Payback time
WILL the disgraced newsreader and convicted criminal Huw Edwards do the decent thing, and pay back his licence-fee funded salary to the BBC?
Edwards has so far given no explanation for why he allowed a paedophile to send him indecent images of kids — including of a boy as young as seven.
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There have been no words for the children so sickeningly abused and degraded in the making of the vile pictures and videos.
He has never apologised for his shocking behaviour towards fellow BBC staff and others who he tried to groom.
Disgracefully, Edwards tried to use his wealth and power to shut down the working-class parents who first complained to the BBC that he had paid their vulnerable son thousands of pounds for sexual pictures.
He put massive pressure on the young man to deny the story, and then set expensive lawyers on this newspaper for seeking to expose him in the public interest.
Meanwhile, he accepted a so far unexplained £40,000 BBC pay rise knowing the shameful way he had been behaving away from the TV cameras.
As the Beeb’s chairman said yesterday, he was a “villain” leading a secret double life.
The Corporation is asking Edwards, 62, to return the £200,000 he earned between his arrest for having the child sexual abuse images last November, and his resignation in April.
As the family who first blew the whistle on him says today, licence-fee payers should get all this money back — and more.
Why, they ask, should he keep a single penny of the £355,000 he received from the point he was first suspended over our original revelations?
A sickened public will surely agree.
Brought to ’book
THE social media giants who have come to dominate our lives have shown reckless irresponsibility in recent days.
Countless examples of vile hate content on their platforms combined to bring chaos and fear to our streets.
Deliberate disinformation allowed to fester unchecked by the tech billionaires has caused huge damage — and cost taxpayers a fortune in clean-up and policing.
Once again, the nation will be forced to pray that the mayhem won’t return during this hot weekend.
No wonder that a big majority of Brits now believe the likes of Facebook — and its billionaire boss Mark Zuckerberg — should be more heavily regulated and held criminally responsible for the rioting.
The Prime Minister says he will look “broadly” at new laws cracking down on the worst excesses of social media.
But it’s clear that, after a troubled and fearful week, the country is demanding action.
