SHAMED Huw Edwards is seen puffing on a vape as he breaks cover for the first time since dodging jail over child abuse images. To the fury of licence payers, the former BBC news presenter is still brazenly refusing to hand back any of the £200,000 he was paid after his 2023 arrest.
![[Huw Edwards vaping with his mother.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/84e1fd8e-8678-474a-bfe7-82b1601e9689.jpg?strip=all&w=439)
A passer-by who spotted the 63-year-old on a stroll in his native Wales said: “Edwards was wandering around without being bothered by anyone. "He looked a shadow of his former, super-confident self — but there was no mistaking it was him. “He was vaping and coughing and spluttering a bit, and didn’t look in the best shape.
![[Huw Edwards and his mother walking together.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/77e30ead-c69c-4327-9758-13798c6c008b.jpg?strip=all&w=848)
“But he was lucky to be enjoying his freedom when most people think he should have been jailed for what he did.”. The snap — taken as he strolled in Wales last Saturday — emerged as insiders confirmed he has not repaid any of the wages he got between his arrest and his resignation from the BBC.
![[Huw Edwards walking with his mother.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/53e9aea8-0a42-4ca8-8704-98ad0ea72b79.jpg?strip=all&w=755)
Edwards was on £475,000 when he was arrested in November 2023 over 41 images shared in a WhatsApp chat — seven of them of the worst Category A level. He was not sacked, even though some senior BBC staff knew he had been nicked. Instead he was allowed to step down on “medical grounds” in April 2024.
![[Huw Edwards and his mother walking down the street.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/22cdc982-8281-428f-ad33-fce17baa8e6d_1e0a65.jpg?strip=all&w=554)
This was after The Sun had separately revealed he paid a vulnerable young man £35,000 for sex snaps. We then revealed last July he had been charged with making indecent images. He admitted three counts at Westminster magistrates in September and was handed a suspended six-month jail sentence.
![[News anchor at a news desk.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/8595af6c-9760-49e9-b2f8-7630295c5af5.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
He was also ordered to undergo rehabilitation sessions and placed on the sex offender register. BBC director general Tim Davie said at the time talks were “under way” over the £200,000 and that the Beeb could look at legal action. A well-placed source confirmed: “The BBC have not had any money back, and there doesn’t look to be any sign of that changing.”.
