A paedophile who sent “utterly depraved” messages planning to rape children as young as six has been jailed for life for a string of child sex offences.
Edward Gratwick, 68, had been using encrypted apps including Teleguard and Session to communicate with offenders in the UK and around the world. In March, he was arrested at Stansted Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Romania after officers were informed about a UK national who had been discussing with another person online about meeting up to sexually abuse a nine-year old girl, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
The agency said Gratwick’s online messages were “some of the worst material” that specialist child abuse investigators “have ever seen”. When Gratwick was arrested, officers found items they believe he was planning to use to abuse children.
Gratwick was found guilty of 38 offences including arranging or attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, distributing indecent images of children and possessing indecent images of children following a trial at Guildford Crown Court. On Friday, he was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years.
Addressing the defendant, Judge Claire Harden-Frost said: “You have shown yourself to be utterly manipulative, you have the tools to deceive and avoid detection.” The judge said Gratwick had “shown no remorse” and that his offences “speak for themselves”.
After his arrest, officers searched his house and seized his electronic devices, discovering he had been sharing indecent images of children and discussing child sexual abuse with people he believed had access to young girls aged between six and 10 years old, the NCA said. The agency said officers had found more than 1,300 indecent images of children on Gratwick’s devices, including 632 that were in the most serious category A.
Danielle Pownall, senior investigating officer at the NCA, said: “The chat logs recovered from Edward Gratwick’s devices are some of the worst seen by specialist child abuse investigators at the NCA. Gratwick has continually denied the offences he faced, despite overwhelming and indisputable evidence, which shows his lack of remorse and disregard for the safety and welfare of children.”
