Edwards was arrested in November 2023 while he was suspended from the BBC after allegations were published in The Sun about an unnamed presenter paying a teenager for explicit photos.

The 62-year-old, who pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children on Wednesday, resigned from the BBC in April on medical advice.

Asked why the corporation chose not to sack Edwards after they were told by police of his arrest, Tim Davie said in an interview with BBC News: "Because quite simply, the police came to us and said, 'look, we need to do our work in total confidence, we've arrested (Edwards) please keep this confidential'.

"And at that point, I think the principle is clear in my mind, and I say we thought long and hard about this, this wasn't a knee-jerk decision.

"And it was difficult but when the police, if you think about this in terms of precedent, people do get arrested and then we've had situations where (there were) no charges and there's nothing there to be followed up on.

"In this case, we knew it was serious. We knew no specifics, apart from the category of the potential offences."

Mr Davie also claimed that because Edwards remained suspended before his resignation, it meant there were no issues relating to BBC employees' safety.

He added: "Another factor at this point was very significant duty-of-care considerations.

"I think it was right for us to say 'look we'll let the police do their business, and then when charges happen, we will act'."

The BBC said after Edwards's court hearing yesterday that he would have been sacked "immediately" if he was charged before he resigned.

Addressing the prospect of there being any more information that the BBC knew, Mr Davie said the corporation was "not sitting on anything that I think we need to share with the police, or is of a serious nature that would make me feel that we hadn't followed up properly".

He continued: "I can categorically say that when it comes to the offences we've seen, which are truly horrendous, any evidence that is out there is not in the hands of the BBC.

"If I saw evidence of that, that is not a complicated decision."

Mr Davie spoke to BBC News after the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy held an urgent meeting with him on Thursday following Edwards's conviction.

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BBC to try to recover payments made to Edwards

Last month it emerged Edwards was paid between £475,000 and £479,999 for the year 2023/24 before he resigned.

Mr Davie suggested in his BBC interview today that the corporation is considering legal action to recover some of the payments it made to Edwards.

When asked about the disgraced newsreader keeping his pension, Mr Davie told BBC News the money would be "very difficult to claw back, nigh on impossible".

He added: "When it comes to pay, again, (it's) legally challenging (to recover), but we'll look at all options."

Culture secretary Lisa Nandy said she had asked the BBC for details on what further action it's likely to take "especially with regard to the handling of licence fee payers' money".

"She sought assurance that the BBC has robust processes in place regarding non-editorial complaints, and the handling of complex contractual matters, so that in future it can act at pace and be transparent with the public at the earliest opportunity to ensure trust is maintained, " a spokesman for the Culture Department said.

What images did Edwards have on his phone?

Following his guilty pleas, it emerged Edwards was arrested after officers seized the phone of a paedophile named Alex Williams in an "entirely unrelated investigation".

When officers from South Wales Police looked at the device they found Williams had sent 41 indecent images to Edwards in a WhatsApp chat between December 2020 and August 2021.

Of those, seven were classified as category A, while 12 were category B and 22 were category C.

The estimated age of most of the children in the category A images was between 13 and 15, a court heard.

However, prosecutors said there were also moving images of young children, possibly aged seven and nine years old among the category A images.

As a result of the original investigation, Williams was convicted of seven offences related to indecent images and prohibited images of children. He was given a suspended 12-month jail sentence at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on 15 March.

What does 'making' images mean?

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, the term "making" can include opening, accessing, downloading and storing the content, or receiving an image via social media, even if unsolicited and even if part of a group.

Category A images are the most serious and include penetrative sexual activity and sexual activity with an animal or sadism, while category B images involve non-penetrative sexual activity.

Category C images do not depict any sexual activity.

Sentencing guidelines set the starting point for any jail term for possession of a category A image at 12 months, with a range of 26 weeks to three years.

The starting point for a category B image is 26 weeks, while for a category C image it is a community order, the court was told.

Ian Hope, prosecuting on Wednesday, said a suspended sentence might be considered for Edwards.