“I want to be unambiguous about that,” he said. “But there is a difference between an excuse and an explanation, and that difference matters – not to diminish accountability, but to make any genuine understanding possible.”
The former presenter has also drawn up plans for a documentary about his downfall which would claim that mental illness played a crucial role in his behaviour.
But Edwards’ reentry to public life has attracted criticism, and Barry Tomes, his former publisher, told LBC: “I just think he’s not got a good moral compass here.
“He should go away and do none of this at all. I said to him that people actually don’t care.
“You’ve got to understand, they don’t care what your opinion is any more. You pleaded guilty; you now have that on your record. You should think about how you want to re-emerge, but not re-emerge with your old job or your old thing.”
He continued: “Some people will listen to him. Gary Glitter still has videos being posted on the internet. But I think the general consensus of opinion is that, ‘You’re vile, and we don’t really care what you’ve got to say’. And to be honest with you, if he cured cancer, people still wouldn’t care.”