Former BBC presenter Huw Edwards was sentenced by a British court on Monday to six months in prison after acknowledging having accessed indecent images of minorseven though he will not go to prison since the sentence will be suspended for two years while he undergoes a rehabilitation program.
The 63-year-old journalist, once one of the most outstanding personalities of the channel, learned of the sentence during a hearing held this Monday before Westminster Magistrates’ Court (London) before high media expectationto which he arrived with a serious face.
At the hearing, Judge Paul Goldspring said that when handing down the sentence, he had taken into account: the defendant’s guilty plea and considered that Edwards posed no risk to the public or children.
REUTERS
London
Therefore, Goldspring did not consider that an immediate custodial sentence was necessary because the evidence demonstrated that the presenter could be rehabilitated.
The suspended sentence means the defendant must attend and complete a sex offender program and other rehabilitation sessions, work that will be supervised.
Edwards’ name will also be placed on the sex offenders register for seven years, which You must inform the police of your location.
The one who was one of the iconic names of the BBCthat announced to the world the death of Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022, pleaded guilty last July to three counts of “taking indecent images of minors between December 2020 and April 2022.
The crimes he was accused of referred to 37 images shared in WhatsApp conversations during this period.
He was accused in particular of possessing six category A images (involving penetrative sexual activity or sadistic in nature), 12 category B images (of non-penetrative sexual acts) and 19 category C photographs, which include all those that do not belong to the previous categories.
The concept of “taking images” is interpreted in English case law as several different acts, from downloading a photo to sharing it or producing it, according to experts.
