Former prominent BBC news anchor gets suspended sentence for indecent images of children on phone

LONDON (AP) — Former BBC news anchor Huw Edwards, once one of the most prominent media figures in Britain, was given a suspended prison sentence Monday for images of child sexual abuse on his phone.

Edwards, 63, pleaded guilty in Westminster Magistrates’ Court in July to three counts of making indecent images of children, a charge related to photos sent to him on the WhatsApp messaging service by a man convicted of distributing images of child sex abuse.

Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring sentenced Edwards to a six-month prison term suspended for two years. He will be listed on a sex offenders register for seven years.

“It is not an exaggeration to say your long-earned reputation is in tatters,” Goldspring said.

Edwards' fall from grace over the past year has caused turmoil for the BBC after it was revealed the publicly funded broadcaster paid him about 200,000 pounds ($263,000) for five months of his salary after he had been arrested in November while on leave. The BBC has asked him to pay it back.

“We are appalled by his crimes,” the BBC said in a statement after the sentencing. “He has betrayed not just the BBC, but audiences who put their trust in him.”

Edwards had been one of the BBC’s top earners when he was suspended in July 2023 over separate claims made last year involving a teenager he allegedly paid for sexually explicit photos. Police investigated and decided not to bring charges.

Although Edwards was not publicly named at the time those allegations surfaced, his wife later revealed he was the news presenter investigated and said he was hospitalized for serious mental health issues.

He never returned to the air but the BBC kept him on the payroll until he resigned in April for health reasons.

Edwards began his BBC career in Wales four decades ago. He went on to become lead anchor on the nighttime news for two decades and led the coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 as well as election coverage.

The BBC said at the time of his guilty plea that it was shocked to hear the details of the charges against him.

More than 375 sexual images were sent to him on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021. More than 40 were indecent images of children, including seven classified as “category A” — the most indecent — with children estimated to be between 13 and 15. One child was aged between 7 and 9.

In chats with Alex Williams, who was later convicted of distributing child sex abuse images, Edwards was asked if he wanted sexual images of a person whose “age could be discerned as being between 14 and 16,” and Edwards replied, “yes xxx,” prosecutor Ian Hope said.

“From that chat in December 2020, Alex Williams said that he had ‘a file of vids and pics for you of someone special,’” Hope said.

Edwards asked who the subject and was then sent three images that appeared to be the same person who appeared to be aged 14 to 16, Hope said.

Williams later sent Edwards a video in February 2021 that involved two children, one possibly as young as seven and the other no older than 13, involving penetration, Hope said.

Edwards did not respond, but when asked by Williams if the material was too young, he said, “don’t send underage.” He also said he didn’t want him to send anything illegal.

Defense lawyer Philip Evans said Edwards was “truly sorry” for the offenses and the damage he had done to his family.

“He apologizes sincerely and he makes it clear that he has the utmost regret and he recognizes that he has betrayed the priceless trust and faith of so many people,” Evans said.

Evans said Williams had reached out to Edwards on Instagram at a time when he was mentally vulnerable and began sending him images. He said Edwards never received gratification from the images and hadn’t saved them or sent them to anyone.

Hope said Edwards paid Williams “not insignificant sums of money,” as gifts that Williams used while studying at a university.

At one point, Williams asked for a “Christmas gift after all the hot videos” he had sent. Edwards remarked that some of the images were “amazing,” Hope said.

Williams, 25, was given a suspended 1-year sentence in March for possessing and distributing indecent images as well as possessing prohibited images of children.

Huw Edwards an ex-BBC news presenter arrives at Westminster Magistrate's Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children in London, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A small number of protesters wait for Huw Edwards an ex-BBC news presenter to arrive at Westminster Magistrate's Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children in London, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A small number of protesters wait for Huw Edwards an ex-BBC news presenter to arrive at Westminster Magistrate's Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children in London, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Huw Edwards an ex-BBC news presenter arrives at Westminster Magistrate's Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children in London, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Huw Edwards an ex-BBC news presenter arrives at Westminster Magistrate's Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children in London, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Huw Edwards an ex-BBC news presenter arrives at Westminster Magistrate's Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children in London, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Huw Edwards an ex-BBC news presenter arrives at Westminster Magistrate's Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children in London, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Huw Edwards an ex-BBC news presenter arrives at Westminster Magistrate's Court for sentencing after he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children in London, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Some Brazilian users regained access to X on Wednesday despite a nationwide ban put in place by the country's Supreme Court, a reunion apparently resulting from the social network changing the way its servers are accessed.

But the renewed access may be short-lived.

Late last month, Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X blocked nationwide after months of tension with the site's billionaire owner Elon Musk over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. De Moraes also set fines for anyone using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access the platform.

That rendered X effectively inaccessible in the country until Wednesday, when an Associated Press journalist was among those who regained access. The number of X posts made in Brazil rose from 939,000 Tuesday to more than 2 million by late afternoon Wednesday, data analysis company Bites said.

Experts examining X's IP addresses — numeric designations that identifies sites' location on the internet — said there are indications the company has begun routing users through the servers of Cloudflare, a content delivery network, en route to its own.

“The service that Elon Musk’s social network has started using works like a ‘digital shield’ that protects the company’s servers,” Pedro Diogenes, Latin America’s technical director for CLM, a distributor that focuses on cybersecurity. It acts as a proxy between users and X's servers, filtering traffic and preventing the original IP address from being recognized, Diogenes told the AP.

Brazil’s telecommunications regulator Anatel said it is looking into the situation and will report its findings to the Supreme Court, noting that there has been no change to de Moraes' ruling. A panel of fellow justices later upheld his decision, though it hasn’t yet gone before the court’s full bench. His fine for VPN users in particular has faced blowback, including from the nation’s bar association.

The Supreme Court declined to comment on possible actions it could take. Musk, who often uses his platform to disparage de Moraes, hadn't commented on X by late afternoon.

Former President Jair Bolsonaro celebrated the return of the social network. He has sided with Musk in the feud with de Moraes and sought to portray the ban as censorship from an overzealous judge.

“I congratulate you all for the pressure that makes the wheels turn in defense of democracy in Brazil,” Bolsonaro posted Wednesday on X.

Some Brazilian X users trumpeted the platform's return — with several addressing de Moraes directly, vowing that they weren't using a VPN. There have been no reports of fines being levied against people using VPNs.

Cloudflare, a security company that prides itself on providing services to websites regardless of their content, has a history of protecting sites other companies won’t touch. But only to a point. In 2017, for instance, it dropped the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer as a customer following a deadly clash at a white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. And in 2022, it dropped the notorious stalking and harassment site Kiwi Farms citing an “immediate threat to human life.”

But X is a mainstream social media platform — even if it may be home to some extremist content — and it is not yet clear whether Brazil’s ban would be enough for San Francisco-based Cloudflare to abandon it.

Cloudflare has a reputation for cooperating with governments, however, and so may comply with an order from the Supreme Court to cease serving as X's proxy, David Nemer, who specializes in the anthropology of technology at the University of Virginia, told the AP.

Ordering internet service providers to block Cloudflare would be impossible, since thousands of Brazilian companies depend on it, Nemer previously wrote on Bluesky, another social media platform.

A person close to Cloudflare, who was not authorized to speak publicly about a business relationship, said the network services provider did not do anything specifically to help X get around Brazil’s ban. Rather, X recently switched to Cloudflare from another provider, which could be a reason the block is not working. This person added that the workaround likely won't last long.

De Moraes could also attempt to force Musk’s hand by going after his satellite-based internet service provider Starlink, as he has done since the ban, said Rafael Mafei, a law professor at the University of Sao Paulo.

On Friday, de Moraes seized about $3 million from bank accounts belonging to X and Starlink to collect what X owed in fines.

Legal analysts have questioned de Moraes’ prior decision to freeze Starlink’s bank account until it paid for X's fines. While Musk owns both X and SpaceX, which operates Starlink, the two companies are separate entities. But de Moraes has shown that he considers the two companies to belong to the same economic group, Mafei said.

“Under normal circumstances, anyone else who openly took active steps to obstruct judicial measures and investigations, as Musk is doing, would possibly have already had their arrest decreed in Brazil,” Mafei said.

Ortutay reported from San Francisco.

FILE - A view of a laptop shows the Twitter sign-in page with their logo, in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, July 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)