Huw Edwards has been handed a six month prison sentence, suspended for two years, at Westminster Magistrates Court over child abuse charges.
The punishment caps a remarkable fall from grace for the shamed BBC newsreader who was the highest-paid at the corporation.
The 63-year-old will spend the next seven years on the sex offenders register after he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children in August.
A mugshot released of the presenter showed him staring at the camera – dead eyed and gaunt – with silver stubble across his face. Edwards smiled broadly as he left the courtroom accompanied by a member of his legal team – carrying the same small suitcase he had brought with him, possibly in anticipation of being jailed.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard Edwards told Williams ‘go on’ when asked if he wanted ‘naughty pics and vids’ of somebody described as ‘yng (sic)’.
The court also heard Edwards paid Williams hundreds of pounds after he sent him pornographic images, but his defence barrister Philip Evans KC said the broadcaster did not make payments to Williams in order to receive indecent images of children.
The prosecution said Williams asked Edwards for a ‘Christmas gift after all the hot videos’. Prosecutor Ian Hope said: ‘Alex Williams says he wants some Air Force 1 trainers that cost around £100, and Mr Edwards offers to send him £200.’
Of the indecent images he received, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, but one was aged between seven and nine.