Who are the London legal professionals representing Huw Edwards in courtroom?

Huw Edwards is being represented by a high-powered London law firm whose slogan is ‘shelter through the storm’. 

The disgraced BBC News presenter commissioned BCL Solicitors to work on his criminal defence as he was today handed a six month prison sentence suspended for two years. 

The firm is based in Lincoln’s Inn Fields and describes itself as a ‘top-tier’ firm specialising in business crime, data, privacy and cybersecurity law. 

Ellen Peart, partner, and Kate Chanter, senior associate, have been working on Edwards’ criminal defence, BCL confirmed to Law Gazette. 

Ms Peart flanked Edwards as he wheeled in a suitcase as he arrived at Westminster magistrates’ court today.

She is head of serious and general crime at the firm and in February represented Tory MP Bob Stewart during his successful appeal against a conviction for a racially aggravated public order offence. 

The MP for Beckenham had told activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei that he should ‘go back to Bahrain’ during a row outside the Foreign Office’s Lancaster House on December 14 2022.

But in February a judge ruled that, while the words spoken by Mr Stewart amounted to abuse, they did not cause Mr Alwadaei harassment, alarm, or distress. 

Ms Peart features in Spear’s 500 top recommended lawyers for criminal law, and a bio on BCL’s website reads: ‘Ellen Peart is described as a ”secret weapon” who ”inspires total confidence from her clients” and is a ”phenomenal team player”. 

‘She comes highly recommended for her expert representation of high-profile clients, particularly those facing serious sexual and violent offence charges.’ 

Ms Chanter is a senior associate and returned to BCL in July last year having spent two years working as a complex casework lawyer at the Court of Appeal.

During her spell there she was one of two lawyers assigned to co-ordinate the 2022 Whole Life Order ‘Special Court’, which considered the sentences of four offenders convicted of murder and manslaughter. 

These included the high-profile case of Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens. 

The Nottingham Trent University graduate’s bio on the law firm’s site describes her criminal defence practice involves representing individuals for a wide range of offences; from minor public order and assaults through to fraud and serious sexual offences’.

Today, it was barrister Philip Evans KC from the QEB Hollis Whiteman chambers who put Edwards’ defence to magistrates.

The ‘smooth and unflappable’ Mr Evans is described on the firm’s site as ‘a bright, competitive and analytical barrister, equally at home prosecuting or defending’. 

‘He is tactically very astute, seeing the bigger picture in complicated and multi-handed cases, and his advocacy is calm and persuasive and his cross-examination forensic. He is a silk out of the top drawer,’ it reads.  

In mounting Edwards’ defence today, he said the disgraced newsreader was ‘truly sorry’ and ‘recognises repugnant nature’ of the images sent to him.

He claimed that drinking and the decline in his mental health played a part in the sick WhatsApp chats with convicted paedophile Alex Williams in which Edwards was sent 41 images. 

Edwards described some of the vile photos he had been sent as ‘amazing’ and replied ‘what do you need?’ when the paedophile asked for a ‘Christmas gift after all the hot videos’.

Mr Evans claimed Edwards did not make payments to Alex Williams in order to receive indecent images of children.

He told the court: ‘Mr Edwards did not make payments in order for images to be sent to him, and he certainly did not make payments in order that indecent images would be sent to him.

‘Mr Edwards positively told Mr Williams not to send images of people who were underage.

‘He did not store any of those images on any device. He did not use them for any personal gratification and he did not gain any gratification from those indecent images.

‘He did not send them to anyone else onwardly and he has never sought similar images before from any source, and he has not sought similar images from any other source since.’

Mr Evans said Edwards was ‘truly sorry’ for how he has ‘damaged his family and his loved ones’, and for committing the offences.

He told the court: ‘He knows he has hurt and he has damaged his family and his loved ones around him.

‘For all of this, he is truly sorry and he is truly sorry he has committed these offences.

‘He has lost his good character. He has lost that good character in a very public way. That is, we respectfully submit, a matter of some significance and we know that the court will not underestimate the effect that that will have had on him.

‘He has not worked since leaving employment with the BBC.’

Mr Evans went on: ‘You will have appreciated sir that the press has been extraordinary to the extent that this matter has been reported and Mr Edwards through me wishes to apologise to the court. He wishes the court, through me, to know how profoundly sorry he is. He recognises the repugnant nature of such indecent images and the hurt that is done to those who appear in such images.

‘For his part in that he apologises sincerely and he makes it clear that he has the utmost regret and he recognises that he has betrayed the priceless trust and faith of so many people.

‘He knows he has hurt and he has damaged his family and his loved ones around him and for all of these things he is truly sorry and he is truly sorry that he has committed these offences.’