The young man whose relationship with Huw Edwards set in motion the BBC star’s downfall has spoken of his final call with the BBC star just a month before he was arrested.

As part of an exclusive interview with the Mirror, the man, now aged 21, says how Edwards messaged on an unknown number In October – but was left “staggered” by his reaction. 

The man said: “I think it was about two weeks before he got arrested. The message said ‘guess who’ or something like that.

“The message said ‘don’t say my name on here… just call me’. So I phoned him and he said download the messaging app Signal. 

And he said we can catch up on there.” The man said he was staggered by Edwards’ demeanour on the call, adding: “He said, ‘What’s been going on? 

I really care about you’. He had no remorse for anything at all.”

The revelation is part of our huge chat with the young person at the centre of the scandal.

That erupted last summer when it emerged the man’s mum and stepdad had claimed that Edwards paid £35,000 in return for “sordid” pictures of him. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he feels like Edwards, 62, “groomed” him.

It was the final time they spoke. A month later Edwards was arrested. This week Edwards pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children in a case unconnected to the young man’s experience. He says the police – who had previously found no evidence of criminal behaviour between him and the newsreader – had given him a heads-up this week about Edwards’ charges.

He said that the one time they did organise to meet up, his mum got wind of the rendezvous at Cardiff train station. The man said: “My mum got on my phone and was messaging Huw with him thinking it was me. My step-dad then turned up and recorded Huw at the station.”

The young man says Edwards regularly pestered him about them meeting up. He said: “I turned him down loads of times.” His mum went to the BBC who didn’t act on her complaint – and later went to the Sun newspaper saying how her son was being taken advantage of.

Edwards spent up to £35,000 in return for photos, with the young person’s PayPal account showing dozens of transactions over two years. One message accompanying a £500 PayPal deposit stated: “Be Loyal.” The man said: “In my head I wasn’t selling pictures of myself I was just getting the money he said he would give me to help me. It turned out it was not just to help me, it was for the longer game, it was sexual, but it was never asked for directly. I think he was very clever in the way he went around it.”

He also opened up about hearing the news about Edwards’ court charges. He said: “I had got home from work on Monday, and I didn’t have any idea why the police were calling. It was two hours before the news came out. I couldn’t get my words out, and felt instantly really uneasy. But it was almost as if everything just slotted into place and I realised the extent of it all.

“Last year I was still protecting him..and I didn’t really understand his true nature. But then hearing this news, all those nagging doubts were confirmed. It made my stomach drop.” He added: “I felt genuinely sick to my stomach I thought, is this real? When I heard the actual details of things, it just got worse and worse and worse.”

Edwards had been receiving the sick images – including a video of a boy as young as seven – at the same time as he was in touch with the young man. The man said: “I was in utter shock. I could not believe that this is what he’s been doing while I knew him. I can’t even believe I’ve put myself in that situation. I feel disgusted with myself in a way. Like I’ve had communications with this person.”

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Source: USA Today