The teenage boy at the centre of the Huw Edwards scandal has revealed for the first time that the pair did meet in person.
The victim – who has never been publicly identified – told how he spent a night with the disgraced former BBC presenter at the Marriott Hotel in Cardiff after Edwards, 64, threatened to stop sending him money.
By that point, Edwards had already paid the then 17-year-old boy at least £35,000 in exchange for sexual images.
Now aged 22, the man has spoken publicly for the first time about the encounter in an exclusive interview with The Sun, saying he and Edwards did indeed ‘meet up once’ after being bribed by the ex-newsreader.
Recalling the moment he agreed to meet him, the victim confessed he had been ‘relying’ on Edwards.
He said: ‘He [Edwards] said if I didn’t come he wouldn’t help me any more.
‘He was standing outside the hotel with his hands in his pockets waiting for me.’
The man said that when he arrived at the hotel, he felt ‘people looking’ at the pair, but could not tell whether it was because they recognised Edwards or because he was so young, being 19 at the time.
The teenage boy at the centre of the Huw Edwards (pictured) scandal has revealed for the first time that the pair did meet in person
He added that the meeting came ‘two years’ after he and Edwards had first started speaking online, but that he was so nervous he struggled to say anything.
Describing what happened once they entered the hotel room, he said: ‘When we got to the room he tried to put his hand on my shoulder and I froze.
‘I couldn’t get my words out. I just laid on the bed and went to sleep so he couldn’t do anything.’
He said Edwards then left in the morning ‘as he had work’.
The revelation comes as it was reported the same boy was lured into Edwards’s ‘perverted web’ by a paedophile who sent explicit videos to the ex-presenter.
Edwards was sent 41 indecent images of children by 41-year-old Alex Williams in exchange for cash gifts. This included seven category A images, two of which involved a child aged around seven to nine.
And until now, it was assumed Williams was not connected to previous reports regarding Edwards paying the then-teenager for degrading images and videos.
However, it has since been revealed that Williams personally selected him through a dating app by telling him Edwards would pay him for sexual images.
Edwards was sent 41 indecent image of children by Alex Williams (pictured) in exchange for cash gifts
Edwards (pictured) was handed a six-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to three charges of making incident images of children. He has also been placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years
The victim said Edwards asked Williams to help him ‘find young men for his perverted web’ and that he first encountered Williams when he was 17 in 2020 after speaking on a dating app.
He then messaged Edwards later that night.
Within minutes, Edwards sent the boy £500 and moved their conversation from the social media site to WhatsApp.
The victim was then made to perform sexual acts over video-chat by Edwards, who sent him tens of thousands of pounds over the three year abuse period.
In September 2024, Edwards was handed a six-month prison sentence for the acts, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to three charges of making incident images of children.
He has been placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.