Huw Edwards has been accused of attempting to lure a young colleague to a hotel room, hours before Prince Philip’s funeral, which was held in April 2021.
According to reports, he sent the TV producer messages including ‘Hello beauty’ and a picture of a hotel suite, inviting them to join him.
The disgraced BBC broadcaster, 62, pleaded guilty in court on Wednesday to making indecent images of children, after he committed three offences between December 2020 and April 2021.
He admitted accessing indecent photographs of children as young as seven after a man he met online sent him hundreds of sexual images on WhatsApp.
During that period, before he resigned from the BBC on medical grounds, he fronted coverage of Prince Philip’s funeral, where the late Queen was forced to sit alone due to lockdown measures.
But it’s now been claimed Edwards attempted to defy strict Covid rules and invited a young worker to join him in a hotel room.
It’s said the worker was one of several young BBC staff who Edwards messaged, and that his unwanted advances turned into a pattern of behaviour, The Sun claims.
The producer, who no longer works for the BBC, was in their 20s, with Edwards telling them the day before the funeral: ‘Staying there overnight then all day Saturday. If you’re around tomorrow night let me know.’
The next morning, the day of the funeral on Saturday, April 17, it’s alleged Edwards sent a message saying: ‘Missed a good night. You could have stayed here. We had a nice evening after the show.’
He then reportedly sent a picture of the room with one double bed in it.
One of the messages he also sent via WhatsApp read: ‘Hello beauty.’
The TV worker told the publication: ‘He wanted to meet in private and put quite a lot of pressure on me to do so.
‘I thought it was odd and very inappropriate given his position and the age gap.’
The messages came during the period in which Edwards had been involved in online chat with an adult man on WhatsApp, who sent him 377 sexual images, of which 41 were indecent images of children, the court heard on Wednesday.
The bulk of these, 36, were sent during a two-month period.
The indecent images that were sent included seven category A, the worst, 12 category B, and 22 category C.
Of the category A images, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, but one was aged between seven and nine, the court was told.
The final indecent image was sent in August 2021, a category A film featuring a young boy.
When asked about Edwards’ convictions over the indecent images of children, the worker also told The Sun: ‘I am shocked but it just shows what sort of person he is, and that people were right to try to speak out.’
Edwards was bailed after pleading guilty on Wednesday and will next appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on September 16.
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Metro.co.uk has approached the BBC and Huw Edwards’ reps for comment.