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Accusations of violence against an unnamed BBC presenter in a UK newspaper, underscore the scandal over disgraced Huw Edwards who was not named for days before his crimes were revealed, and once again highlight the string of controversies to have hit the giant corporation, as well as their extraordinary REFUSAL to answer The Eye’s questions about them, which were sent to executives in 2024.
They come as the corporation’s new Director General (DG) declared that: “Tough choices are unavoidable”. In a note to staff on his first day, Tim Brittin proclaimed: “Audiences will value the fact we are listening, innovating and working hard to serve them better”.
However recent events may show how big a task Mr Brittin faces because through sources, the Mail on Sunday (MoS) has said that it understands the anonymous presenter broke the wrist of a female colleague, but that the attack was “hushed up”.
It stated that BBC managers were made aware of the violent assault but failed to report it to police, or even take any disciplinary action against the high-profile staff member, who continued to work at the enormous broadcaster for several years afterwards.
One source stated: “He had taken her (the colleague) by the wrists, crossed them over one another and then threw her down to the floor. A doctor’s report was filed but nobody did anything about it. It was a cover-up from the BBC”.
The BBC has also faced huge criticism over its alleged failures to investigate and act over Jimmy Savile, as well as, more recently, DJ Scott Mills, who is planning to sue the BBC after he was sacked over a historic police probe involving sexual assault allegations with an underage boy. The BBC has claimed Mr Mills was sacked after “new information” came to light.
Edwards was spared jail in September 2024 despite admitting three counts of making indecent images of children, receiving instead a six-month custodial term suspended for two years. He had pleaded guilty months earlier to accessing indecent photographs of children, having left the BBC on medical grounds.
The court heard he had described vile child abuse videos sent to him as “amazing” – and responded “go on” when offered images of a boy aged approximately eight years old.
Among the 41 images he admitted possessing, seven were classified as Category A, the most serious classification.
Edwards was sent the material via WhatsApp by Alex Williams, a convicted sex offender. and he was ordered to undertake a sex treatment programme as part of his sentence.
But amid the criticism, a number of supporters of the former BBC star posted supportive messages beneath a new profile picture, and this has been seized on by some newspapers.
Several have praised him personally despite the widespread criticism elsewhere. “Miss your news reading mate”, one wrote, while another said: “I hope you are keeping well Huw. Remember, you have so much talent to share“. A third commented: “Some people never leave your heart and would love see you around again“, and a further supporter added: “Wow, looking really well Huw”.
However there has also been contentious action (or INACTION!) closer to home. Before Edwards’ conviction the Gorsedd recorder, or secretary, Christine James had said the issue would be ‘discussed’ when it met, and that it “does not have a process or a specified mechanism to expel members”. In a statement Ms James stated: “In such matters, the Gorsedd is subject to the Eisteddfod Court”.
However this, as well as the shock accusation in the MoS, have provoked fury. One whistleblower who is close to senior management at the Eisteddfod, declared in Welsh to The Eye: “This is unbelievable. Haven’t these people heard of telephones or conference calls?!”. It was also said: “Oh for God’s sake! The managers really are IDIOTS! People don’t care about ‘processes’, just that they have honoured a paedophile. if there is no process for getting rid of people, we need a new one. The current situation is bad for the Eisteddfod, and bad for Wales”.
Meanwhile the contentious former DG of the BBC Tim Davie has defended his corporation’s handling of the controversy, when it paid Edwards hundreds of thousands of pounds even though it knew he had been arrested on child pornography charges.
The BBC were also to keep the BAFTAs won for Royal coverage fronted by Edwards, and individual awards he received would ‘remain under review’
Apart from being honoured by the Gorsedd, Edwards was also given honorary degrees by the universities of Bangor as well as Cardiff.
Cardiff University (CU) said after the guilty plea it was only “actively reviewing procedures in relation to the honorary fellowship award and his position as an honorary professor”.
Bangor University (BU) also announced that it was merely ‘reviewing’ the honorary fellowship it had granted Edwards, and The Learned Society of Wales (LSW) said, too, that it was ‘reviewing’ his fellowship in the wake of his guilty plea. The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Swansea University (SU) have said they were not able to comment..
All of this has come despite whistleblowers condemning executives. One said they were “disappointed” not to have heard more about an internal inquiry’s progress, a further critic said that it felt like “things have been swept under the carpet”.
The background is unbelievable, because on a different issue, Edwards was suspended in July 2023 after reports in The Sun said he had paid a young person for sexually explicit images. These condemnatory remarks are in the wake of what is now known about him. His admission of what he did made the front page of almost every single UK newspaper.
There has also been consternation about why he was a hero to some in the Welsh nationalist or independence communities. One leading Public Relations (PR) and marketing executive who wished to remain anonymous, told The Eye: “It has always seemed incredible to me, and now this just emphasises it. In the past we have even had Welsh nationalist or independence clients wanting to put Huw Edwards’ face on their products!”.
In one announcement on Twitter/X Edwards 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, which he proclaimed (once more ironically) was a “backdrop for @BBCNews at Ten”, and responded (again ironically): “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.
His comments, though, have not been met with wild acclaim by the leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru (WP/SC) Andrew RT Davies, who has said on Twitter/X that The BBC was: “Employing presenters who openly mock… (Britain)… Ridiculous!”, and linked it to the ‘Gutted’ post.
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 Edwards to be knighted because of his presentation of a Royal funeral.
He attacked a critique of the break-up of the UK by celebrated historian and journalist Max Hastings. Edwards tweeted that there were “errors”. After 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”.
The exposure of Edwards, and now the violent assault allegation, caused a huge storm because they have come after his sentence, as well as it emerging that he had been paid between £475,000 and £479,999 in the 2023-24 financial year, making him the broadcaster’s third-highest-paid presenter overall.
Only now has he been ASKED to give some of it back. In a letter to staff the BBC Chair Samir Shah said that Edwards had “behaved in bad faith” (surely an under-statement!), saying that the corporation believed he had taken his salary despite knowing he was to plead guilty to the offences.
Edwards, formerly the BBC’s most high-profile newsreader, continued to earn his salary for FIVE months after he was arrested on three counts of making indecent images of children, during which time he was paid more than £200,000.
He had allegedly given £35,000 to a teenager in exchange for the sexually explicit images, and when he was finally ‘outed’ by his wife a news item about it 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”.
Harmful claims then emerged about Edwards’ actions generally at the BBC, with it being claimed that he had sent ‘menacing’ texts to one individual, and further allegations emerged following the original ones made in The Sun (the paper said it had a dossier of his alleged activities, but has chosen not to publish).
He was also accused of sending inappropriate messages to BBC employees. According to Newsnight, one current staff member claimed they were contacted on social media by him, and the messages left them feeling uncomfortable as well as awkward. The messages were reportedly suggestive in nature, appeared to be flirtatious, and referred to the appearance of Mr Edwards’ colleague. “There is a power dynamic that makes this inappropriate”, the staff member said. Another BBC employee alleged that Mr Edwards had also sent them a private message on social media which commented, too, on their appearance and gave them a “cold shudder”.
During the days in which Edwards went unnamed, the Public Relations (PR) expert, Mark Borkowski told Times Radio: “We’ve got a situation where it’s an ongoing car crash and the BBC is so glacial about how they’re dealing with this, because this is a 21st century problem”, David Keighley, the former BBC news producer and director of News-watch, spoke of “reputational damage” to the man’s colleagues.
Journalists who covered the incident, have apparently endorsed criticism that the BBC effectively clammed up about it. For instance, one Sky News journalist said at the time: “The fact all of us broadcasters have asked, have put in requests again and again to speak to the director general, and the fact that he has only given an interview to his own people is not a good look for the BBC”.
Yet senior executives seemingly took a different view. During a pre-arranged House of Lords (HoL) Communications Committee (CC) hearing about a week afterwards, Mr Davie, said: “We have been in touch with the complainant”, and that due to the “history of this industry… we should all be concerned and appropriately diligent around the abuse of people in powerful positions”.
In that hearing he sat alongside acting chairwoman, Dame Elan Closs Stephens (who, like Edwards, is from Wales). She and Mr Davie were forced to answer important questions about the corporation’s attitude during the affair, following suggestions that it did not properly investigate the original complaint. Dame Elan told peers that despite “huge pressure”to name Edwards, the corporation “had a duty to act with some calm and rationality in the face of lack of rationality and lack of calm”. She was BBC chair for almost all of the period in question.
A spoof mock up of a former BBC logo which circulated on the internet may not have been accurate, but showed the depths the corporation’s reputation sank to in the eyes of the public. It said: “BBC – Blokes Bumming Children”.
This is the (extremely polite) request our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, put to their Media Office (MO) on December 19 2024, and he was encouraged because on the BBC’s website it is stated: “Enquiries from journalists will be responded to as quickly as possible”.
Hello.
I am Editor of a news website called The Eye.
Could you please answer the following questions:
1. In the light of the Gregg Wallace, and other affairs, what, if any, programmes are now not to be transmitted, and how many of them are there?
2. What, if any, changes have been made to your Whistleblowers’ Charter, and what are the dates of these?
3. What, if any, changes have been made to your safeguarding policies, and what are the dates of these?
Statements can be made by return to this address – it is checked constantly and is totally secure.
Thank you,
Phil Parry
To date, though, there has been NO reply apart from two automated messages saying that the requests had been received, and this also presumably means standards have not been kept to.
Maybe these questions are too difficult to answer after accusations of violence against an unnamed presenter hit a UK newspaper, and that it was hushed up a BBC worker’s wrist was broken…
The memories of Phil’s, remarkable decades long award-winning career in journalism (including his years at the BBC) as he was gripped by the rare and incurable neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
Tomorrow – during 23 years with the BBC, and a 42 year journalistic career (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), for our Editor, Welshman Phil, there was always a fine line between humour and incredible pathos, with this now put centre stage by a new book about a celebrated mistake 20 years ago when a hapless individual who had arrived at the BBC for a job interview, was mistaken for an expert, and was interviewed about the subject of the day live on air!
