Huw Edwards ‘groomed’ younger man and paid him £2,000 for photos
Disgraced former BBC newsreader Huw Edwards groomed a cash-strapped young man and paid him £2,000 for sexual photos – before raging when he only received a topless selfie.
The 62-year-old paedophile initially tried to impress the young man with photos from the News at Ten Studio before then sending him selfies from outside Windsor Castle as he fronted the BBC’s coverage of Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018.
Edwards pestered the starstruck fan, then 21, for nude selfies and lashed out at him when he didn’t get what he wanted.
After seeing Edwards plead guilty to making indecent images of children, the man told The Sun: ‘It’s disgusting.
‘It was clear he was always trying to groom me and trying to use his position and money for his own perverse gratification.
‘But to now know I was being targeted by a paedophile who got off on pictures of children makes me feel sick.’
PayPal receipts show that the broadcaster paid £5000 a photo to the fan. After receiving one topless picture, Edwards said: ‘F***. That’s one of your best. You look so good.’
Disgraced former BBC newsreader Huw Edwards (pictured) groomed a cash-strapped young man and paid him £2,000 for sexual photos
Edwards leaves Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children
But not settling for this, he demanded a photo of the fan ‘totally naked head to toe’.
When the 21-year-old asked ‘What’s in it for me?’, Edwards paid him another £2,000.
When the male only sent a topless selfie, Edwards ranted on WhatsApp: ‘F*** that. F*** that.
‘Really not impressed by you. I believed you were serious. But you’re not. You chase me for cash. But you then ‘forget’ to deliver. F*** that.’
Edwards first followed the man on social media before messaging him for WhatsApp details in 2017.
He sent him a selfie from the BBC studio, before writing: ‘Your turn. Pic.’
The pair spoke for a number of weeks before Edwards asked for sexual photos, saying: ‘I will reward you.’
He also messaged asking if the fan was ‘likely to be down before Xmas’, in what appeared to be an attempt to meet up with him.
Edwards is pictured in a court sketch after pleading guilty to having 41 child images on WhatsApp
The Sun newspaper has also revealed how Edwards tried to lure a colleague to his BBC-funded hotel room on the day of Prince Phillip’s funeral, which took place during Covid when the Queen was forced to grieve alone.
Meanwhile, a schoolboy revealed how he had a ‘lucky escape’ after Edwards messaged him ‘out of the blue’ on Instagram and sent heart emojis and kisses.
It comes after BBC boss Tim Davie on Thursday admitted that he knew Edwards had been arrested over the most serious category of child porn images – yet continued to pay the paedophile presenter more than £200,000 until he resigned.
In a bombshell interview with BBC News, the director general said: ‘We knew it was serious, we knew no specifics, apart from the category of the potential offences.’
BBC bosses, who were told about Edwards’ arrest in November but kept paying him for another five months, say they were not aware of the ages of the children in the images.
Edwards received seven category ‘A’ images of the very worst kind on his phone after being sent them on WhatsApp by paedophile Alex Williams
Alex Williams (pictured) was snared by Welsh police – who later discovered he had sent Edwards a series of indecent images of children
Britain’s most famous newsreader pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to receiving 41 indecent images of children, two of which showed a child aged between about seven and nine.
The 62-year-old received the pictures on WhatsApp from convicted paedophile, Alex Williams, between December 2020 and August 2021.
Seven of them were category A images – the most serious classification – while 12 were category B and 22 were category C.
Category A images show serious abuse including penetrative sexual activity, while Category B images involve non-penetrative sexual activity. Category C images do not depict any sexual activity.
Mr Davie tonight confirmed the BBC did know the severity of the alleged offences, but claimed the police had not told them the full details.
When the ex-anchorman’s charges were made public this week, Mr Davie said: ‘We were very shocked. No one knew about the specifics of what we heard over the last few days, which have been deeply disturbing.’
Edwards resigned from the BBC in April ‘on the basis of medical advice from his doctors’ after unrelated allegations that he paid a young person for sexually explicit photos.
Police found no evidence of criminal behaviour in relation to this matter.
Edwards will next appear in court on September 16.
MailOnline has contacted Edwards’ representatives for comment.
