What is ‘Making’ Indecent Images?
Huw Edwards, a 62-year-old Welshman who was one of the most well-known faces on BBC news, had already been arrested and disgraced in November 2023 after allegations that he paid a teenager to send him explicit photographs.
However, Edwards was arrested again in June 2024 after a separate investigation found that he had accessed indecent images – sexual pictures and videos of children – through WhatsApp.
The new charges came about following the investigation into 25-year-old Welshman Alex Williams, who was convicted of seven indecent images and prohibited images offences in March 2024, receiving a suspended sentence of 12 months in prison.
The South Wales Police found that Williams had sent 41 indecent images to Edwards via WhatsApp between 2020 and 2022, resulting in the Met Police subsequently charging Edwards with three counts of making indecent images.
These charges represent the three categories of severity that the 41 images were classified as – with 22 being in Category C, 12 in Category B, and 7 in Category A.
Most people aren’t familiar with all of these legal terms, though – so what does it mean to ‘make’ indecent images, and what is the sentence for these charges? Keep reading for an explanation.
What are Category A images?
In the UK, it is a criminal offence to take, view, or share an indecent image of anyone under the age of 18, who is legally a child. This could be a photo, video, electronic file, or a pseudo-image (computer generated or digitally manipulated) which depicts a child in a sexual manner.
The Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) classifies indecent images according to three categories, which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) uses to press charges, and the Sentencing Council also applies when determining a sentence after conviction.
Category C is the least severe, including images that may be sexually suggestive but do not actually depict any explicit sexual activity. Category B is the second most severe, as these images depict explicit non-penetrative sexual activity.
Category A is the most serious, as it can include images depicting penetrative sexual activity, sexual activity with an animal, or sadism. The prosecution stated that several of the Category A images viewed by Edwards involved children between 13–15 years old, while there were also moving images including a child possibly as young as 7–9 years old.
What does ‘making’ images mean?
There is a range of indecent images offences, including possession, distribution, and production. Possessing means to save and own copies of the images, distributing means to share the images with others, and production means to create original images.
Most of the confusion about what Edwards actually did and what he has been charged with is due to the legal term ‘making an indecent image’. In common usage, this would be taken to mean Edwards created the images himself, but this is not the case.
Though the legal language is easily misinterpreted, the term ‘making’ is used to refer to the act of accessing or viewing an indecent image. For example, opening an image in an electronic message attachment, or downloading an image from a website.
This is known as ‘making’ the image because it is essentially reproducing the image, and applies whether the image was unsolicited or deliberately viewed.
In Edwards’ case, he did not produce the images himself, nor arrange for the images to be made for him, so he did not ‘make’ an image in the traditional understanding of the word. However, he did still view the indecent images while knowing it was illegal, and did not report the images or the sender to the police as he should have.
Edwards has therefore been charged with three counts of making indecent images, to which he entered guilty pleas in court on 31st July 2024. He was released on bail and will return to court for sentencing on 16th September.
What is the sentence for making indecent images?
If a defendant is found guilty of an indecent images offence, the sentence will depend on the severity of the images and the circumstances of the commission of the offence.
The sentence for a Category C offence could range from a high level community order to 1–3 years in prison, while a Category B sentence could be 6 months–4 years in prison. As the most serious offence, a Category A sentence could range from 1 year to 6 years in prison.
Convicted defendants may also be subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) upon release, which sets out requirements for their behaviour, including registering as a sex offender.
Huw Edwards could face up to 10 years in prison for his combined offences, though it’s believed he could receive a reduced or non-custodial sentence due to mitigating factors. For example, he did not keep the images sent to him by Williams, did not share them with anyone else, and did not seek out other indecent images anywhere else.
In a case like this, a defence solicitor with extensive knowledge about indecent images legislation will have the opportunity to make representations to the court identifying mitigating factors that could reduce the defendant’s sentence.
