From the first allegations of paying a young person for explicit pictures, to his wife Vicky Flind’s bombshell statement: How Huw Edwards’ sex pics scandal unfolded over an extraordinary five days of claims and speculation
The Huw Edwards sex pictures saga has dominated the news agenda for the last five days.
When allegations first emerged around an unnamed BBC presenter – ‘known by millions’ – speculation was rife around who the star in question could be.
High-profile colleagues including Jeremy Vine, Gary Lineker and Rylan Clark felt compelled to come forward and declare their innocence to distance themselves from the claims.
The saga rumbled through the weekend and into this week, where further allegations from more individuals came to light, and pressure was ramped up on the BBC, who it emerged were aware of the initial claims seven weeks before they were published in the Sun.
Finally, on Wednesday evening, a statement on behalf of Mr Edwards by his wife, Vicky Flind, named him as the presenter at the heart of the crisis, also revealing that he was in hospital, suffering from ‘serious mental health issues’.
Here, MailOnline looks back at how the scandal unfolded over a tumultuous few days.
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards has been named by his wife Vicky Flind as the BBC presenter facing allegations over payments for sexually explicit images
April
The mother and step-father of a young person contact an unnamed police force to make allegations about the behaviour of a top BBC star towards their child.
The parents claimed the presenter had paid the teenager £35,000 for sexually explicit photographs, the money from which was used to fund a crack cocaine addiction.
The force has since confirmed it looked into the claims, but ‘no criminality was identified’, it said in a statement to the BBC.
May 18
A family member goes to a BBC building to make an in-person complaint about the behaviour of the presenter and asking him to stop sending money to their child, a month after going to the police.
May 19
The family contact BBC Audience Services to make a formal complaint over the phone. The corporation says its records show this call lasted 29 minutes.
The details of this call were then sent to the Corporate Investigations Team, which assessed the information provided.
BBC director general Tim Davie said the team determined there were no allegations of criminal behaviour but the claims were ‘very serious’ and merited further investigation.
The corporation claims the team emailed the family to say they were looking into it and asking for additional information, but received no response.
It added that it began conducting checks to verify the identify of the complainant, to confirm they were who they said they were.
On May 18, a family member goes to a BBC building to make an in-person complaint about the behaviour of the presenter and asking him to stop sending money to their child, a month after going to the police
June 6
The Corporate Investigations Team phones a mobile number given by the complainant, but it does not connect.
The BBC says the team decided to return to the complaint in a number of weeks and kept the case open, although they did not attempt to contact the family again after June 6.
Explaining why no contact was made with the complainant for more than a month, Mr Davie told Sarah Montague on BBC Radio 4’s World At One, ‘thousands’ of complaints are made and it is ‘appropriate’ there is a verification process.
‘Some verification of that claim is appropriate once the Corporate Investigations team has taken something on, they do some due diligence on what is being alleged,’ he said.
July 5
Huw Edwards is seen on screen for what would be the last time before the scandal became public, when he covered King Charles’ visit to Scotland.
Meanwhile, The One Show host Alex Jones told viewers that they could expect to see Mr Edwards alongside fellow journalist Katya Adler and comedian Sir Lenny Henry on the sofa the following night.
Huw Edwards is seen on screen for what would be the last time before the scandal became public, when he covered King Charles’ visit to Scotland
July 6
The Sun contacts the BBC about allegations regarding the presenter in question. The source of these claims is the same family who approached the BBC on May 18 and 19.
Despite the seniority of the presenter, this is the first time Mr Davie or any executives at the corporation become aware of the case and the complaints.
Speaking this week, Mr Davie said the nature of these complaints made to The Sun are different to those originally given to the BBC in May.
He said: ‘When The Sun made new allegations on July 6 they were different to the matters considered by BBC Corporate Investigations and those new allegations clearly related to potential criminal activity, criminality, that in a nutshell is the difference.’
The BBC creates a task force to lead the response to the case, which includes senior executives as well as Mr Davie. The Acting Chair of the corporation, Professor Dame Elan Closs Stephens, and the Board, are updated as to its progress.
The enquiry by The Sun leads to a senior manager holding the first conversation on this matter with the presenter concerned, as they inform him about the claims being made.
The decision is made not to have the presenter go on air while the claims are being looked into.
Mr Edwards did not appear on The One Show as was trailed the previous night. He was replaced by Petroc Trelawny, who talked about this year’s BBC Proms.
The One Show host Alex Jones told viewers that they could expect to see Mr Edwards on the sofa on July 6, but he did not appear as scheduled
July 7
Claims that one of the BBC’s top stars paid a vulnerable teenager £35,000 for sexual pictures that the youngster used to buy crack cocaine emerge publicly late on Friday night, ahead of the publication of The Sun’s front page story the following day.
The report said the well-known presenter sent them the money which they used to fund a drug addiction.
The child’s mother told The Sun she feels ‘sick’ whenever she sees the man on TV, as questions began to grow over why it took so long for the corporation to act.
The star was said to have requested ‘performances’ from the individual, who told their mother they would then ‘get their bits out’.
The mother told of how their child went from a ‘happy-go-lucky youngster to a ghost-like crack addict’ in just three years.
She added: ‘I blame this BBC man for destroying my child’s life — taking my child’s innocence and handing over the money for crack cocaine that could kill my child.’
Meanwhile, the BBC contacts the police regarding the claims and initiate its Serious Case Management Framework (SCMF).
The investigation by the Corporate Investigations Team was brought into the SCMF, which is chaired by a Human Resources Director at the BBC.
July 8
The family send the BBC ‘materials related to the complaint’, while further allegations from the mother are published, as she claimed to have seen a photograph of the star in his underwear on the sofa of his house, ‘leaning forward, getting ready for my child to perform for him’.
As rumours and speculation swirl on social media as to the star’s identity, other major names at the BBC are forced to issue statements denying they are the man behind the scandal.
The likes of Gary Lineker, Rylan Clark and Jeremy Vine all issued firm denials, while Nicky Campbell contacted the police after being wrongly accused of being the presenter in question by Twitter trolls.
Meanwhile, the BBC’s media and culture editor Katie Razzall said the presenter’s continued presence on its content in recent weeks ‘leads to questions about what steps the Corporation took after the complaint.’
Major names at the BBC including Jeremy Vine (pictured) are forced to issue statements denying they are the man behind the scandal
July 9
The BBC confirms it has suspended the presenter and issues a statement saying it takes ‘any allegations seriously’.
It came after the culture secretary Lucy Frazer held ‘urgent talks’ with BBC boss Tim Davie, with the minister describing the allegations as ‘deeply concerning’.
Following a phone call with Mr Davie, she tweeted: ‘I have spoken to BBC director-general Tim Davie about the deeply concerning allegations involving one of its presenters.
‘He has assured me the BBC are investigating swiftly and sensitively.’
She added: ‘Given the nature of the allegations it is important that the BBC is now given the space to conduct its investigation, establish the facts and take appropriate action. I will be kept updated.’
Director-general Tim Davie sends an internal email to staff reiterating that the BBC is taking the allegations ‘incredibly seriously’.
He added: ‘By law, individuals are entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy, which is making this situation more complex. I also want to be very clear that I am wholly condemning the unsubstantiated rumours being made on the internet about some of our presenting talent.
‘We are in contact with the family referenced in the media reports. I want to assure you that we are working rapidly to establish the facts and to ensure that these matters are handled fairly and with care, including by external authorities where appropriate.’
Meanwhile, Jeremy Vine threatens legal action against trolls who continue to make baseless accusations against him, as former police officer, Mark Williams-Thomas, who exposed the crimes of Jimmy Savile, called on the BBC to name the presenter and criticised the corporation for not suspending him weeks ago.
Director-general Tim Davie sends an internal email to staff reiterating that the BBC is taking the allegations ‘incredibly seriously’
July 10
The BBC hold an online meeting with the Metropolitan Police to report the matter and discuss how to progress the investigation.
The police request that the BBC pause its probes into the allegations while the force looks into whether it needs to investigate the claims.
Speaking at the launch of the BBC’s annual report Mr Davie says: ‘As you know yesterday, the BBC corporate investigations team had a meeting with the police in relation to the information provided to the BBC by The Sun newspaper on Thursday.
‘As a result of this. The BBC has been asked to pause its own investigations into the allegations while they scope future work. We will pass any material that we have to them.’
However, just hours later, Scotland Yard announces it is not investigating the presenter and still ‘assessing information’.
It also confirmed it would probe ‘malicious communications’ on social media falsely accusing other BBC stars of being the presenter at the heart of the scandal.
That came after radio host Nicky Campbell spoke out about his ‘distressing weekend’ being the target of trolls who have incorrectly pointed the finger at him.
Then later that evening, the young person at the centre of the claims dramatically denies the allegations made by their parents, calling them ‘rubbish’ and saying nothing inappropriate or unlawful had taken place.
However, their mother and step-father hit back hours later saying they stood by their story and accused the presenter of ‘getting into their head’, suggesting the star had paid for their child’s lawyer.
Meanwhile, the privacy laws that were being touted as the reason for keeping the presenter’s identity a secret were ridiculed in some quarters as a poll reveals one in six people across the country knew who the scandal-hit star is.
July 11
On an explosive day of revelations, director-general Tim Davie fronts up about the scandal while launching the BBC’s annual report, as he defends the delay in speaking to the star.
Asked if it was ‘odd’ that that he himself has not chatted to the presenter, Mr Davie replied: ‘No’, adding: ‘I think it is critical they are spoken to by a very senior manager’.
He was also asked if he knew ‘categorically’ whether or not the star paid for the alleged victim’s lawyer.
He said: ‘That’s not information I am party to. I don’t even think that’s something for the BBC.’
But he did admit that the scandal had been ‘clearly damaging’ to the corporation’s reputation.
‘The BBC is often in the midst of quite painful and difficult affairs and storms,’ he said before adding: ‘These are clearly damaging to the BBC it, is not a good situation.’
As the annual report is published, Mr Edwards is revealed to be the corporation’s fourth highest paid star, earning £435,000 a year – only behind Gary Lineker, Zoe Ball and Alan Shearer.
Then a bombshell second claim emerges when the same presenter is accused of sending abusive and menacing messages to a person in their 20s.
The new individual claims to have been contacted anonymously by the presenter on a dating app.
They claim they were put under pressure to meet with the star but never did, the BBC reported.
When they hinted online that they might name them, they allege they were sent abusive messages that were filled with expletives.
Just hours later, the star is branded a ‘complete hypocrite’ for allegedly breaking Covid rules to meet a 23-year-old stranger from a dating site.
The presenter was accused of defying the third national lockdown for an encounter with a young person in 2021 while the BBC was at the same time telling millions of people to follow the rules as part of its coverage of the pandemic.
The third person said they met up after months of interactions, and that the presenter sent them £650 in cash and asked them for a picture, The Sun reports.
They claimed the presenter travelled into a different county to meet them at their flat in February 2021 when rules included a stay at home order and mixing only between household bubbles.
The person claimed at the meeting, which came months after they started talking on the dating site in November 2020, ‘he came round for an hour…. We just chatted. He was obsessed with me making him a cup of tea.’
Then, further claims emerge from a fourth young person who says the star sent them ‘creepy’ Instagram messages when they were 17.
The youngster said they were contacted by the presenter ‘out of the blue’ and sent messages including love hearts and kisses. It is not clear if the BBC star knew the follower’s age.
The individual, who is now 22, told The Sun that the man sent them a love heart emoji in October 2018 without any prior contact.
‘Ahahaha sweet. How it’s going at the BBC?’ the follower is said to have replied.
‘All good thanks x. You ok?’ the star allegedly wrote, followed by a love heart.
‘Aha yeah why?’ the follower said, to which the star replied, ‘Just being polite’.
A mocked up version of a reported Instagram message exchange between the unnamed BBC star and a teenager
July 12
Newsreader Huw Edwards is named by his own wife as the BBC star accused of paying £35,000 to a vulnerable teenager in return for explicit photographs.
Vicky Flind’s shock statement came minutes after Scotland Yard dropped their probe into the allegations.
She revealed her husband, 61, is ‘suffering from serious mental health issues’.
Ms Flind, who also works in TV, said the father-of-five is ‘now receiving in-patient hospital care where he will stay for the foreseeable future’ as she asked for privacy for her family, declaring: ‘I am doing this primarily out of concern for his mental well-being and to protect our children’.
She added: ‘I know that Huw is deeply sorry that so many colleagues have been impacted by the recent media speculation.
‘We hope this statement will bring that to an end. Once well enough to do so, he intends to respond to the stories that have been published’.
Ms Flind’s statement is released at 6pm, however, there is confusion as the BBC first says Mr Edwards, who recently led coverage of the Queen’s death and King Charles’ Coronation, has resigned from his role as their top newsreader.
But minutes later the corporation clarify that he has not quit, with sources close to the star also stressing that he has not left his job.
In a statement released by Mr Edward’s wife Vicky Flind, she said that he was receiving in-patient hospital care
Meanwhile, a statement from Scotland Yard said: ‘Detectives from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command have now concluded their assessment and have determined there is no information to indicate that a criminal offence has been committed.’
The Met’s statement regarding the allegations said a number of parties had been spoken to, including the BBC, the alleged complainant and their family ‘via another police force’ and concluded there would be no further police action.
And later that evening, shortly after Mr Edwards was named, it is revealed the presenter faces fresh allegations of inappropriate behaviour tonight from his own BBC colleagues.
Junior staff members allege to the Six O’Clock News and Newsnight that the presenter, 61, had sent ‘inappropriate messages’ to them – but also confirmed that they had not previously officially complained to the Corporation.
In the hours that followed Ms Flind’s statement, three BBC employees, two current and one former, then came forward with claims.
A current employee said they received inappropriate and suggestive messages from the presenter, while two more, one who has since left, said they have received messages which made them feel uncomfortable.
One said they felt it was an abuse of power by someone very senior in the organisation.
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