To Huw Edwards, who has resurfaced on social media to post a professionally shot black-and-white portrait in what some assume is a bid to rehabilitate himself. But it will take the former BBC star more than a new headshot to convince people he has changed: the family of a teenager groomed by Edwards has blasted the ex-presenter as ‘shameless’ over the photo.
Edwards was handed a six-month prison sentence last year – suspended for two years – after admitting three counts of making indecent images of children. He posted the picture to just under 500 followers, some of whom left nice comments underneath, with one reading: ‘Hope you are enjoying a different life.’ But the father of a 17-year-old boy groomed by the ex-Beeb man fumed to the Sun:
If he thinks he can just put up a picture of himself and it’s going to change the way people think about him, he’s wrong. He’s scum. You can paint over cracks but you can never hide them. He’s finished, he’s a paedophile. Any time he raises his head it is an insult to his victims. He needs to realise this is it and disappear
The BBC itself has faced fury from its own staff over the onetime presenter. Not only had Edwards, one of the Beeb’s highest paid stars, received a £40,000 pay rise in the 12 months between March 2023-April 2024 – some of which he was suspended for – he was paid a further £200,000 after his arrest, even after the Corporation’s ex-boss Tim Davies confirmed last year that the BBC had been aware Edwards had been arrested over the most serious category of indecent images of children. While the Beeb demanded Edwards return the six-figure sum over a year ago, a Freedom of Information request revealed that the ex-presenter had not done so by August this year.
Marilyn Hawes, of the Freedom from Abuse charity, also remarked that Edwards’s decision to post the photo was a ‘disgrace’, adding: ‘It shows what a narcissist he is. He doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong. If he had any conscience, he’d give his payout back.’ Strong stuff.
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