Huw Edwards Charged With Indecent Images

With what judges called “the definitive jaw dropper” – the revelation that long-time BBC News anchorman Huw Edwards had been charged with making the worst type (Category A) of indecent images – The Sun smashed the Scoop of the Year ball out of the park.

Following tenacious communication with the Metropolitan Police over the months since Edwards was arrested, senior reporter Michael Hamilton finally got the Crown Prosecution Service to confirm the charge on 29 July, breaking the story online an hour later. The revelation was the culmination of 18 months’ investigating, unravelling and reporting on the shocking online life Edwards had been leading for years.

Hamilton and chief Sunday reporter Scarlet Howes were contacted by a man who revealed Edwards had been sending his teenage stepson money in exchange for sexual images, and that a detailed complaint to the BBC had yielded no response. The Sun handed a dossier of evidence to the BBC, which resulted in an apology to the boy’s parents, Edwards’s resignation, and new staff guidelines. “The Sun’s dogged determination to reveal Huw Edwards for what he truly is and hold the BBC to account for not taking the claims seriously, is to be admired,” concluded the judges.