Huw Edwards was a fixture on the BBC at the same time he was accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.

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, of which 41 were indecent images of children.

During that period, he fronted coverage of the funeral of the late Duke Of Edinburgh on April 17 2021.

He also fronted a programme from Windsor Castle the night before the funeral, called HRH The Duke of Edinburgh Remembered.

He remained on air until July 2023, leading the corporation’s coverage of the late Queen’s platinum jubilee, her death and her funeral, as well as the coronation of King Charles.

He only came off air after allegations emerged that he had paid a young person for sexually explicit photos, in a separate matter to the court hearing on Wednesday.

He remained on the payroll while suspended, which is normal BBC policy, and was suffering from serious mental health issues and received in-patient hospital care.

In February the BBC apologised to the family of the young person after a review into how non-editorial complaints are handled at the corporation.

A report, commissioned in the wake of the scandal, found a need for “greater consistency” in how complaints are processed.

Edwards eventually resigned from the corporation in April 2024 and BBC confirmed at the time of his departure that he had not received a pay-off and was leaving “on the basis of medical advice from his doctors”.

It is not known if the BBC was aware Edwards had been arrested over the indecent images allegations on November 8 2023, when he was still an employee of the corporation.

He continued to receive his large salary for months after his arrest and was the corporation’s highest-paid newsreader, with a pay bracket of £475,000 and £479,999 for the year 2023/24, before he resigned.

He was charged on June 26, several months after his resignation.