HUW Edwards is still holding onto £200,000 in pay he received from the BBC after being arrested over child abuse images, the Beeb’s boss has admitted.
Tim Davie confessed that efforts are ongoing to reclaim the money but revealed no specific deadline has been imposed yet.
He didn’t rule out taking legal action if Edwards continues to hold onto the cash.
His comments came as he and chairman Samir Shah were summoned to Parliament today to explain themselves to peers over the scandal.
It comes after The Sun blew the lid on the disgraced presenter’s behaviour last year.
Edwards, 63, last month admitted being sent a string of child sex images – including sexual videos of a boy as young as seven.
He received the pictures on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021.
The BBC admitted it was informed that Edwards had been arrested in November but continued to employ him for around five months until he left on medical advice.
He continued to be paid a salary during this period, amounting to around £200,000, which the BBC has been attempting to get back following his conviction.
Mr Davie said: “We’ve made the formal request, and I can’t go into too much detail, but discussions are under way, but I’ve got no further news, apart from the BBC’s position is clear, the money should be returned, and we made the request.”
When asked if he set a deadline, he said: “I don’t believe we set a deadline… but we do expect to make progress and get an answer.”
Mr Davie also said the BBC will “explore” the legal process if Edwards refuses.
Mr Davie also suggested that the BBC could take steps such as dismissal before charge sooner if the situation arose again.
He said it “was really difficult getting the balance right, because you knew that the arrest had been made”.
Mr Davie said: “Obviously your primary thoughts are people who are impacted, but also you’ve got people who are accused at that point, and you don’t know whether… they’re going to result in charges. So you have a lot of unknowns at that point.”
In a letter to staff last month, BBC Chair Samir Shah told staff Edwards had “behaved in bad faith”.
He said the BBC would not have carried on paying Edwards public money if he had been up front about his arrest.
It comes after Mr Davie previously stated it would be “impossible to claw back Edwards’ pension”.
Addressing growing calls for Edwards’ to return part of his salary, and give up his pension, he added: “No one likes to see this situation. But these are unfortunately the specifics of how it works.
“We can’t claw back the pension – it’s very difficult, nigh on impossible.
“I think when it comes to pay – again, legally challenging, but we’ll look at all options.”
BY Tom Seaward
THIS is the latest in a long line of paedophile scandals dating back decades to have marred the BBC’s reputation.
Jimmy Savile’s shocking crimes rocked the corporation in 2012, when the presenter was revealed to be a prolific sex offender.
Savile, who died in 2011 before the allegations became widely known, is thought to have assaulted up to 450 young people, with police recording 31 allegations of rape against him.
His crimes stretched back to 1955 and allegations included the abuse of desperately ill children and necrophilia.
Jonathan King, BBC presenter and music impresario, was jailed for seven years in 2001 for molesting five teenage boys in the 1980s.
Thick of It actor Chris Langham was caged for ten months in 2007 for downloading child sex abuse images and videos.
It’s a Knockout star Stuart Hall got 30 months in 2013 for indecent assaults on girls.
Original Radio 1 presenter Chris Denning was caged for 13 years in 2014 for abusing 26 boys from 1967 to 1987, and got another 13-year sentence two years later.
He had also done jail time in the 1980s for assaulting boys.
And shamed presenter Rolf Harris was jailed for five-and- a-half years in 2014 for molesting four young girls, including one aged seven.
