Jeremy Vine has said the BBC should clarify if Huw Edwards was asked if he was guilty at the time the corporation was informed of his arrest for making indecent images of children.
The BBC confirmed on Wednesday that it knew of the veteran broadcaster’s arrest on “suspicion of serious offences” in November, but continued employing him until April.
Questions have been raised about why he continued to receive his large salary – as the highest-paid newsreader at the corporation – for five months after his arrest.
Vine, who hosts a show on BBC Radio 2, said bosses should confirm if they tried to establish whether or not Edwards was guilty of the crimes he was accused, adding: “You can’t justify paying him beyond November if you know he’s guilty.”
Speaking on his self-titled Channel 5 chat show, Vine said: “We need to find out if BBC said, what (were you arrested) for and are you guilty?
“If he said to them, ‘It’s for these serious offences, but I’m not guilty,’ then I would think you could start to take action to get the money back.
“Because that clearly is a lie. He’s admitted he’s guilty.
“I don’t know whether the BBC asked him ‘Are you guilty?’ because you can’t justify paying him beyond November if you know he’s guilty.”
He added: “The information may have come from an intermediary who says I’ve got no more information than this – Huw has been arrested.”
He continued: “What a mess and the poor BBC at the centre. It has terrible moments, but there are precious reasons why we don’t want it to go down the swanny.
“This is not the day to defend it because this is a bad, bad week. I couldn’t believe yesterday when I heard that the BBC had been told about it in November.”
Before he resigned in April on medical advice, Edwards was paid between £475,000 and £479,999 for the year 2023/24, according to the BBC’s latest annual report.
This last salary marked a £40,000 pay rise from 2022/23, when he was paid between £435,000 and £439,999.
The BBC has said that if Edwards had been charged while he was still an employee, it would have sacked him, but at the point of charge he no longer worked for the corporation.
On Wednesday he pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent photographs – after he was sent 41 illegal images by convicted paedophile Alex Williams.
"If Huw has any dignity left he'd hand that money back."@jenniebond1 responds to caller Lynn who is sickened by the idea of her licence fee subsidising a massive salary for a paedophile.@theJeremyVine | #JeremyVine pic.twitter.com/MC9e9mdESm
— Jeremy Vine & Storm Huntley on 5 (@JeremyVineOn5) August 1, 2024
Asked if the BBC should try to recoup the money paid to Edwards following his arrest, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond told Vine’s programme: “Frankly, if Huw has any dignity left then he would hand some of the money back, certainly the 200 grand he has made since his arrest. I think it would be gracious of him to do that.”
She added: “We need to remember the BBC as a whole is being tarnished and reputationally this is very very damaging of course. But the news division is quite rightly and thankfully quite separate from the corporation itself.
“It’s quite a hard division for people to make but we in the news have without fear or favour questioned the bosses at the BBC and that is entirely right.
“In the newsroom themselves they were kept in the dark right until this week, which is extraordinary.”
The BBC has been contacted for comment.
