Huw Edwards’ sentence not eligible for review as MPs criticise ‘leniency’
The London Victims’ Commissioner has called for it to be easier to appeal lenient sentences after it emerged the case of Huw Edwards cannot be reviewed.
The disgraced BBC veteran was spared jail on Monday for accessing indecent images of children as young as seven, with the judge handing down a six-month suspended term at Westminster Magistrates Court.
Senior political figures, including Tory leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat, have written to the government’s chief legal adviser urging for a review of the case under the Unduly Lenient Scheme (ULS).
The ULS allows anyone to ask for certain sentences to be looked at by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), who will then refer it to the Court of Appeal if they think it is not tough enough.
However, the scheme only applies to Crown Court sentences – as pointed out by the Victims’ Commissioner for London Claire Waxman.
She said she has long called for this to be changed, so it is more accessible.
“For clarity, the Huw Edwards sentence cannot be reviewed under the Unduly Lenient Sentencing Scheme as it’s only applicable for certain Crown Court sentences. I have lobbied for years to make it more accessible,” Ms Waxman said on X.
“Important to understand the rights of victims.”
According to the AGO, only certain cases heard at the Crown Court, which tries the most serious offences, can be reviewed under the ULS. This includes murder, rape, robbery, and some child sex crimes.
Ms Waxman, who has lobbied for victims to have the same rights as offenders when it comes to appealing sentences, was responding to a letter from Mr Tugendhat to the attorney general saying the Edwards case should be reviewed.
In further comments to Sky News, she said the ULS could be more accessible by being better communicated to victims.
She added: “It is an injustice to them that there is no route to appeal a sentence passed in the Magistrates court when offenders can appeal against their sentence and I am clear that this must be urgently reviewed.
“Together with the Josh Hanson Trust, I have long called for a change to the strict 28-day timeframe within which to make an application to the scheme. It’s simply not right that offenders are able to appeal their sentence outside of this timeframe in exceptional circumstances, but this same entitlement is not provided to victims.”
Mr Tugendhat, the shadow security minister, claimed the former presenter’s sentence appeared “inconsistent” with sentencing guidelines, which recommend custodial sentences for possession of Category A images.
He added that “as a national household name, the country have been shocked by the criminal activities of Mr Edwards”, and they will be looking at the government to “lead by example and ensure that heinous crimes are punished swiftly”.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice made a similar appeal to the attorney general, saying that “serious crime must be punished with serious sentence”.
Read More:
What was Huw Edwards’ defence?
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The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) also expressed concern about the fact Edwards was spared jail, saying it “sends a troubling message to both survivors of abuse and those who exploit children”.
However, legal commentator The Secret Barrister said in a thread on X that Edwards’ sentence was “entirely expected for offences of this type”.
They said the judge will have taken in mitigating factors such as mental health, his low risk of reoffending and his early guilty plea when deciding not to hand down a jail term.
Edwards pleaded guilty to three counts of “making” indecent images of children.
The court heard how he 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.
Of those images, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, but one was aged between seven and nine.
As part of his sentence, the 63-year-old must attend a sex offender treatment programme and 25 rehabilitation sessions.
He is also required to sign the sex offenders’ register for seven years and pay £3,128 in costs and a victim surcharge.
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BBC waiting for ‘Huw Edwards to return salary’
Delivering his sentence, the judge said Edwards would be “particularly vulnerable” if he was given a custodial sentence, both from attack from others and as a suicide risk.
Edwards’ barrister Philip Evans KC expressed remorse on behalf of the ex-presenter, saying he “recognises the repugnant nature and the hurt done to those who appear” in the images and “for his part in that he apologises sincerely and makes clear he has the utmost regret”.
He also said Edwards recognises he has “betrayed the priceless trust” placed in him, damaged his family and is “truly sorry he’s committed these offences”.
During his four decades at the BBC, Edwards was among the broadcasting teams covering historic events, with his most high-profile moment coming in September 2022, when he announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
A group of investors with cryptocurrency custody and trading firm Bakkt Holdings filed a class-action lawsuit alleging false or misleading statements and a failure to disclose certain information.
Lead plaintiff Guy Serge A. Franklin called for a jury trial as part of a complaint against Bakkt, senior adviser and former CEO Gavin Michael, CEO and president Andrew Main, and interim chief financial officer Karen Alexander, according to an April 2 filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The group of investors allege damages as the result of violations of US securites laws and a lack of transparency surrounding its agreement with clients: Webull and Bank of America (BoA).
April 2 complaint against Bakkt and its executives. Source: PACER
The loss of Bank of America and Webull will result “in a 73% loss in top line revenue” due to the two firms making up a significant percentage of its services revenue, the investor group alleges in the lawsuit. The filing stated Webull made up 74% of Bakkt’s crypto services revenue through most of 2023 and 2024, and Bank of America made up 17% of its loyalty services revenue from January to September 2024.
Related: Bakkt names new co-CEO amid re-focus on crypto offerings
Bakkt disclosed on March 17 that Bank of America and Webull did not intend to renew their agreements with the firm ending in 2025. The announcement likely contributed to the company’s share price falling more than 27% in the following 24 hours. The investors allege Bakkt “misrepresented the stability and/or diversity of its crypto services revenue” and failed to disclose that this revenue was “substantially dependent” on Webull’s contract.
“As a result of Defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s securities, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages,” said the suit.
Other law offices said they were investigating Bakkt for securities law violations, suggesting additional class-action lawsuits may be in the works. Cointelegraph contacted Bakkt for a comment on the lawsuit but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Prices affected by Trump Media reports
Bakkt’s share price surged roughly 162% in November 2024 after reports suggested that then-US President-elect Donald Trump’s media company was considering acquiring the firm. As of April 2025, neither company has officially announced a deal.
Shares in Bakkt (BKKT) were $8.15 at the time of publication, having fallen more than 36% in the previous 30 days.
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The new trade tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump may place added pressure on the Bitcoin mining ecosystem both domestically and globally, according to one industry executive.
While the US is home to Bitcoin (BTC) mining manufacturing firms such as Auradine, it’s still “not possible to make the whole supply chain, including materials, US-based,” Kristian Csepcsar, chief marketing officer at BTC mining tech provider Braiins, told Cointelegraph.
On April 2, Trump announced sweeping tariffs, imposing a 10% tariff on all countries that export to the US and introducing “reciprocal” levies targeting America’s key trading partners.
Community members have debated the potential effects of the tariffs on Bitcoin, with some saying their impact has been overstated, while others see them as a significant threat.
Tariffs compound existing mining challenges
Csepcsar said the mining industry is already experiencing tough times, pointing to key indicators like the BTC hashprice.
Hashprice — a measure of a miner’s daily revenue per unit of hash power spent to mine BTC blocks — has been on the decline since 2022 and dropped to all-time lows of $50 for the first time in 2024.
According to data from Bitbo, the BTC hashprice was still hovering around all-time low levels of $53 on March 30.
Bitcoin hashprice since late 2013. Source: Bitbo
“Hashprice is the key metric miners follow to understand their bottom line. It is how many dollars one terahash makes a day. A key profitability metric, and it is at all-time lows, ever,” Csepcsar said.
He added that mining equipment tariffs were already increasing under the Biden administration in 2024, and cited comments from Summer Meng, general manager at Chinese crypto mining supplier Bitmars.
Source: Summer Meng
“But they keep getting stricter under Trump,” Csepcsar added, referring to companies such as the China-based Bitmain — the world’s largest ASIC manufacturer — which is subject to the new tariffs.
Trump’s latest measures include a 34% additional tariff on top of an existing 20% levy for Chinese mining imports. In response, China reportedly imposed its own retaliatory tariffs on April 4.
BTC mining firms to “lose in the short term”
Csepcsar also noted that cutting-edge chips for crypto mining are currently massively produced in countries like Taiwan and South Korea, which were hit by new 32% and 25% tariffs, respectively.
“It will take a decade for the US to catch up with cutting-edge chip manufacturing. So again, companies, including American ones, lose in the short term,” he said.
Source: jmhorp
Csepcsar also observed that some countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States region, including Russia and Kazakhstan, have been beefing up mining efforts and could potentially overtake the US in hashrate dominance.
Related: Bitcoin mining using coal energy down 43% since 2011 — Report
“If we continue to see trade war, these regions with low tariffs and more favorable mining conditions can see a major boom,” Csepcsar warned.
As the newly announced tariffs potentially hurt Bitcoin mining both globally and in the US, it may become more difficult for Trump to keep his promise of making the US the global mining leader.
Trump’s stance on crypto has shifted multiple times over the years. As his administration embraces a more pro-crypto agenda, it remains to be seen how the latest economic policies will impact his long-term strategy for digital assets.
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Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is under renewed regulatory scrutiny in Europe after Maltese authorities issued a major fine for violations of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws.
Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) fined Okcoin Europe — OKX’s Europe-based subsidiary — 1.1 million euros ($1.2 million) after detecting multiple AML failures on the platform in the past, the authority announced on April 3.
While admitting that OKX has significantly improved its AML policies in the past 18 months, the authority “could not ignore” its past compliance failures from 2023, “some of which were deemed to be serious and systematic,” the FIAU notice said.
OKX was among the first crypto exchanges to receive a license under Europe’s new Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation via its Malta hub in January 2025.
The news of the $1.2 million penalty in Malta came after Bloomberg in March reported that European Union regulators were probing OKX for laundering $100 million in funds from the Bybit hack.
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou previously claimed that OKX’s Web3 proxy allowed hackers to launder about $100 million, or 40,233 Ether (ETH), from the $1.5 billion hack that occurred in February.
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
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