Huw Edwards: Former BBC presenter given suspended sentence over indecent images of children

Published

3 weeks ago

September 16, 2024

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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.

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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Entertainment

Jenna Fischer: US Office star reveals ‘aggressive’ cancer diagnosis

Published

11 hours ago

October 9, 2024

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Jenna Fischer: US Office star reveals 'aggressive' cancer diagnosis

Jenna Fischer, who played Pam Beesly in the US Office, has revealed she was diagnosed with an “aggressive” breast cancer in December last year.

The 50-year-old shared a photo of herself in her “patchy pixie” haircut to mark breast cancer awareness month.

“After completing surgery, chemotherapy and radiation I am now cancer free,” she wrote on Instagram.

Fischer said problems were flagged during a routine mammogram, where inconclusive results due to dense tissue led her doctor to order an ultrasound.

“They found something in my left breast,” she said. “A biopsy was ordered. Then, on December 1, 2023, I learned I had Stage 1 Triple Positive Breast Cancer.”

The actress noted the cancer is “aggressive… but highly responsive to treatment,” and said she underwent a lumpectomy.

“Luckily my cancer was caught early and it hadn’t spread,” Fischer said, before adding she had 12 rounds of weekly chemotherapy from February and had three weeks of radiation treatment in June.

“While I continue to be treated with infusions of Herceptin and a daily dose of Tamoxifen, I’m happy to say I’m feeling great.”

She urged her followers to get their annual mammograms, adding: “My tumour was so small it could not be felt on a physical exam.

“If I had waited six months longer, things could have been much worse. It could have spread… Consider this your kick in the butt to get it done.”

Read more from Sky News:
What we know about Hurricane Milton
Al Pacino reveals he nearly died

Angela Kinsey, who played Angela Martin in The Office and co-hosts the Office Ladies podcast with Fischer, commented on the post: “I love you and I’m so glad you’re sharing. I got your back, always.

Ellie Kemper, who also starred in The Office as Erin Hannon, commented: “We love you, Jenna. Thank you for sharing and for inspiring.”

And Olivia Munn, known for her roles in New Girl, The Newsroom and X-Men: Apocalypse, who revealed her own breast cancer diagnosis earlier this year, said: “You already know how much I love you and how incredibly proud of you I am.

“But I just want to say it again; I love you and by sharing your story you’re helping so many women and saving so many lives. You’re just the best.”

Entertainment

Miranda Hart announces marriage after ‘tough few years’

Published

17 hours ago

October 9, 2024

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Miranda Hart announces marriage after 'tough few years'

Miranda Hart has shared she’s become a “young bride at 51” after marrying her “best friend”.

The actress and comedian announced the news on The One Show while promoting her new book, I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You.

Hart also said she had had “a tough few years” after being diagnosed with Lyme disease, telling Alex Jones and Alex Scott “I’ve mainly been in bed,” but added it “hasn’t been all doom and gloom… someone put a ring on it”.

“I got married at 51, and it’s just so lovely,” she told the BBC programme.

Hart, who starred in her self-titled sitcom from 2009 to 2015, added she met her husband during the COVID-19 pandemic and while battling “chronic illness when I couldn’t get out of bed or get out of the house”.

“I’d written Gary for on-screen Miranda and it wasn’t until I was 49 that I met my person, and I met him and it’s a little undercurrent in the book.”

She joked that Tom Ellis, who played Gary, was not her husband.

“I’m not going to reveal how we met as that is a little bit of a twist,” she said. “He’s my best friend, we have the best fun and I’m just thrilled to be a young bride at 51.”

After appearing on The One Show, Hart posted on social media to thank supporters for their well-wishes, which she found “really very touching”.

The actress said: “I’ve got my best friend to do life with and it’s wonderful and I’m also utterly thrilled to be back in telly land and having a book out so thanks so much for all your support.”

In the video, she then high-fives her husband – who is just out of frame – and jokes that fans got an “exclusive – his hand”.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread to humans by infected ticks. Symptoms usually present as a circular or oval rash and flu-like symptoms, according to the NHS.

Some people who are diagnosed with Lyme disease continue to have symptoms including tiredness, aches and loss of energy for years.

Hart’s new book, published by Penguin Books, will be released on 10 October.

Entertainment

London Film Festival: Steve McQueen’s Blitz offers view of war ‘through child’s eyes’

Published

20 hours ago

October 9, 2024

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London Film Festival: Steve McQueen's Blitz offers view of war 'through child's eyes'

Oscar-winning filmmaker Sir Steve McQueen hopes his new film will get “people off their iPhones” and “refocus our gaze” on what war is like for the children who live through it.

His new movie Blitz, set in wartime London and starring Irish actress Saoirse Ronan, will open this year’s London Film Festival later today.

In the film, Ronan plays a mum who, after having her son George evacuated to the countryside for his safety, ends up frantically searching the streets for him after learning he’s defiantly come home.

Eliott Heffernan plays the nine-year-old with much of the story told from his perspective.

Speaking to Sky News, McQueen set out what he hopes his latest movie will bring to audiences worldwide as he said: “Seeing war through a child’s eyes, at what point do we as adults look away?”

While it’s an idea the 12 Years A Slave director has been working on for over a decade, he admitted it certainly feels “even more urgent” to be showing Blitz now as the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and beyond rage on.

McQueen says his young protagonist was inspired by a picture he discovered while researching the Blitz.

“I saw this photograph, a boy with an oversized coat and a very large suitcase standing in a railway station waiting to be evacuated, this black child, and I thought ‘that’s my in’.”

The film offers a much more diverse depiction of wartime London than audiences will perhaps have seen before, with characters like Ife – a Nigerian air raid warden – based on real individuals meticulously researched by McQueen’s team.

He says: “I’m not interested in pointing anything out, I’m just interested in telling the truth… central London was quite cosmopolitan.

“It was kind of an everyday occurrence. Ife, our character, did exist, he patrolled the Marylebone area… So it’s not a case, as my son says, of flexing, it’s a case of just telling the truth.”

From the sound of bombs getting closer, to the scramble to find shelters, the film sets out to give a true sense of the terror and chaos of war for those on the ground. It’s set in the past but, the director hopes, it’s just as relevant now.

“Hopefully, you know, it can help in one way, shape or form… and take people off their iPhones for five minutes or so,” he adds.

Blitz is the opening movie at this year’s BFI London Film Festival. It will be released in cinemas on 1 November and globally on Apple TV+ on 22 November.