Senior BBC management have told staff they are “appalled” after former broadcaster Huw Edwards admitted to accessing indecent images of children.

A court heard Edwards plead guilty to “making” indecent photographs, with seven of the 41 being of the most serious type, between December 2020 and August 2021, when he was still a fixture on the BBC.

The BBC said it was told in November 2023, when Edwards was suspended, that he had been arrested on “suspicion of serious offences”, five months before he resigned from corporation in April.

In a statement, the broadcaster claimed Edwards would have been dismissed “immediately” if he was charged while still an employee at the corporation.

The widely issued statement was shared to BBC staff with an internal note co-signed by the corporation’s director general Tim Davie, Deborah Turness, chief executive of BBC News & Current Affairs, and group chief operating officer Leigh Tavaziva.

The note, seen by the PA news agency, said: “Many of you will have seen the news today that Huw Edwards has pleaded guilty to charges against him.

“We are appalled by this news – there can be no place for such behaviour.”

Following on from the official BBC statement, the co-signed note to staff added: “Some of you may feel shocked and saddened by this news and some of you will have worked closely with Huw Edwards over the years.

“Many of you will be working on this story, and we want to thank you for your professionalism in carrying on with your jobs in difficult circumstances”.

The note ended saying if staff had “been affected in any way by today’s news please do make full use of our wellbeing resources”, which include the “free, confidential employee assistance programme and the BBC’s peer support network”.

Welsh broadcaster Edwards, 62, resigned from the corporation in April 2024 and had been off air since July last year.

On Wednesday, a court heard he was involved in an online chat with an adult man on WhatsApp between December 2020 and August 2021, who sent him 377 sexual images.

During that period, he anchored coverage of major national events for the BBC and had presented the BBC’s News At Ten for decades.

During his four decades at the corporation, he was among the broadcasting teams leading coverage of historic events including the late Queen’s funeral in 2022 and most recently the coronation of the King in May 2023.

Edwards, a married father of five, also announced the late Queen’s death on the BBC in September 2022.