Teenager allegedly paid by Huw Edwards for explicit photos felt groomed

The teenager at the centre of allegations Huw Edwards paid for sexual photos said he felt “groomed” by the broadcaster and “sick” after learning he was charged with child sex crimes.

The veteran broadcaster admitted having indecent images of children earlier this week, when he was still a fixture on the BBC.

It came a year after Edwards was named as the presenter at the centre of allegations he paid a young person for sexually explicit photos and resigned from the BBC “on the basis of medical advice from his doctors”.

Police found no evidence of criminal behaviour in this separate matter.

The unnamed young man whose contact with Edwards was first exposed by The Sun newspaper, told the Mirror newspaper he “stayed silent for so long to protect Huw, but I feel sick at what has happened”.

He said he first contacted the 62-year-old newsreader for help, among other celebrities, having spent a few nights at a homeless shelter.

“Although it was a friendship at the beginning, it did change. He would say things like, ‘Are you going to do something for me then?’ I needed help, so I did.

“I feel like he sort of fed on my vulnerability…as he knew I needed the money. I felt like I was being groomed.”

The young man admitted sending explicit messages and videos to Edwards, who is said to have sent £35,000 in return over two years.

“Because of who he was as a BBC presenter and because he had such power…I felt like I trusted him and that he cared,” the young man said.

“But that’s how the manipulation started. I looked up to this man but he didn’t really care about me.

“I felt like he was taking advantage of me but I felt I had to listen to him because he was Huw Edwards.”

It comes as The Sun newspaper published a video of Edwards waiting for the alleged victim at a Welsh train station, filmed by the young man’s stepfather.

The family of the unnamed young person originally complained to the BBC about Edwards in May 2023, and he was publicly named by his wife as the TV presenter at the centre of the allegations the following July.

The young man said he received a text from an unknown number in October after the events had unfolded, which turned out to be Edwards.

“I think it was about two weeks before he got arrested. The message said ‘guess who’ or something like that,” he said.

“The message said ‘don’t say my name on here… just call me’. So I phoned him and he said download the messaging app Signal. And he said we can catch up on there.

“He said, ‘What’s been going on? I really care about you’. He had no remorse for anything at all.”

On Friday, the BBC said Edwards resigned from the broadcaster “without notice or financial settlement” during a “confidential disciplinary process”.

It comes after two whistleblowers, one current and one former BBC worker, expressed disappointment that an internal inquiry into Edwards had not been made public after they alleged they received “inappropriate messages” from him.

Before Edwards resigned, he was the broadcaster’s highest-paid newsreader, with a pay bracket between £475,000 and £479,999 for the year 2023/24, according to the BBC’s latest annual report.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy urged the disgraced newsreader to “return his salary” and asked the BBC to look into whether it can recoup an estimated £200,000, which Edwards earned during the period from his arrest in November until his resignation in April.

Ms Nandy told Sky News that she has asked to see the employment law advice given to the BBC, and called for the corporation’s director-general Tim Davie to address “outstanding issues”, and come back to her next week.

The minister also said of Edwards: “I think having been arrested on such serious charges all the way back in November, to continue to receive that salary all the way through until he resigned is wrong and it’s not a good use of taxpayers’ money.

“I think most people in the country will agree with that but whether he does that or not is up to him.”

Ms Nandy said she has “ongoing concerns” that the BBC needs “futureproofing” so whistleblowers are taken seriously and complaints are acted upon following her meeting with Mr Davie on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Mr Davie defended Edwards’ pay rise of £40,000 compared with 2022/23, when he was paid between £435,000 and £439,999.

He told BBC News it was made up of an “inflationary increase”, and work the veteran broadcaster did at the corporation in February 2023 before any allegations were made.

Mr Davie said the corporation will “look at all options” in trying to reclaim pay from Edwards, but ruled out doing the same for his pension due to legal reasons.

Edwards will next appear in court on September 16.

Published: 03/08/2024 by Radio NewsHub

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