that he will impose on Edwards.
That explanation is really important in terms of the public’s understanding of how the justice system works.
Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring has returned to Westminster Magistrates' Court and we should soon hear him outline Huw Edwards' sentencing.
As a reminder, in a magistrates' court an offender can be sentenced up to six months in prison, or up to 12 months in total for more than one offence.
You can watch footage from outside the court by pressing watch live at the top of this page.
Noor Nanji
Culture reporter
If Edwards does get a prison sentence, the maximum he can get from the magistrates' court is 12 months - we were already told that the case won’t be sent to crown court.
Sending Edwards to jail is just one option Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring can consider.
He can also look at a suspended prison sentence, or an alternative to jail which could be a community order and a sex offender treatment programme.
He would need to be satisfied there is a sufficient prospect of rehabilitation if that is the sentence he decides upon. Magistrates' courts can also give a combination of punishments.
As we've just heard, the defence argues there are mitigating factors in the sentencing of Huw Edwards. These include:
On the point of his mental health, Philip Evans KC made an attempt to link the pandemic lockdowns to Edwards' treatment.
Evans said the services Edwards was being provided in 2019 were inevitably interrupted and his key period of offending, late in 2020, would have fallen within this period.
Another claim from the defence was that Edwards did not send payment "for the purpose of receiving indecent images".
Edwards, his lawyer said, told Alex Williams not to send images of people who are underage.
The prosecution had also noted this earlier when Ian Hope, prosecuting, said that on 2 February 2021 Williams asked if he was sending images that were too young. Edwards later replied “don’t send anything underage”.
Let's catch up on what has been said this morning at Westminster Magistrates' Court while we wait for chief magistrate Paul Goldspring to return at around 12:30 BST.
Here's what the prosecution had to say:
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring is retiring to draft his sentencing remarks. He says he will be back at around 12:30 BST.
He asks Edwards to stand and explains the adjournment to him.
He says that if Edwards wants to “run the gauntlet” he would be free to get a coffee. Edwards leaves the dock and thanks the security officers as they hold the door.
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
The probation officer has been discussing some technical matters with the chief magistrate which relate to what happens to an offender who is given a sentence short of immediate imprisonment.
The officer tells the court that Edwards would ideally be referred to mental health treatment relating to his offending and given alcohol treatment.
He would also be overseen by a multi-agency public protection panel, or Mappa.
This is the official body of agencies that monitors the behaviour and, hopefully, rehabilitation of sexual offenders.
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
The defence’s expert evidence is that Edwards has a “low risk of reoffending”.
His lawyer Philip Evans is now challenging whether his client needs to be subjected to a restrictive Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
He emphasises Edwards’ previous good character and the fact that he has not offended since the period in question.
“A great deal of water has gone under the bridge since that period,” he says. “Key factors in his life have changed. He is no longer on television. You will have witnessed the manner in which he has fallen from grace.
“We invite the court to do no more than to consider the question... that it must be satisfied that the order is necessary to protect against the risk. There is no direct risk of harm from Mr Edwards.”
Lucy Manning
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
Edwards nods repeatedly and looks more emotional as his barrister reads out an apology.
That apology spans his family, the public and those in the images he looked at.
He admits what he did was “repugnant”, had “betrayed trust” and he was “truly sorry.”
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
Defence lawyer Philip Evans says the offending can be linked to the “grave situation” of Edwards' mental health.
The key period of offending was in late 2020 after his mental health had significantly deteriorated.
Edwards had begun receiving treatment for mental ill-health in 2019 and that was inevitably interrupted by the pandemic in 2020.
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
Philip Evans KC tells the court: “Mr Edwards wishes to apologise. He wishes the court to know how profoundly sorry he is. He recognises the repugnant nature of such images and the hurt that is done to those who appear in such images.
“For his part in that, he apologies sincerely and he makes it clear that he has the utmost regret.
“He recognises he has betrayed the priceless trust and faith of so many people. He knows that he has hurt and damaged his family and his loved ones around him.
“He is truly sorry and he is truly sorry that he has committed these offences.
“It is meaningful, his remorse, and he has demonstrated real recognition of the harm such images cause.”
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
Edwards looks down at his feet as his lawyer begins to explain the background to the offending and his state of mind.
“His character remains a mitigating feature," Philip Evans says.
"He did not use his position in order to commit these offences. Alex Williams sought him out on Instagram at a time when Mr Edwards could properly be described as [mentally] vulnerable.”
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
“The defendant has no memory of viewing any particular images,” Edwards’ lawyer tells the court as he argues that the offending is at the lower end of seriousness in the category and there are no aggravating factors.
He stresses that the 41 images are “comparatively small” in the context of what a court dealing with indecent images often encounters.
“What we do know is that he did not store any of the images on any device. He did not use them for personal gratification.
“He has now been seen by two independent experts and the probation officer and no evidence has come to undermine that assertion.
“He did not keep those images, he did not send them to anyone else and he has not sought any similar images before from any source before ... or since.”
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
Philip Evans, for Edwards, tells Westminster Magistrates' Court: “There is a prospect of rehabilitation. The concept of making images here is not a concept of taking photographs or moving images. He was sent all of them.
“It was not payment for the purpose of receiving indecent images. Mr Edwards positively told Mr Williams not to send images of people who are underage.
“That is important," the court is told.
“That message was sent during the course of their communications when Mr Edwards had no idea of what would unfold.”
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
Philip Evans KC, the defence for Huw Edwards, reminds the court that he has submitted psychiatric reports explaining the background to the offending.
The chief magistrate indicates he will keep the case.
That means Edwards cannot be facing a term of more than one year - assuming that prison is being considered - because magistrates have limited sentencing powers.
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
The prosecution underlines that it has only had a glimpse of communications between Edwards and Williams - the images recovered from WhatsApp chat.
“We know that file-sharing links were used,” Hope tells the court.
“We only have the WhatsApp chat. We cannot see what was in any Dropbox links that were sent.”
The prosecution proposes a ban on Edwards using any home broadband router unless the device is available to be examined by investigators to ensure that they can track what computers are attached to it - and therefore whether they have been used to download further images.
The prosecution asks for £3,000 in costs, and concludes the opening statement.
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
Ian Hope tells the court there are genuinely concerning questions about how best to deal with Edwards.
He is currently “doing well therapeutically” but the concern is that if he were to be outside of the hospital environment - where he has been treated - and subject to intimidating public opprobrium “the current state of affairs will not last.”
He has a history of “impulsivity” and “agitation”. These are complex factors that the prosecution is concerned would lead to a high risk of “relapse”.
“There is a real risk that some or all of the circumstances that led Mr Edwards being there will arise again in the future,” says Hope.
“There must be a risk that he will seek to view indecent images of children in the future and there is a risk of him seeking to communicate with others.”
The proposed order to monitor Edwards is aimed at policing his internet activity to minimise the risk of him re-offending.
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
More now on the mitigating factor of "mental disorder" which we have just reported on.
Prosecutor Ian Hope tells the court that documentation the defence obtained about Edwards shows "that his decision-making across the relevant time may have been adversely impaired by a mixture of mood disorder, neuro-cognitive disorder and alcohol consumption."
Hope says they also recognise that Edwards "would appear to have voluntarily desisted, or at least asked not to be sent underage images at points in time during this thread consistent with images of younger pre-teen children having been sent.
"His attitude to therapy appears to be positive at the moment," says the prosecutor, but also warns that risk factors included his isolation.
Dominic Casciani
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates' Court
The Probation Service tells the court that it has used a sexual offender predictor tool to establish Edwards’ risk of reoffending.
Hope tells the chief magistrate that the tool indicates Edwards’ risk of internet offending, meaning indirect sexual offending, is medium. The risk of serious harm to children is medium.
Lucy Manning
Reporting from Westminster Magistrates’ Court
The details being set out by the prosecution about the images and videos Huw Edwards looked at are frankly shocking and distressing.
Details that we can’t really share in full here of sexual abuse that was happening in those images to young people including a child aged 7-9.
And it’s clear Edwards knew what he was looking at. Some of the titles had the ages in and used the word "adolescents".
When the man sending them asks if he wants more images of young people, Edwards replies: "Go on." Another time he says: "Amazing."
After he’s sent pictures of someone between 12-14 years old he goes on to discuss Christmas presents with the man who sent them.
Edwards occasionally leans his head back as he is listening to this. I have to say the details are really disturbing and his reaction at the time when he looked at these images and videos are hard to believe.