Back in July, former BBC Presenter Huw Edwards pleaded guilty to making (in this context this means opening WhatsApp images) indecent images of children, in short, he admitted to being a paedophile. Last week he received a suspended sentence of two years for his crimes. A suspended sentence means that no actual prison time will be served, and realistically Edwards will only be punished by appearing on the Sex Offenders’ Register for seven years. Edwards must also complete a 40-day Sex Offender Treatment Programme. Of the over 300 images in his possession, 41 were confirmed to be indecent images of children aged between seven and 16.
Child pornography is a serious, and morally repugnant crime. This may lead you to question why Edwards only received a suspended sentence and no tangible jail time. In the words of the chief magistrate, Paul Goldspring, Edwards had already been punished due to ‘reputational damage’. Reputational damage – for something that Edwards did of his own accord. This exposes something seriously wrong with our justice system
How did Edwards justify his actions?
In the trial Edwards went into detail about his mental health issues, being raised by an abusive father, and his personal disappointment over a rejected application to study at Oxford University in his youth. Yes, you heard that right, he was trying to suggest that being rejected by Oxford led him to, decades later, participate in distributing and consuming child pornography. It may be a controversial take, but I was under the impression that there was nothing that could justify the sexual exploitation of children, but apparently dashed dreams of studying in the hallowed halls of Oxford University suffices. Given the fact only 16% of Oxford applicants are successful, we should probably be quite concerned.
Realistically, we can all understand that there is truth in the saying ‘hurt-people hurt people’, it is probably true that yes, Edwards did suffer abuse at the hands of his father. This however still does not and will not ever be a valid justification for sexually exploiting children. Paedophilia is known to often be a symptom of psychological trauma, but that doesn’t mean that it is either okay or that it is ever excusable. Frankly, I think that any attempt at explaining it as anything but a massive moral failing shows a lack of appreciation for the sheer gravity of the offence in question.
Facetious commentary aside, the fact that this was considered even remotely valid in a court of law shows us how warped the British justice system is. That plea was not supposed to appeal to the sensitivities of the general public but to another man in a position of power and influence. In the final years of his career, Edwards was the highest-paid journalist at the BBC and was a nationally recognised and respected mouthpiece for the news. Edwards famously announced the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, demonstrating how significant his position in the landscape of British news media was.
Prison, class, and the white man’s boys’ club
When Edwards discussed his experiences and how the ‘disappointment’ of attending Cardiff University impacted him, it was a massive class indicator. The fact that, despite committing a serious crime, he will not face time in prison, is another massive class indicator. Far too often wealthy, upper-class, white men are impervious to facing prison time. Despite a litany of evidence of his crimes, Donald Trump is literally running for a second term as President of the United States. Edwards, despite committing a crime that can result in a decade behind bars, has managed to basically walk free with nothing more than his reputation as collateral. It is frankly fucking disgusting.
Why does this keep happening? Despite people of colour making up a combined 18% of the UK’s population, data from the Prison Reform Trust shows us that 27% of incarcerated offenders in British prisons are people of colour. This is not because they offend at higher rates, but because they are imprisoned at far higher rates than their white counterparts. According to the Trust, Black and Asian prisoners are also more likely to serve longer sentences and are less likely to be granted earlier releases. If we zero in on Muslim prisoners, 17% of the prison population are Muslim despite only 6% of the British population adhering to Islam. There is heavy evidence to suggest that just like our police forces, our prisons suffer from serious and entrenched structural racism.
Less data is available on the representation of individuals from different class backgrounds, but we do know that large numbers of people leaving prisons are unable to secure work and cannot claim Universal Credit, compounding the poverty cycle that often pushes people into a life of crime, to begin with.
This is all relevant to Edwards because he does not face the barriers of racial or class-based abuse. He enjoyed a position of social influence, economic prosperity, and national respect and acclaim. In this way, while many people rightfully cannot see past his crimes, many people still identify with him. Who are these people you ask? Other wealthy white men!
It is frustrating but true that, amidst a landscape of mask-off misogyny, racism, and homophobia in the UK, police and prosecutors are some of the biggest bastions of the boys’ club. Following the Casey review in 2023, we have been exposed to just how unequal the justice system is. Once again, when victims deserved meaningful justice, they were let down by a system built by men to prop up men who abuse women and children.
Rehabilitation and retribution
The prison system brands itself as a place for rehabilitation and an opportunity to correct criminal behaviour for those incarcerated. This is not the case. When justifying the very light sentence that Edwards received, the idea of choosing a rehabilitative route over prison was emphasised. This leads many to then question if there is a route for rehabilitation outside of prison, why is prison often deemed necessary? That’s because our prison system is built on a foundation of retribution and revenge.
Further research from the Prison Reform Trust shows a quarter of male prisons (25%) received a positive rating from inspectors in 2021–22 for purposeful activity work. This refers to programmes in place designed to help rehabilitate prisoners through initiatives like education. A recent Ofsted and HM Inspectorate of Prisons review found the current quality of prison education provision to be extremely poor. Of the 22 inspections of prisons and young offender institutions conducted by Ofsted in 2021–22, only one institution was judged to be providing education, work or skills at a reasonable standard. Around half (49%) of prisoners reported being in their cell for more than 22 hours a day, rising to around two-thirds (67%) on the weekend.
Prisons are largely underfunded, have significant staffing issues, and rarely offer inmates any opportunities to grow or change.
When men come from backgrounds of privilege and respect, they automatically have an advantage in how they are sentenced. Inherent white and male privilege guides them through their trials and for many men with connections it is easy to throw money at a trial via legal teams in order to offset the severity of their crimes. Wealth highly dictates the ability of men like Edwards to bypass prison time. Criminals who face social barriers like race and class are not able often to get by so easily and are instead directed into the prison system. The prison system is designed to deprive inmates of their sense of personhood and as previously stated, they are places that do not offer prisoners any opportunities to change. This is exactly why men like Huw Edwards are so quick to avoid them.
It is, for this reason, Brock Turner, the Stanford University rapist, received a six-month sentence that he only served half of. He came from a wealthy, WASPy family and was able to skirt through a minor sentence despite committing a serious, violent, and repugnant crime. It is for this reason a convicted child rapist was allowed to compete at this year’s Olympic games. Wealthy white men rule the world, and so often they are extended privileges to move past their violent and sexually abusive behaviours because the very systems that are supposed to dispense judgement were built by other wealthy white men. Just this week a black man, Marcellus Williams, was executed in a Missouri prison despite significant evidence to suggest his innocence and a considerable campaign from the general public to reverse this decision. It is a stark and brutal example of how the justice system is willing to let confirmed paedophiles walk our streets but is okay with taking the life of a person of colour, one who the victim’s family did not want to see murdered by the state.
Despite the trend set by wealthy white sexual offenders like Turner and Edwards, who belong to the largest portion of sexual offenders, our media has a habit of zooming in on sexual offenders of non-white backgrounds. This is despite the fact that a majority of paedophiles in the UK are white. When grooming rings led by Asian men have been exposed, the offenders have been highly publicised and did not have their ‘justifications’ publicised in the way that Edwards’ were. To be honest, I don’t believe we should allow any rapists or consumers of child pornography the opportunity to try and explain away their guilt. I do however believe that all offenders should, for the sake of the course of justice and out of respect for their victims, receive the same treatment in the courts and the media.
Paedophilia, sex crimes and power
Huw Edwards is not the first nor will he be the last public figure to be found guilty of sex crimes. The news cycle is currently embroiled in an ongoing sex scandal surrounding Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, this comes on the back of other high-profile figures in the entertainment industry being caught for a long list of sexual offences. R Kelly, Andrew Tate, Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter, Phillip Schofield, Jeffrey Epstein, and Prince Andrew are just a handful of public figures who have all been involved in large-scale sexual abuse crimes. Many of these men have specifically been found to be actively involved in offences involving children. In short, they’re paedophiles.
Why is it though that so many men in public life are engaging in these crimes? I would argue that it is perhaps exactly because they are public figures that they feel emboldened to get away with their crimes for so long. These are men who, before they were exposed, were propped up by society and had generally very positive reputations. Figures like Edwards, Savile, and Bill Cosby were, at one time, a fixture of people’s daily lives. For many, they felt like people we knew and could trust. That is quite a favourable tool in the kit of someone with the intent of coercing women and children to keep quiet about the abuse these men inflicted on their victims.
This is further reinforced by the fact these men are all high earners with the power to bury those who speak out in a mountain of legal red tape and can leverage their power to coerce victims into silence. While Edwards did not actively engage with his victims in person, he was still able to rest on the privilege and power he had as a well-respected and culturally important figure in the UK. He likely believed that he would be able to skate above the law as he consumed indecent images of children. Frustratingly some figures like Jimmy Savile were able to continue abusing children with impunity until their deaths. Savile was only exposed for decades of paedophilia after he died, despite growing suspicion about his behaviour ahead of his passing.
In the case of Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein, many of their victims were young women aspiring to pursue careers in Hollywood. In the case of Cosby many of his victims, who were mainly young black women, felt like they couldn’t speak out because of his position in the black community and the reputational damage that they perceived speaking out would have on their careers and the wider black community. Powerful men are able to wield their control over their victims for years. This makes it significantly harder for women and children to speak out against their abusers, and for many, it also means that they never achieve the justice that they are warranted.
At the heart of all of this, we are confronted once again with one of the many hard truths of living in a world dominated by the patriarchy. Men are propped up by innate and inherent structures of misogyny and rape culture, and far too many will be placed in positions of influence and trust that they will abuse. It cannot be understated just how decorated and respected Huw Edwards was before his crimes were revealed, many people are still struggling to reconcile the man who delivered their news every night with someone who actively consumed child pornography.
Regardless of the ways he, and those who will follow in his footsteps, try to explain his actions (not getting into Oxford), his crimes are inexcusable and in my opinion unforgivable. He deserved to serve his sentence in prison, but under a broken, racist, and classist criminal justice system those in power maintain their freedom.
For information and support about how to prevent child pornography, and what to do if you suspect someone owns it visit Stop It Now, a UK-based support network dedicated to eradicating child pornography.