Huw Edwards’ crimes were ‘appalling’, BBC boss says – as corporation still in talks about recovering part of salary
The BBC director-general has condemned Huw Edwards’ crimes as “appalling” – and said the corporation is still having conversations about recovering part of his salary paid following his arrest.
Tim Davie addressed the scandal following Edwards‘ sentencing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Monday.
Speaking at the Royal Television Society (RTS) annual convention, Mr Davie said he could not see the former presenter ever working at the BBC again “for obvious reasons”.
“This man has just been convicted of appalling crimes and it’s pretty straightforward in my mind,” he said.
Huw Edwards was sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Pic: PA
Edwards was given a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to three counts of “making” indecent images of children.
The newsreader 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, the court heard.
Asked how badly the scandal has damaged the BBC’s reputation, Mr Davie said there was “no doubt an affair like this impacts our reputation”.
“I don’t know yet in terms of the direct impact on trust,” he added. Trust in the BBC is “essential”, he said, and you can “maintain trust by doing the right things”.
‘We want the money back’
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Huw Edwards leaves court
Presenter Amol Rajan, who hosted the session, asked Mr Davie why Edwards’ pay continued after the BBC was made aware of allegations against him.
Mr Davie said they “wrestled with it” but took the decision “that pay continues until someone is charged”. He added: “I think it was the right decision based on current policy.”
Earlier this year, before the charges against Edwards were announced, it was revealed the former newsreader was among the BBC’s highest-paid stars of the last financial year, despite being off-air since July 2023.
He was first arrested in November 2023, and the BBC has asked for his salary paid after that period – thought to be about £200,000 – to be handed back.
“We want the money back and we’ve asked for it back, and we’re waiting to hear back,” Mr Davie said. Discussions are still ongoing, he added.
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Victims’ families remain the “primary concern”, Mr Davie continued, saying young people who raised concerns over Edwards were “taken seriously” at the time allegations were made.
“We’re just shocked, and there’s a lot of upset because across the BBC,” he said. “We’ve got great teams, good people and they feel deeply, deeply let down.”
Strictly Come Dancing returned at the weekend – with no mention of the controversy surrounding the show. Pic: BBC/Guy Levy
Mr Davie was also asked about the recent controversy surrounding Strictly Come Dancing.
The hit BBC show returned at the weekend as the corporation continues its investigation into allegations of abuse behind the scenes – although the programme did not address this.
Mr David said the broadcaster is now “pretty close to the end” of its investigation into the allegations, but did not give further details.
Rajan asked if it would have been “useful to report it before the new Strictly series started”, to which he replied: “Many things in life would be useful, but we have to do the process.”
Mr Davie said he thought it was “unfair” to say talent in the TV industry might get “indulged and excused”, but that he was “optimistic” that the BBC “is changing”.
He added: “I think the environment’s different, I think this is why it hurts so much when these things happen, but we have to prove we’re only as good as our actions.”
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.
It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.
In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.
The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.
“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.
“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
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Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).
But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
Raynor and husband Moth (centre) with actors Jason Isaacs (L) and Gillian Anderson (R). Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
Experts ‘sceptical of health claims’
As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.
In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.
The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.
Anderson played Winn in a movie about the couple’s journey. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.
Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.
“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.
The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.
“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.
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