BBC Scandal - Huw Edwards formally suspended over payment of explicit images of teenager Read OP*

ceadaoin.

Having 'puritan' parents is no excuse for looking at images of children being abused. Funny how none of these supposed issues and hardships caused him any trouble having a successful career for many years, but they get trotted out now to try and justify his actions.

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122622049#Comment_122622049

The crime is the curent transgression not a future maybe

batman75

It seems curious as to why he wasn't jailed. Remorse is a tricky mitigating factor. I always doubt whether the remorse is genuine or a means of lessening a negative outcome for the accused.

I think societally we need to try to get to the bottom of why adults have sexual interest in children. Especially pre pubescent as was the case here. What is it in their mental wiring that gives them sexual desire for children. Does being abused themselves explain it or is there other explanations.

If Huw Edwards has sexual interest in children what would stop him looking at such material into the future. Outwit castration his sex drive will remain intact. How do you appropriately tackle paedophilia. Sure we can call paedophiles monsters etc as they are viewed by society and the more tabloidy media but that still doesn't move us any further on in how to deal with them. Outwit castrations can their urges be curtailed.

The ultimate tragedy is the poor children who were abused in the making of these images. Those who 'enjoy' these images are as much abusers as those who produced them. That is why his lack of jail sentence is utterly depressing.

Quantum Erasure

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122623892#Comment_122623892

we need to try to get to the bottom of why adults have sexual interest in children. Especially pre pubescent as was the case here.

I really don't think it was though, tbh.

Maybe I'm very naive, but I'd still assume his interest was in older teens/ young adults

ceadaoin.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122624148#Comment_122624148

He had images of children as young as seven being raped. Sorry but you are very naive.

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122622692#Comment_122622692

Edwards had asked the individual not to send illegal underage content, the court heard during a 25-minute hearing.

Philip Evans KC, defending Edwards, said the only charges related to images received over WhatsApp, and that the presenter did not keep the images. He had not forwarded them nor sought similar content from other sources, Mr Evans added.

While Edwards was charged with “making” indecent images, Mr Evans noted that this was a legal term and that there was “no suggestion” Edwards had “in the traditional sense of the word created” any such content.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122623892#Comment_122623892

I think they're working on figuring out what makes them attracted to children. But the lack of progress suggests its origin is the same as any other sexual orientation. I never chose to be a cis gender, heterosexual man, attracted to adult women. It's just how I was born. I think it's deeply uncomfortable to think anyone could have been born attracted to children, even yourself, and there's nothing you could do about it.

They could choose castration. And I think that highlights how much we take for granted the ability to express our sexuality. Sexuality is a shared experience too. Whether your friend group is straight or gay, men or women, we know who and what each other are and that's a shared experience.

Being attracted to children sounds like a horrible, lonely life. Never being able to express their sexuality and never being able to reveal themselves for what they are. If they ever do express themselves sexually, it will necessarily harm children, break the law and ruin their positionin society. That's a horrible position to be in.

I'd imagine it's no more solvable than "pray away the gay" or a straight person trying to pray themselves gay

So if that's the answer to the question, then I doubt they'll ever really say so.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122624288#Comment_122624288

Article below- I wasn’t aware that his phone was never found - so this was soley an investigation into his online WhatsApp account or am I reading that correctly?

There may well be a lot more interactions that are unknown as a result

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13857867/jailed-Mother-Huw-Edwards-victim-BBC-star-avoids-prison-charity-warn-epidemic-child-abuse.html

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122624384#Comment_122624384

Haven't seen anything relating to the phone not been recovered that was stated in the court appearances.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122624397#Comment_122624397

From this report in the Mirror, it looks like his phone was never seized so likely disposed of in advance of search warrant for whatever reason

“They communicated over various platforms, however, the only chat that could be recovered was from a vile WhatsApp chat found on Williams' phone.”

https://www.irishmirror.ie/showbiz/celebrity-news/huw-edwards-sentencing-bombshells-court-33682057.amp

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122624418#Comment_122624418

That could just mean he deleted the chat from his Whatsapp.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122624427#Comment_122624427

It “could” but considering the mother of one of the people he was in contact mentioned the police not having access to his phone, it’s likely this is true and that the only access they had was to his online account - it certainly makes me wonder just what else may have been on his devices.

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122624440#Comment_122624440

Still speculation, wouldn't have been admissible.

He plead guilty anyway so it is moot.

They had access to the other guys phone, that is how they came to arrest Edwards.

expectationlost

Williams had been reaching out to celebrities online, but Edwards was the only one to respond.

https://x.com/Julian5News/status/1835613290443014467

reaching out?

batman75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122624148#Comment_122624148

He had pictures of children as young as 7 apparently. They were the worst legal grade of depravation.

nacho libre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122623089#Comment_122623089

I see you as all knowing:) it just seems strange to me that after seven years they can decide to end it. If his attraction to teenagers is a sexual orientation rather than some psychological disorder that can be treated over time. Maybe it is that they have deemed the risk of him re offending is low, but again how can they be sure.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122625231#Comment_122625231

I honestly thought he’d get a supervision order - I thought the sex offenders register included that but it doesn’t it’s a separate thing - I don’t know a lot about the supervision order but apparently it controls a lot about things like where you can live, go, not go as well as monitoring closely who you engage with both offline and online - he did a lot more than just “view photos” - he was proactively seeking out meeting young men - men today sure, but given his appetite for under age videos and photos who knows where that might have led

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122623892#Comment_122623892

He wasn't jailed, I suspect, because the British establishment looks after its own. It's incredibly difficult to imagine a working class man pleading guilty and avoiding prison. It's absolutely disgusting but not remotely surprising.

"Curing" paedophilia is only going to happen by understanding it and that can only happen by collaboration by qualified researchers and paedophiles.

amandstu

"He wasn't jailed, I suspect, because the British establishment looks after its own"

You suspect he had a sympathetic judge?

That any judge would be sympathetic to him because he was part of the establishment?

batman75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122625809#Comment_122625809

I don't know if you can cure paedophilia. I do think as you say it would be helpful societally to understand how one becomes a paedophile and to try and understand how they can view a child in a sexual light. Even the definition of a child is complicated in this scenario. Once a person is sexually mature they can be of interest in the normal physical sense to another adult. So therefore in this context I would use child to mean pre pubescent.

The law as it stands is not ideal. I wouldn't regard a 18 year old man having sex with a 16 year old girl as a paedophile as we normally understand the word. Yet he can be classed as one based on the law. The difficulty is because the girl is not an adult she cannot be legally deemed to have consented as she is classed as a child in law.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122625809#Comment_122625809

He wasn't jailed because most people charged as he was aren't jailed. It's incredibly common - whether or not it should be is of course a different argument (and I'd have sympathy for the argument it's way too soft), but the sentencing was entirely in line with guidelines.

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122628162#Comment_122628162

Absolutely no merit in the claim the "establishment" intervened to give Edwards a less harsh sentence.

Relative to sentencing guidelines and circumstances of the case it could be argued he received a harsh sentence.

The guy who sent him the abuse images which is "distribution" didn't receive a custodial sentence either.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122625103#Comment_122625103

https://gript.ie/judge-fennelly-2006-paedophiles/

One of the videos, per the Daily Telegraph, was labelled “Boys Town Adolescents Presents 13yo Josh”. On February 10th, 2021, Edwards received a video that showed two young boys aged between seven and nine engaging in sexual acts.

A week later, Edwards told his interlocutor “Don’t send underage”.

Seemingly in a lot of these cases the 'providers' just send a load of stuff off that isn't specifically tailored to the buyer's predilections. So you often get the mitigation plea that they didn't ask for the worst material.

It seems Edwards is what used to be known as a pederast, i.e. someone whose primary sexual interest is in adolescent boys…

dublinman1990

Huw Edwards was spotted vaping out in Wales by the Sun newspaper recently.

It's the first time he was spotted outdoors since his conviction for indecent images from an online chat via WhatsApp in September last year. It has reported by the paper that the former newsreader has not paid his £200k salary back to the BBC since his arrest in November 2023.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/33484821/huw-edwards-seen-first-time-since-conviction-vape/

Also; a third peadophile connected to the same WhatsApp group that included Edwards & Alex Williams was arrested by officers in Leeds in October of last year.

25 year old Jac Davies, a drama student originally from Wales, was arrested by police officers at a flat in Leeds for having 84 images & videos of CSAM found on his phone. He attended Leeds Conservatoire Drama School before police carried out his arrest.

The images & videos contained babies plus boys aged between 3 & 5 years old.

Davies trial had heard that his phone had consisted of 36 category A images along with 30 category B & 18 category C. In online messages found on Davies phone; it was said by officers that he had a desire to destroy newborn babies.

He was given a 12 month jail term suspended for 2 years.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/32368048/paedo-linked-huw-edwards-avoids-jail/