Street artist paints over hometown mural of Huw Edwards

A mural of Huw Edwards in his home town has been removed by the artists who painted it.

Last April, leading Welsh street artist Steve ‘Jenks’ Jenkins unveiled the mural in the newsreader’s home village of Llangennech, near Llanelli.

The artwork formed part of a larger mural celebrating Llangennech.

“It was great to meet him,” said street artist Jenks, at the time. “Someone passed my details onto him and he got in touch after me saying I’d love to have a pic with him next to it.

“I’m so glad he liked it. He even brought his mum along too.”

However, the artist has now removed the mural after the disgraced newsreader appeared in court where he pleased guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.

Jenks, who is from Llanelli, told the BBC he had been proud to paint Edwards’s picture.

He said: “I feel deeply saddened to have to remove it as the whole village loved it when it was first done.

“I was given the topic of the village to base the mural on and we thought it would be nice if Huw was included.”

“It was lovely, he brought his mum along to see it and that’s why this is such a bitter pill to swallow,” Jenks added.

Llanelli councillor Gary Jones said: “The mural had been previously defaced, on hearing the latest news the artist decided to paint over image.

“The community council have already removed the photograph of Huw Edwards that hung in our community centre.”

The removal of the mural is one of many actions to be taken in Wales. The BBC has removed an episode of Doctor Who from iPlayer which features Edwards as himself, while visitors to Cardiff Castle will no longer have access to an audio guide narrated by Edwards, or see a plaque in his honour erected there.