An ordinary mum’s extraordinary courage and commitment to the truth nailed Huw Edwards
ON the face of it, they are worlds apart. One gets by on her partner’s modest labouring pay packet and spends the day keeping her home spic and span.
The other loved sipping champagne before he sidled into hair and make-up ahead of his nightly TV addresses to the nation.
But it was the very ordinary housewife who ended up bringing down the BBC’s most powerful presenter.
It was her extraordinary courage and commitment to the truth which ended in Huw Edwards’ cataclysmic fall from grace.
The mum sat in her modest living room in a working-class suburb of Wales, watching Huw deliver his bulletin every night at ten.
In fact, the Welshman was her favourite newsreader.
But thanks to her campaign for justice, Edwards would end up being the centre of a story he could never deliver — his exposure as a sex abuser. It began almost 18 months ago — with Edwards riding high.
When I arrived at the mum and stepfather’s home, I sat in astonishment as they detailed how they had uncovered a hideous dark side of the man they watched on television.
He had wormed his way into the life of their troubled son — initially when he was 17 — and was making ever-more depraved demands.
I believed every word they were saying. In fact, The Sun had a dossier of evidence against the veteran broadcaster going back six years.
From the moment the parents’ told me their story to the day Edwards pleaded guilty in court to child abuse image charges, their claims have never changed — even when they were called liars.
I remember when the statement dropped from their son that the whole thing was “total rubbish”.
My heart sank as I knew what was coming — a free-for-all to attack them.
We now know the lad’s intervention only came about because he was under Edwards’ sinister control.
He told a newspaper he felt compelled to come to his defence but later realised he was being used and abused.
All our front pages were right. The panicked calls Huw made, lawyers peddling lies, and cash still being given to the lad in an attempt to get him out of the picture.
But the lad’s statement was immediately seized upon by Edwards’ army of well-heeled pals, horrified by commoners calling out their big mate.
They couldn’t wait to leap to his defence. People called them bad parents.
My reports were picked apart on BBC News at 10 and I was vilified — this is just a tabloid newspaper trying to destroy someone’s life.
The parents were suddenly at the centre of one of the biggest media frenzies in the last decade — and I was with them in the eye of the storm.
The BBC likes to say it strives for transparency and exists for everyone. Well, not in their experience I’m afraid.
A mission statement on the Corporation’s website runs to more than 600 words and says its core values are trust, respect and accountability.
There was little of any of that in the response the family received when they tried to raise the alarm. In fact, the cornerstones of their approach were distrust and contempt.
The BBC emails were aggressive, or worse, at times dismissive. The family was treated with disdain.
And the lead investigator didn’t even attend their interview about the probe.
When they were brought in for a “fact-finding” interview, it lasted for less than an hour and the questions were weak.
And there were none directed at the mother, whose evidence was critical.
Basic details seemed beyond the investigators’ grasp.
My dealings with the BBC were the same — dragging their feet, closing ranks.
There was no care about the family’s welfare and it didn’t feel like they were taken seriously.
Until, that is, around Christmas, which we now know is when Huw was arrested.
The attitude, I’m told, changed, and the aggression made way for a polite, near-friendliness.
Even the BBC’s army of faceless spokesmen and esteemed lawyers couldn’t make this one go away.
But what happened is so much more than a newspaper story.
It’s a tale of a terrible crusade which brought a family to their knees. A family rift with Edwards at its heart.
Now mum and son have both said their piece.
I have my own perspective on the relationship but out of respect I’ll say no more.
What is most clear is mum and son are finally in agreement that Huw abused his position of power and groomed a vulnerable teenager.
And although they may disagree on the tiny details, what lifted my heart was a line he told a newspaper yesterday: “If it wasn’t for my mum he’d still be getting away with it.”
The truth is now out there and the parents have been vindicated.
They now need time to heal.