Moment Huw Edwards is confronted by stepdad of boy ‘he paid for explicit pics’ after BBC star travelled to meet him
THIS is the moment predator Huw Edwards is filmed at a busy train station by a furious stepfather after he paid his youngster £35,000 for sexual pictures.
It happened in May last year and led to the initial Sun story that first exposed the 62-year-old’s depraved secret life.
The ex News at Ten anchor this week admitted receiving sex abuse videos of kids as young as seven.
Our new revelation comes as BBC colleagues — including former Royal Editor Jennie Bond — called for Edwards to hand back the £200,000 wages he received after his arrest last November.
The stepdad of the youngster who Huw Edwards paid £35,000 for sexual pictures has revealed the extraordinary moment he tried to confront the newsreader at a train station.
He raced there after being alerted by his partner to a secret rendezvous between the then News At Ten anchorman and her vulnerable child.
By chance, the mother saw messages from Edwards suggesting he wanted the youngster to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
The stepfather told The Sun: “I was so angry. I just wanted to confront him and tell him to stop doing what he was doing.
“I didn’t even care if I got arrested — I wanted everyone to know what was happening.”
However he arrived on the wrong platform, but managed to film Edwards across the tracks before the stony-faced BBC star boarded another train.
The stepfather then immediately launched an official complaint with the BBC about the TV star, but when he was given the brush-off he turned to The Sun for help.
This week Edwards, 62, pleaded guilty in court to receiving sex abuse videos of children as young as seven.
He faces the prospect of a prison sentence when he appears again in court next month.
Last night the stepdad, whose identity we are protecting, said of the disgraced newsreader: “I always knew he was a paedophile.
“I find it disgusting if he doesn’t go to prison and only gets a suspended sentence. He’s been a predator for years.”
His stepchild, who had substance abuse issues, was 17 when Edwards started paying them for sex pictures.
And the dramatic railway encounter at Cardiff Central in May last year was triggered by the youngster, then 20, storming out of the family home after a row with their mum.
They said they were going to meet Edwards to get £500.
The youngster had earlier borrowed their mother’s iPhone to check their Instagram messages.
Fatefully, however — and unknown to both of them — the app was still connected to the mum’s iWatch.
The stepfather recalled: “About ten minutes after the youngster had left the house with my partner’s old iPhone, her Apple watch vibrated on her wrist. She looked down and was shocked to see Huw Edwards’ name flash up with an Instagram direct message.
“At that point she realised that her child was still logged in on the app on her phone. She opened the Instagram app and went into the messages.
She was shocked to discover Edwards was planning to meet her child at a train station
Stepfather
“There was a chat with @thehuwedwards which she opened.
“And she was shocked to discover that Edwards was planning to meet her child at a train station.
“She rang me — I was working nearby — and I said I would go and try and catch them.”
He said that the messages also revealed Huw wanted the youngster “to sign some kind of non-disclosure agreement to keep quiet about their relationship”.
He went on: “I drove over as fast as I could and said to the train guards outside the barriers that I was there to meet someone from London and could I go on to the platform?
“They told me it was platform three but when I got up there no train was arriving. I couldn’t see him so I left.”
The stepdad started to drive back to work when his partner called again to tell him she could see from the messages that Edwards had just arrived at the station.
The stepfather recalled: “I raced back and ran to the station.
“I saw him going through the ticket barriers. I went up to platform three again but no one was there. It was a massive panic.
“Then I saw him on the opposite platform. I got my phone out and I started videoing him.”
He took 30 seconds of footage, seen by The Sun, of the BBC star waiting on the platform.
The stepfather shouted at him before Edwards, wearing a blazer and carrying a bag under his arm, made a hasty exit.
I just wanted to tell him to leave my partner’s kid alone and stop sending money
Stepfather
He said: “I just wanted to tell him to leave my partner’s kid alone and stop sending money.”
Meanwhile, his partner had texted her child to say the stepfather was on the way to the station.
It is believed this was relayed to Edwards who then got on the next train back to London without the meeting taking place.
The stepfather then said he tried to lodge a complaint at BBC offices but was initially fobbed off.
He recalled: “As I wasn’t able to confront him, I walked straight out of the station and went to the BBC.
“I tried to explain what was going on. But the security guards at the door said I was being aggressive. I wasn’t, but I was so wound up. I was panicked, not aggressive.
“I demanded to speak to a manager or director, anyone who worked at the BBC, but they said there was no one there and they were all in London.
“Someone came out saying that he was the boss of the security team. I shouted, ‘I want to speak to someone about Huw Edwards because he’s a groomer’. They gave me a number for BBC London.
“It turned out to be a wrong number. I think they just wanted to get me away.”
The family was eventually referred to the BBC’s Audience Services, who sent the case to its Corporate Investigations team.
BBC INVESTIGATION
The BBC later admitted it made one phone call to the couple, but it did not connect.
The family then turned to The Sun in the hope we could help them to get Edwards to stop.
We published the shocking story in July last year, saying that an un-named BBC star was paying a youngster for sexual pictures.
Edwards was suspended amid a media frenzy, before his wife named him.
A BBC investigation was launched into its star presenter, who announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II and led the coverage of the King’s Coronation.
Meanwhile, a report released in February by auditors Deloitte detailed how the family’s complaint had not been brought to senior managers’ attention.
There was also “insufficient” documentation of attempts to contact them.
In April, Edwards quit, with the family still begging the BBC for answers after they closed the investigation.
The stepfather said: “From that very first day of trying to confront Huw to now we haven’t stopped — no matter how hard it’s been for us. Everyone knows the truth now.”
He added: “We want a public apology from everyone who has ever doubted us or targeted us for speaking out.”
The BBC continued to pay Edwards’ £480,000 licence-fee funded salary until he quit.
Amid a clamour for some of the disgraced star’s pay to be returned, questions have been raised about how much the BBC knew when it was told about his arrest last November over child sex images.