Huw Edwards has been given a six-month jail sentence suspended for two years for accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.

The former BBC presenter had pleaded guilty to three counts of “making” indecent images of children.

Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London heard how Edwards paid up to £1,500 to a paedophile who sent him 41 illegal images between December 2020 and August 2021, seven of which were of the most serious type.

Live updates from court as Huw Edwards is sentenced

Of those images, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, but one was aged between seven and nine.

Prosecutor Ian Hope told the court Edwards had been assessed as posing a “medium risk of causing serious harm to children”.

Sentencing him, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring told Edwards his “reputation is now in tatters”.

The disgraced broadcaster was sent the illegal images by convicted paedophile Alex Williams over WhatsApp.

Williams was charged in relation to his WhatsApp chat with Edwards and was convicted of seven offences following an investigation by South Wales Police – receiving a 12-month suspended sentence.

The final indecent image was sent in August 2021, a category A film featuring a young boy, with Williams telling Edwards the child was “quite young looking” and that he had more images which were illegal.

The relevant images range from the most serious category, known as category A, to the least serious, known as category C.

They include seven category A images, 12 category B images, and 22 category C images.

During his four decades at the BBC, Edwards was among the broadcasting teams covering historic events including the late Queen’s funeral in 2022 and the coronation of the King in May 2023.

Edwards also announced the late Queen’s death on the BBC in September 2022.

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Last week, BBC chairman Samir Shah admitted the 63-year-old had “damaged” the reputation of the corporation.

The BBC is attempting to recover an estimated £200,000 in pay from Edwards, who continued to be paid a salary for around five months after the corporation discovered he had been arrested in November 2023.

Edwards resigned from the BBC in April citing medical advice.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, “making” an indecent image has been broadly interpreted by the courts.

It can range from opening an attachment to an email containing an image, to accessing pornographic websites in which indecent photographs of children appear by way of an automatic “pop-up” mechanism.

In the case of Edwards, he received the illegal images as part of a WhatsApp conversation.

Edwards’ barrister Philip Evans KC said his client had not “created” the images “in the traditional sense of the word”.

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The iconic Belfast company that built the Titanic is to collapse into administration.

Harland & Wolff has announced it is insolvent and will appoint administrators.

An administration order will likely be made this week, it added.

Job losses

Between 50 and 60 jobs are to be lost immediately, the company said, most of them based in London.

Some staff will be moved to other sites. Staff employed by each of Harland & Wolff’s four yards are not affected.

Core operations at the locations will remain unaffected.

Call for government action

“Workers, their families and whole communities now face their lives being thrown into chaos due to chronic failures in industrial strategy and corporate mismanagement,” the GMB union said.

It called on the government to intervene and protect the four shipbuilding yards as it said all are needed “for our future sovereign capabilities” in sectors like renewables and shipbuilding.

“The government must now act to ensure no private company is allowed to cherry pick what parts are retained, in terms of which yards or contracts they wish to save.”

The announcement follows a full review of all group holdings which began in July.

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Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper has revealed she was told she had four days to live but the NHS saved her.

Speaking to the party’s conference in Brighton, Ms Cooper also told for the first time how the Lib Dems were on the brink of extinction in 2020.

She said the NHS gave her life back, which is why the party is determined to turn the health service around.

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Ms Cooper, who has the autoimmune disease Crohn’s, said she was rushed to hospital 12 years ago and was told without major surgery she had only four days to live.

She weighed just seven stone, her eyesight was failing, her heart rate had plummeted, her arms were black and blue and she was fed through a feeding tube, the MP said.

“But it wasn’t the prospect of major surgery that upset me – it was what they said next,” she told the conference.

“‘Even if you survive Daisy, even if you recover, you will probably never be able to work again. Your Crohn’s disease is so aggressive, at most you’ll be able to maybe do one day a week but nothing too stressful.

“‘You’ll likely need surgery every five years or so. Here’s an information pack about the benefits you might be entitled to.'”

Ms Cooper, 42, said she lay in her bed and sobbed for “17 hours straight” as she felt her world had “fallen apart” and that she would never be able to campaign again.

She added: “Hopefully though, you can see that the story ends well!

“As is the case with so many millions of people, the NHS didn’t just save my life, the people who make the NHS what it is, gave me my life back.”

She said she often wonders what is happening to people who are suffering the same symptoms now and questioned if they can even get a GP appointment, or if they have to wait a long time for a scan or are stuck in a hospital corridor.

The Lib Dems are demanding the government increase funding for the NHS, including GP services, when the chancellor announces her autumn budget on 30 October.

But Sir Keir Starmer earlier this week said the NHS would not get any more funding without reforming as he laid out a 10-year plan to fix the health service.

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Ms Cooper also told the conference one of the first conversations she had with Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey after she became his deputy in 2020, was how the party was close to not existing.

“It was quite sobering,” she said.

“He said to me: ‘Daisy, we both know we’ve only got 11 MPs. But – when you add up our majorities – do you know how few votes stand between us and extinction? It’s 69,664. If we lose just half of those votes to the Tories, we will be wiped out’.”

That conversation has been in the back of her mind every day since, she said.

But she revealed she had not told “a single living soul” until now because they did not want anyone to know “we were in survival mode”, especially after boundary changes meant they notionally only had eight seats.

“Eight seats between us having a parliamentary party – or extinction,” she added.

“But here’s a new number for you: our MPs now represent seven million people! In parliament, I can’t even walk to the toilet without bumping into a Lib Dem MP!”