The Guardian

Medical experts sought to trace seeds of downfall

Huw Edwards’ downfall was of his own making, the chief magistrate, Paul Goldspring, concluded in his sentencing remarks, but that was not the entire picture painted by the BBC star in his interviews with forensic medical experts.

A consultant psychiatri­st and neuropsych­iatrist, Michael Isaac, wrote two reports in which the broadcaste­r’s father, the Welsh academic Hywel Teifi Edwards, who died in 2010, was pinpointed as the source of some of the mental anguish that led to the criminal behaviour of 2020 to 2021.

There was also a reference to a perception of a culture of Oxbridge elitism at the BBC that pushed Edwards, 63, to seek validation on the internet.

"Mr Edwards is a complex individual, with a psychologi­cally challengin­g upbringing, in which his relationsh­ip with his father was particular­ly challengin­g and probably damaging psychologi­cally,” Isaac writes.

“The restrictiv­e, puritanica­l, but often hypocritic­al, background of growing up in the particular cultural milieu of south Wales, with a father who was highly regarded and lauded outside the family, but was perceived as behaving monstrousl­y within the family, created both an enduring cognitive dissonance and low self-esteem, compounded by a sense of being inferior (by not getting into Oxford and going to Cardiff instead) and being therefore something of an outsider at the BBC.”

Isaac diagnosed Edwards as suffering from a major depressive disorder without psychotic features. He has also been diagnosed with a heart disease, arterioscl­erosis, which is said to cause erratic behaviour.

According to a report written for the court by a psychosexu­al therapist, Dr Victoria Appleyard, it was social media that proved fatal for Edwards. Appleyard writes: “Mr Edwards was particular­ly destabilis­ed through the process of commencing a social media presence which allowed him to interact with people that otherwise he would have never engaged with.

“His social media engagement presented as an easy way to manage his low mood and provided him with a number of men and women who were motivated to be sexual with him, which not only boosted his fragile self-esteem but allowed him to re-engage with his sexual interest in men, which had been managed since 1994.

“The feelings of being desirable and unseen alongside Mr Edwards’s unresolved sexual orientatio­n created a perfect storm where he engaged in sexual infideliti­es and became vulnerable to people blackmaili­ng him.”

Edwards has been married to a television producer, Vicky Flind, for 30 years but he described a “deteriorat­ion” in their relationsh­ip around the time of his offending at a time when his wife was “experienci­ng high levels of stress as her mother was nearing the end of life”, according to a separate pre-sentence report.

“Mr Edwards recognises that he was also detached and ‘not present’ at a time when she needed his support,” the report says. “Despite having previously been very close, he recalls this period as the most difficult part of their marriage.

“Mr Edwards … expresses high levels of remorse for the betrayal of his partner and children.”

Edwards was also critical of his family for not stepping in over his abuse of prescribed medication.

The report goes on: “He asserts that he does not seek to place blame on others for his own failings but he became so entrenched in his own situation and deteriorat­ing mental health that he was unable to objectivel­y assess and take positive action.”

Edwards’s defence barrister, Philip Evans KC, told the court that it had been Alex Williams, then 19, who had been the driving force behind the criminal activity by sending the indecent images and video. Williams has pleaded guilty to seven offences.

Evans said: “He did not use his position in order to commit these offences. Alex Williams sought him out … at a time when Mr Edwards can probably be described as having been vulnerable.”

The judge said he had taken all of these factors into account, along with the reputation­al and financial damage from the conviction, but it was all a “natural consequenc­e of your behaviour which you brought upon yourself”.