BBC demands Huw Edwards return more than £200k of salary he earned after being arrested for making child abuse images

THE BBC has demanded Huw Edwards return more than £200k of his salary earned after he was arrested for making child abuse images.

BBC Chair Samir Shah told staff Edwards had “behaved in bad faith” in a letter this morning.

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Huw Edwards stayed on the BBC’s payroll for five months after he was arrested[/caption]

Shah said the BBC would not have carried on paying Edwards public money if he had been up front about his arrest.

Edwards, 62, last month admitted being sent a string of child sex images – including sexual videos of a boy as young as seven.

He received the pictures on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021.

The BBC was told in November its star newsreader had been arrested over child sex images – but kept paying him for another five months.

News at Ten anchor Edwards had been suspended in relation to different allegations.

But he remained employed on a full salary of nearly £480,000 until he quit the broadcaster on “medical advice” in April.

The paedophile newsreader pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children last month.

In the five months between his arrest and his guilty plea, Edwards was paid more than £200,000.

In a statement today, the BBC’s board said: “Mr Edwards pleaded guilty to an appalling crime.

“Had he been up front when asked by the BBC about his arrest, we would never have continued to pay him public money.

“He has clearly undermined trust in the BBC and brought us into disrepute.”

It comes after BBC boss Tim Davie admitted it’s “impossible to claw back Edwards’ pension”.

In an interview with BBC News last week, Davie addressed calls for Edwards to return part of his salary, and give up his pension.

Davie said: “No one likes to see this situation. But these are unfortunately the specifics of how it works.

“We can’t claw back the pension – it’s very difficult, nigh on impossible.

“I think when it comes to pay – again, legally challenging, but we’ll look at all options.”

Davie also confirmed the Beeb did know Huw had committed “serious” offences.

He said: “We knew it was serious, we knew no specifics, apart from the category of the potential offences.”

BBC bosses were not aware of the ages of the children in the images, he added.

Davie said the BBC was “not sitting on anything that I think we need to share with the police, or is of a serious nature that would make me feel that we hadn’t followed up properly”.

He added: “I can categorically say that when it comes to the offences we’ve seen, which are truly horrendous, any evidence that is out there is not in the hands of the BBC.

“If I saw evidence of that, that is not a complicated decision.”

When the charges Huw Edwards was facing came to light earlier this week, Davie said: “We were very shocked. No-one knew about the specifics of what we heard over the last few days, which have been deeply disturbing.”

He also reiterated that the BBC did not make the potential charges public at the request of the police, adding the corporation also had to consider its duty of care.

“When it comes to the decision we made in November, we were obviously faced with a difficult decision, and we considered it very carefully,” Davie said.

“The police came to us and gave us information that they had arrested Mr Edwards.

“But they wanted to be assured of total confidence, and the reason they rang us at that point, it’s a technical process to ensure employees are protected and there’s no risk.”

He added: “Another factor at this point was very significant duty of care considerations.

“I think it was right for us to say we’d let the police do their business, and then when charges happen, we will act.”

Davie was hauled in by the Culture Secretary for an urgent explanation of the BBC’s handling of the scandal.

Lisa Nandy is understood to have summoned the Director General to get to the bottom of the matter before deciding on her next steps.