Ex-BBC star blasts ‘abhorrent’ Huw Edwards scandal after defending him-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro

Huw Edwards’ crimes have been blasted as ‘abhorrent’ by an ex-colleague (Picture: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Jon Sopel has blasted Huw Edwards’ ‘abhorrent’ crimes, after defending the disgraced presenter last year, before the truth of his behaviour had come to light.

The BBC has faced a series of crises in recent months, from the Strictly Come Dancing scandal to Jermaine Jenas being taken off air and sacked.

Just weeks ago, the once respected broadcaster Edwards was spared jail after admitting to accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.

He had previously admitted to three charges of ‘making’ indecent photographs after he was sent 41 illegal images by convicted paedophile Alex Williams over WhatsApp.

Edwards was handed a six-month prison sentence suspended by two years, which means he can avoid jail time if he doesn’t commit another offence in that time, and will be placed on the sex offenders register for seven years.

Last year, former BBC News North America editor Sopel defended Edwards, but has now slammed his crimes.

Jon Sopel blasted Edwards’ actions as ‘absolutely abhorrent’ (Picture: PA)

When asked if Edwards asked him to defend him, Sopel, 65, told The Guardian: ‘No, he didn’t ask me to do anything. I’ve known Huw a long time, but we weren’t mates, hadn’t seen each other socially.’

At the time, the Metropolitan Police had confirmed there was no evidence to indicate a criminal charge had been committed, when Edwards was revealed to be the unnamed male BBC presenter who offered a teenager tens of thousands of pounds for sexually explicit images.

‘I thought, if there’s nothing to it and he sent a couple of inappropriate texts, he’s just got a complicated private life,’ Sopel continued.

He said: ‘You do what you do for the right reasons, I’m not going to defend anything that he’s done. It’s absolutely abhorrent.’

Edwards quit the BBC in April ’on the basis of medical advice from his doctors’, after 40 years on screens which included fronting coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death.

Edwards quit the BBC in April 2023, and was arrested in November (Picture: BBC)

But in July this year, Edwards was charged with making indecent images of children, having been arrested last November.

He pleaded guilty in court in August to the charges, after he committed three offences between December 2020 and April 2021.

He admitted accessing indecent photographs of children as young as seven after a man he met online sent him hundreds of sexual images on WhatsApp.

It later emerged that the BBC knew of his arrest in November, on ‘suspicion of serious offences’, but continued employing him until April.

Shortly after Edwards stepped down from the BBC, Sopel shared a conversation he’d had with is former colleague, saying: ‘We’ve had contact, obviously not since he has been hospitalised.

‘He was very angry, I think felt very let down by what happened in The Sun, furious with their coverage, not overly impressed with the BBC’s coverage either, and I think that he is just, I’m sure anyone who knows him is just wishing him well.’

Former BBC star Sopel defended Edwards’ behaviour last year before the truth of his behaviour had come to light (Picture: Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs via Getty Images)

Sopel went on to say that Edwards, who he has known for more than three decades, who used to ‘compete against each other to get up the ladder at the BBC’, is ‘incredibly funny’ with ‘an acid wit’.

He said: ‘He can be a complicated person to deal with, I just think if you’re entering Huw’s orbit, he’s very defensive of his own territory, so I wouldn’t say we’re close friends but I thought that some of the coverage about someone’s private life, which is complicated and possibly a bit messy and that some might find distasteful, I don’t see what it’s got to do with anyone else.’

Sopel also said at the time that he hopes Edwards will return to his broadcasting role, adding: ‘If at the end of this, what you are left with is someone who had some personal struggles about who he was, what he was, how he lived his life, and he made some ill considered judgements along the way, I think it would be such a shame if such a talented and gifted broadcaster, and the way he navigates state occasions and the big events and reads the news with such authority, if that is lost, I think it will be a great loss.

‘I hope he gets better, and I hope that some way, somehow, he’s back, providing that nothing else comes out that we don’t know about.’

Edwards was previously the BBC’s highest-paid newsreader, with a pay bracket of £475,000 to £479,999 for the year 2023/24 for 160 presenting days, BBC One news specials, and other television programming, according to the corporation’s latest annual report.

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