18-05-2025
BBC was warned about Huw Edwards as early as 2012
The BBC was warned about Huw Edwards in the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile scandal in 2012, internal emails show.
A former BBC employee sent an email to Tim Davie, the broadcaster's director-general, an hour before Edwards' sentencing last autumn alleging that a complaint had been made about the disgraced presenter more than a decade earlier.
The correspondence, shared with The Sunday Times following freedom of information requests, revealed the former BBC employee flagged the claim to Mr Davie on Sept 16 last year as 'an area of risk to the corporation that you may not be previously aware of'.
Mr Davie reportedly replied three minutes later stating that he would pass the allegation on 'in confidence' and that the BBC had been investigating past complaints about Edwards.
That same day, Edwards was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after he admitted charges of making indecent images of children.
The BBC has refused to say how many complaints it has received about Edwards over his four-decade career at the broadcaster, and has not yet published the findings of an internal inquiry into his behaviour.
However, the dossier of internal emails suggests that senior BBC officials were aware of complaints about the former newsreader earlier than previously thought.
In the email to Mr Davie on Sept 16, titled 'private and confidential', the ex-employee stressed that the complaint against Edwards was 'not necessarily a criminal allegation and I have no real specifics I can offer you – other than it exists'.
The former BBC employee also claimed that the historical allegation regarding Edwards was 'most likely [listed] under the so-called 'C-List' if it's anywhere'.
This is understood to refer to a spreadsheet of allegations against BBC presenters that was created after Savile's crimes were exposed a year after his death in 2011.
It was previously thought that complaints made against Edwards to the BBC in 2021 were the earliest on record at the national news organisation.
The Sun reported in June 2023 that an unnamed BBC star had paid a young drug addict who was also sending them explicit photos.
Further allegations followed after Edwards' then wife, the TV producer Vicky Flind, publicly named him as the presenter in question in July 2023.
It included claims that Edwards had sent 'creepy' messages to a teenager on social media, plus allegations against him made by two current and one former BBC employees. One alleged Edwards invited him back to his hotel room in Windsor on the eve of Prince Philip's funeral in April 2021.
The Sunday Times later reported that Edwards' BBC bosses had warned him about unprofessional conduct online on two separate occasions, first in 2021 and then in 2022.
The tranche of emails also shows that Edwards agreed to pay back part of his salary after his arrest in November 2023, although he is still yet to do so.
Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, wrote to the former newsreader in August 2024 saying: 'I note you propose to repay part of your salary paid to you since your arrest last year and we would ask that you now do so without delay.'
Edwards, who was on a salary of more than £475,000 before his departure from the BBC, has reportedly not paid back around £200,000 he earned from the organisation following his arrest.
Another email in the dossier reveals that Ms Turness also advised colleagues to 'buckle up!' the night before the organisation announced Edwards' resignation in April 2023.
Senior BBC staff also had codenames for Edwards and the allegations against him, called 'Finch' and 'Redstart', The Sunday Times reported.
Edwards pleaded guilty last July to three counts of making indecent images of children.
The former BBC news anchor had been sent 41 images of child sex abuse by paedophile Alex Williams.
Police recovered a total of 377 sexual images sent to Edwards on WhatsApp, of which 41 were indecent images of children.
The BBC said it did not comment on internal HR matters, but reiterated calls for Edwards to return his salary.
A BBC spokesperson said: 'The BBC believes that Huw Edwards should return the money paid to him by the BBC, covering the period between his arrest and his resignation.'
