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- More turbulence - 19th November 2024
Worrying similarities have been drawn between two highly controversial Welsh figures in the media world, after both made indecent images of children.
Yesterday the former BBC newsreader Huw Edwards (who was venerated by some in the Welsh nationalist community) admitted having 41 photographs, with two moving images of a young child, possibly aged between seven and nine years old.
Edwards will be sentenced on September 16, but whatever it is (and it is likely to be heavy), there seems to be no way back for him.
His admission was the lead story in most newspapers today.
A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC is shocked to hear the details which have emerged in court today. There can be no place for such abhorrent behaviour and our thoughts are with all those affected”.
Meanwhile the one-time lobbyist from Wales, Daran Hill was jailed after being found with 62 indecent images of children, among them eight in the most serious category after being arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in 2021.
Hill had made but also distributed indecent images of children as young as three years old.
He had crossed swords with us at The Eye, while Edwards fell foul of the authorities at the BBC for consistently flouting guidelines about impartiality.
Two days ago, when news of the charging of Edwards broke he even shared the front page, with details of the stabbings in Southport when three children were killed in a ferocious knife attack during a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event.
In one of his contentious comments in the past on Twitter/X, Edwards had highlighted (ironically): “The wacky world where Wales was never a nation and Pembrokeshire is the heartland of… Plaid Cymru. Help!”. The picture he attached underneath it, was of protesters carrying Welsh flags aloft with a placard of END LONDON RULE clearly visible near the centre of the photograph.
He was ordered to drop a post of himself in front of a Welsh flag, much to his annoyance.
Edwards proclaimed (once more ironically) that it had been a “backdrop for @BBCNews at Ten”, responding: “Gutted my pro-flag tweet has been cut down in its prime. By order. But it will be back tomorrow – by popular demand. Meanwhile enjoy this magnificent flag – one of my favourites. Hashtag SixNationsRugby Hashtag FRAvWAL” – with a series of emojis included.
In years gone by he has ‘liked’ a tweet declaring that he should be “President of an Independent Cymru”, apparently flying in the face of the rules on impartiality, and there was also a call on the internet for Mr Edwards to be knighted because of his presentation of a Royal funeral.
Edwards attacked a critique of the break-up of the UK by celebrated historian and journalist Max Hastings. Mr Edwards tweeted that there were “errors”. After Mr Edwards’ diatribe opposing Mr Hastings, the website Nation.Cymru (NC) (which is supported by the taxpayer) published a ‘news’ piece saying: “Huw Edwards slams former Telegraph editor for anti-Welsh language article”, and it has ‘reported’ many ‘stories’ about his exploits.
For example, following a remark about Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru (Plaid), it ran a ‘story’ that: “Broadcaster Huw Edwards has protested the BBC’s new rules on using social media by unleashing a cascade of Welsh flags”.
Edwards had resigned in April after he was accused of paying a teenager thousands of pounds for sexually explicit pictures. He was the BBC’s highest-earning newsreader at the time.
He had allegedly paid £35,000 to a teenager in exchange for sexually explicit images, and Edwards was finally ‘outed’ by his wife. A news item stated: “Vicky Flind, the wife of news reader Huw Edwards, has named him as the BBC presenter facing allegations over payments for sexually explicit images in a statement issued on his behalf”.
The parallels with Hill are disturbing to say the least.
This was the opening sentence in the website WalesOnline’s (WO) report about Hill’s imprisonment: “A paedophile who used to work as a top political consultant distributed sickening images of child abuse as young as three years old to others on the internet”.
As this hard-hitting item makes clear, Hill (who as with Edwards was a regular on television) shared many of the images with other users on a social messaging platform (What’sApp was used by Edwards), and even after admitting his crimes, he was jailed for three years and four months, with only half of this heavy sentence (a reflection of how seriously this is viewed) to be served on licence.
When police arrived at Hill’s home in Cardiff, he told them: “I know why you’re here. I made a mistake”.
The month after his arrest he resigned as director of his Public Relations (PR) company, which was renamed Camlas later that year.
Cathy Owens wrote on Twitter/X: “A decade of crap from this guy, amplified by chums and acolytes across politics/media. Might not have known extent of depravity, but they knew about his misogyny, bullying, appalling influence. Thinking about his victims, and those dismissed and denigrated when they spoke out”.
The former Plaid Assembly Member and Director of Deryn Consulting (a PR outfit) Nerys Evans tweeted a news item about Hill, saying: “This makes me sick to my stomach and makes my blood boil. This evil man, his crimes, his behaviour, and the people around him, who enabled, supported and kept quiet about him in welsh politcs and in the welsh media should be ashamed”.
Even before Hill had been exposed for the appalling crime he had committed, he had been one of those who had abused The Eye, calling it “bitter”, and “misogynist” (misspelt) on Twitter/X, forcing our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry to take legal action after which a fulsome apology was forthcoming.
His public insults on social media are as nothing compared to what he was found to have done subsequently and been jailed for, but they do, unfortunately, fall into a familiar pattern and a personal statement has had to be issued.
All of this pales into insignificance with details of what Hill has been up to (as well as Edwards).
The similarities between these two cases are stark, but don’t expect them to be emphasised in the mainstream media…
The memories of Phil’s extraordinary decades long award-winning career in journalism (including his years at the BBC) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A Good Story’. Order it now.
Another book, though, has not been published because it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – in an extraordinary legal case, the Vatican stands accused of subjecting a businessman to “incoherent” allegations over a property deal, which highlights an earlier controversy about an apology having to be issued after the Pope supposedly made homophobic comments, and how for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, saying sorry properly is almost NEVER done.
