Top lawyer pressured over 'lenient' Edwards sentence

The attorney general is coming under pressure to ask for a legal review of the suspended sentence handed to former BBC presenter Huw Edwards.

- DAVID MADDOX

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice has told The Independent that he is writing to Richard Hermer asking him to appeal the six-month suspended sentence for the disgraced BBC personality who previously admitted three charges of “making” indecent photographs.

The court heard that the 63-year-old paid up to £1,500 to Alex Williams, 25, who sent Edwards 41 illegal images, seven of which were of category A, the very worst kind. Of those images shared over WhatsApp, the estimated age of most of the children was between 13 and 15, while one was aged as young as between seven and nine.

The sentence has provoked widespread anger but can only be made stronger if it is shown to be “unduly lenient”. It has been pointed out that the climate change Just Stop Oil activists who blocked the M25 got sentences of four and five years in prison. Even before Edwards was sentenced, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay had questioned why protesters were getting longer sentences than sexual offenders.

Others have argued that some who were arrested for the summer riots were given a disproportionate sentence compared to Edwards. A number of posts across social media noted that people received prison sentences for posting derogatory memes or “shouting at a police dog” while Edwards avoided prison despite having more than 40 indecent images of children.