Parents of teen in Huw Edwards scandal 'offered thousands for TV interview'
The parents of the young person at the heart of the BBC presenter scandal have reportedly been offered tens of thousands of pounds for a TV interview with a channel owned by Rupert Murdoch.
It has been reported the interview has already been recorded for broadcast on TalkTV, the station owned by News UK which also publishes The Sun. BBC News At Ten presenter Huw Edwards was named as the man at the centre of the allegations on Wednesday.
It came after The Sun reported on Friday (July 7) a then-unnamed BBC presenter allegedly paid a teenager more than £35,000 for sexually explicit images. The mother of the young person claimed an unnamed star handed over cash sums in return for explicit images from the teenager when they were 17 years old.
Huw Edwards was named on Wednesday by his wife (PA)On Monday, BBC News revealed a letter from a lawyer acting on behalf of the young person disputing allegations made by their mother in a national newspaper. The young person - now 20 years old - denied the allegations presented to The Sun and told the BBC how they rubbished the claims to the newspaper prior to publication on Friday night.
In The Sun's initial story, they said the mother and stepfather made “it clear they wanted no payment” in return for their story. On Monday, the paper emphasised the issue was not about money, adding: "They did not seek any payment. They just wanted the payments harming their child to stop.”
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Huw Edwards' wife Vicky Flind released a statement on Wednesday identifying her husband as the man at the centre of the allegations. The mum-of-five shared her husband was "suffering from serious mental health issues" and is receiving "in-patient hospital care" amid the claims.
The Sun has pledged to tone down its reporting on the scandal, saying it will not break further stories. It has now been reported TalkTV spoke to the couple as part of a three-part documentary series.
A source from News UK told The Guardian that the Sun had not made any financial payment to the couple but confirmed that TalkTV was speaking to them. The television channel has a reputation for paying large sums of money to secure interviews.
The Mirror has contacted TalkTV and News UK for comment.
It follows reports BBC journalists were looking into the behaviour of Huw Edwards before the alleged sex images scandal was made public.
Newsnight reported on Wednesday, new claims from one current and one former BBC worker, who said they had received “inappropriate messages” from Edwards, “some late at night and signed off with kisses”.
Both claimed there was “a reluctance among junior staff to complain to managers about the conduct of high-profile colleagues in case it adversely affected their careers,” the programme said.
A BBC source has confirmed to the Mirror that Victoria Derbyshire and Newsnight were looking into the conduct of Huw Edwards at work prior to The Sun story - but played down reports it was a full-scale investigation. The senior source they had received some initial evidence earlier this month but it had only been fully developed this week, which led to the Newsnight report on Wednesday night.
The senior BBC source said: "It would be wrong to characterise anything before the Sun story was published as an ‘investigation’ - as a general point, in any newsroom, it’s perfectly normal for journalists to receive leads on stories, and take their own very initial soundings on these leads, some of which go on to go through the wider BBC editorial process, and some of which don’t.
"In this case these very initial soundings, which took place in the days before last Friday, developed further after last Friday and resulted in the story you saw last night."
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In her statement, Huw's wife Vicky said: “Huw is suffering from serious mental health issues. As is well documented, he has been treated for severe depression in recent years.
“The events of the last few days have greatly worsened matters, he has suffered another serious episode and is now receiving in-patient hospital care where he’ll stay for the foreseeable future. Once well enough to do so, he intends to respond to the stories that have been published.”
The BBC is conducting “fact-finding investigations” into allegations against the veteran broadcaster, who is the corporation's highest-paid newsreader.
When the Metropolitan Police said that there was no information to suggest a criminal offence has been committed by Edwards and no further police action will be taken “at this time”, it allowed an internal BBC investigation to resume.
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