EXPERTS have blasted the “ludicrous” decision to let Huw Edwards dodge jail and raised concerns over “two tier justice” in the courts.
The veteran presenter, 63, avoided jail yesterday at Westminster Magistrates’ Court and was given a six month suspended sentence for two years.
Edwards pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children after he was sent 41 illegal images by convicted paedophile Alex Williams over WhatsApp.
The disgraced newsreader had faced a maximum 12 months behind bars for the offences but avoided jail despite admitting to paying the paedophile in the region of £1,500 for child sexual abuse images.
Seven of the images fell under Category A – the most serious classification – and two were said to involve a child aged between seven and nine-years-old.
Now, Jim Gamble, the former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command Centre within the National Crime Agency, has slammed the sentencing after widespread outrage.
Speaking to Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell he said: “If Edwards came around to your house tonight and said, look, I tell you what, you go on out to the cinema tonight and I’ll look after your young children, would you let him? Because that’s the question.
“You know, if you’re not going to let him babysit for your children, why would you let him engage or look after anyone else’s children? So I think it’s time we woke up to this.
“These aren’t some kind of abstract image. They’re images of children being brutalised and raped.”
Mr Gamble added that offenders like Edwards needed to fear they would be “appropriately punished and that would reduce offending.”
He also says he “wasn’t surprised” about the judge’s decision to give Huw Edwards a suspended jail term, saying “there wasn’t a hope of him going to prison“.
Gamble added: “Less than 20 per cent of individuals who are convicted of this type of offence actually receive a custodial sentence. And that’s part of the problem, because we don’t create an active deterrent.
“I wasn’t surprised when people said to me, oh, do you think he’s going to go to prison?
“I think with the sentencing guidelines and the mitigation that was presented by his solicitors, there wasn’t a hope of him going to prison.
“This isn’t about prisons being full, because this has been a stubborn sentencing issue for at least the last decade.”
Former Scotland Yard detective Peter Bleksley echoed Gamble’s concerns and blasted the decision to let Edwards walk free.
He said: “Each and every one of those images that the vile paedophile Edwards viewed leaves behind a victim, a child victim of of sexual exploitation.
“And when people say, Is this some kind of two-tier judicial system that we have operating, it comes as no surprise to me.
“A man who was entrusted to break the news to the nation of the passing of Queen Elizabeth. Then goes on to breach that public trust in such an enormous, repugnant, and revolting way, only to walk out of court with no jail time whatsoever is utterly ludicrous.
“There is such an imbalance between what people should be getting by way of a punishment, and what they are getting.
“Especially somebody who worked absolute fortunes of public money, I hasten to add and smugly walks out of court, gets in a car and disappears off to continue to enjoy his freedom.”
Meanwhile, Miriam Cates, the former Tory MP and online campaigner, also suggested that there was now a two-tier sentencing system operating in the courts.
She said: “As we have seen in recent weeks, courts are not afraid in principle to issue custodial sentences for online crimes.
“But the creation and sharing of child sexual abuse material is still seen too often as a ‘victimless crime’.”
Grace Rose Gwynne blasted the sentence as a “joke” and slammed Edwards’ mental health excuses as “nonsense”.
She said: “I think the sentence is a joke because not only was he not blocking but he was actively seeking it [indecent photos] by asking. He was offered ‘do you want young photos?’ if he and he said yes.
“I think the mitigation put forward on his behalf was a joke as well. I have never done a paedophile case where they haven’t raised mental health as an issue and so for me, it’s a cop out.
“It’s a discredit to those who genuinely suffer with mental health issues and outrageous to say that just because of mental health issues it was effectively a gateway into him becoming a paedophile. I think it’s an absolute nonsense.”
And Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed that the “public have lost faith in our institutions” after the sentencing.
He told The Telegraph: “This is not a good look for our criminal justice system when we have recently seen offenders get custodial sentences for unpleasant things said on social media.
“It is no wonder the public have lost faith in our institutions. Something doesn’t feel right.”
Brendan Clarke-Smith, a former children’s minister, added: “When such a high-profile public figure receives a non-custodial sentence for such a heinous crime, it sends out completely the wrong message to other offenders.
“Certainly, the public would question how this offence can avoid a jail term when others have been sent down recently for making comments on social media.”
NIGHT after night he sternly delivered the most important news to the nation, with his authoritative style winning countless awards.
But away from his famous desk, as we have discovered, Huw Edwards was a manipulative paedophile who used the same pattern of behaviour time and time again to feed his relentless desires.
Some 437 days since the Sun’s bombshell front page – Edwards today appeared in court to learn his fate, his once glittering career in ruins.
Our exclusive that he paid a youngster thousands of pounds for sexual pictures made headlines around the globe and set into motion a series of events which plunged the BBC into crisis.
And Edwards – at the time the BBC’s highest earning newsreader – never again appeared on our screens.
Today, a court heard Edwards paid a younger convicted paedophile £1,500 for child sex images and videos of children which he described as “amazing”.
The case centred on messages between sex offender Alex Williams, who was a teen when they struck up a relationship, and 63-year-old Edwards.
We must be clear, the facts of that case are unrelated to our original story.
But there are some alarming similarities in his exchanges with both young people – and a pattern of deeply disturbing behaviour.
He made contact with both on social media, messaged them on WhatsApp, harassed them for pictures, and then gave them money.
There were kisses involved and Christmas presents given.
Chillingly, he even bought both of them, who are decades younger, a pair of trainers.
And all in exchange for sexual pictures.
Cash was used as leverage to the men, one homeless, the other a student, who could only dream of earning his top salary.
What The Sun uncovered was a pattern of behaviour and had we not done so Edwards’ could well have remained undetected.
Susanna Reid was also among the high-profile figures to express her shock over Edwards’ “lenient” sentence after he walked free.
The Good Morning Britain star said that the suspended sentence was a “green flag” for other paedophiles.
She said: “At the heart of this case are a series of children who have suffered the most appalling abuse. I think anybody is wondering why that is not punishable by a prison sentence.
“Huw Edwards didn’t make these images, he wasn’t in the room, but he received them and therefore anybody who receives them is involved in a cycle of the abuse of children.
“I cannot understand why the abuse of children is not punished more harshly and I think many people will be thinking that this morning.”
Along with his suspended sentence, Edwards must attend a 40 day sex offender treatment programme and 25 rehabilitation sessions.
The court heard how Edwards was given the images in a depraved WhatsApp chat by convicted paedo Alex Williams.
Edwards had engaged in an online chat with 25-year-old Williams between December 2020 and August 2021.
During this time, the paedo sent Edwards 377 sexual images, of which 41 were indecent images of children – including two videos of a boy as young as seven.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard he paid between £1,000 and £1,500 for the images, which he described as “amazing”.
It follows widespread uproar over Edwards’ £200,000 salary, after the BBC‘s director general said “discussions are under way” about the possibility of claiming back the money, which the star is yet to return despite being asked.
