Damien

I do think 18 is young and that such an age gap is dodgy. I think age gaps become less of a problem when the younger person is older, i.e late 20s, and fully into adulthood.

The focus on legality though is that a lot of what made this a story in the public interest has turned out not to be true. It seems not only were no images exchanged when the person in question was under 18, but Edwards also didn't even meet them until they were 18. It's also clear the person consented and said as much to The Sun which didn't publish that whilst also pushing the 'might be illegal line'. Finally if what Private Eye has said is true and the 'money for drugs' was not part of the original allegations (and certainly not part of the complaint to the BBC) then they can't be classed as vulnerable.

The Sun slammed the BBC for their lack of investigation but, from what we know now, the BBC was told of a relationship between two consenting adults of legal age. You can't suspend someone from their job for a legal relationship because you have qualms about the age gap. The Sun also started a narrative of 'who is the BBC presenter soliciting illegal images from a crack-addicted 17-year-old?' story. The story wasn't 'who is the BBC presenter engaged in a consensual and legal relationship with an inappropriate age gap?'. The reason for that is that is far less obvious that it's in the public interest to root that person out.