Huw Edwards was suspended from the BBC in July 2023 after it was claimed he paid a teenager for explicit images.

Huw Edwards was suspended from the BBC in July 2023 after it was alleged he had paid a young person for sexually explicit images – and now the man has spoken out for the first time.

Months later, the 62-year-old was arrested and later pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children. 

The man, now 21, was a teenager when he first came into contact with the former BBC presenter. 

The man, who wants to remain anonymous, believes now is the right time to speak out after staying silent for “so long” to protect Edwards.

He claims Edwards took advantage and “groomed” him. The scandal hit headlines last year when The Sun reported that a high-profile BBC star had been accused of paying a teenager £35,000 for sexual images.

Edwards was eventually named as the presenter by his wife, Vicky Flind, who revealed he had been suffering from serious mental health issues. Recalling his first interaction with Edwards, the man said he was in a troubled state of mind and was sleeping on friends’ sofas after falling out with his mother and step-father.

He’d even spent nights at a homeless shelter. While he was in a burger bar in Cardiff, he saw Edwards on TV and decided to message him asking for help.

Despite the man claiming that he did not ask Edwards for money, he says the newsreader deposited £500 into his PayPal account.

He told The Mirror: “Although it was a friendship at the beginning, it did change. He would say things like, ‘Are you going to do something for me then?’ I needed help, so I did. I feel like he sort of fed on my vulnerability… as he knew I needed the money. I felt like I was being groomed.”

The man admitted to sending X-rated messages and videos to Edwards, believing the broadcaster truly cared about him. He added: “Because of who he was as a BBC presenter and because he had such power…

“I felt like I trusted him and that he cared. But that’s how the manipulation started. I looked up to this man but he didn’t really care about me. I felt like he was taking advantage of me but I felt I had to listen to him because he was Huw Edwards.”

The publication claims the young man’s PayPal account shows dozens of transactions from Edwards across two years, confirming he spent up to £35,000 for the images and videos.

One transfer of £500 allegedly had the message “be loyal” alongside it. The man admitted he didn’t see it as selling images of himself, but as a way of earning money to survive.

He continued: “It turned out it was not just to help me, it was for the longer game, it was sexual, but it was never asked for directly. I think he was very clever in the way he went around it.”

Edwards allegedly pestered him to meet, however, the man said he “turned him down” on multiple ocassions. The man recalled the moment his mother found the messages between them after going through his phone. She then asked the broadcaster to meet using her son’s phone, with Edwards believing it was the teenager messaging him.

The man’s stepdad recorded Edwards at Cardiff train station, the place they had agreed to meet. His mother went to the BBC, but the man claims they didn’t act on the complaint. She then went to The Sun.

After the story was published in the media, the man was contacted by Edwards. He recalled: “I remember [Edwards] ringing me and demanding, ‘What the hell is going on?’ I said to him that I was 100 percent by his side, especially after everything that he’d done for me.”

The man said he now regrets his decision to initially defend Edwards. When the veteran broadcaster was then suspended from the BBC, the man assumed he would never hear from him again. However, weeks before he was arrested in November, the dad-of-five got back in contact.

The man claimed: “The message said ‘guess who’ or something like that. The message said, Don’t say my name on here… just call me’. So I phoned him and he said download the messaging app Signal. And he said we can catch up on there.”

The man was shocked by Edwards’ behaviour on the call, believing he had no remorse for his actions. “He said, ‘What’s been going on? I really care about you’,” the man explained.

That was the final time they spoke. Edwards was arrested the following month. On Wednesday (July 31), he pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children. The case is not connected to the young man’s experience.

Police made the man aware of the charges being brought against Edwards. The man said it “confirmed” everything he was feeling about the ex-BBC host, adding: “Last year I was still protecting him… and I didn’t really understand his true nature.

“But then hearing this news, all those nagging doubts were confirmed. It made my stomach drop. I felt genuinely sick to my stomach I thought, is this real? When I heard the actual details of things, it just got worse and worse and worse.”

Edwards had been receiving the images around the same time he was in contact with the young man. He concluded: “I was in utter shock. I could not believe that this is what he’s been doing while I knew him. I can’t even believe I’ve put myself in that situation. I feel disgusted with myself in a way.”

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Source: New York Post