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Huw Edwards‘ mental health may have been a key factor that kept him out of prison, lawyers told MailOnline today. 

The disgraced BBC News star’s remorse and prison overcrowding could also have been considerations that counted in his favour. 

The 63-year-old was sentenced by a magistrate to six months in prison suspended for two years after admitting three charges of ‘making’ indecent photographs.Liam Kotrie, a criminal defence solicitor at Mary Monson Solicitors who has dealt with ‘hundreds’ of sex abuse image cases, said first time offenders were very rarely jailed. 

However, he said it was ‘very rare’ for someone like Edwards who had received a Category A image – the most serious category – not be sentenced in crown court or receive a sexual harm prevention order. ‘I’ve never heard of a case of possession of category A images that stayed in magistrates court for sentencing, it’s very unusual. I’ve never had that and I’ve done hundreds of them,’ he told MailOnline. 

‘And the fact that he didn’t receive a sexual harm prevention order is very rare. 

‘I had a case where someone had a handful of Category C images where someone managed to convince a judge not to give them a sexual harm prevention order, but they are almost always given for these cases.