Former BBC news presenter Huw Edwards has pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.
He appeared in court on Wednesday morning after the Met Police confirmed that he had been charged earlier this week.
The offences took place between December 2020 and April 2022 and related to images that were shared in a WhatsApp chat.
He was charged with having seven category A images, which are the most serious, 12 category B images and 22 category C images.
The court was told that the estimated ages of the children pictured in the worst of the images were between 13 and 15 but one of them was aged between seven and nine.
The bulk of the images were sent over a two month period and included a category A film of a young boy.
A spokesperson for the NSPCC said: “Online child sexual abuse offences can have a devastating impact on victims and we should be in no doubt about the seriousness of Edwards’ crimes.
“It can be extremely traumatic for young people to know sexual images of themselves have been shared online. Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation’s Report Remove tool can help young people who have suffered in this way to get the images removed.
“We also need to see online platforms do much more to identify and disrupt child abuse in private messaging services in order to safeguard young people.”
Edwards was bailed and will be sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on September 16.
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