A newlywed was abandoned by his bride after just 13 days of marriage after detectives staged a raid on his home in search of child abuse images.
John Gray’s wife new nothing of his secret life as a sex offender until police officers descended upon the family home in Perthshire.
A trial at Perth Sheriff Court heard he revealed his twisted urges in online chats in which he bragged about abusing children.
One woman was so concerned by what she heard she immediately contacted the police who arrived with a search warrant and seized computer equipment.
Gray’s wife gave evidence against her husband during the trial, revealing they had spent less than a fortnight together as man and wife before he was arrested.
Lisa Gray, 35, told the court she became involved in a relationship with Gray after meeting him through work and they decided to wed during 2016.
“We got married on October 22, 2016,” she said. “He was arrested on November 3 and from then on he has never returned to the property.
“The marriage is over. It lasted a week and a half or possibly two weeks. We haven’t lived together since he was arrested.”
Gray, 25, of Stanley, had admitted sending sexually explicit, grossly offensive and obscene messages to another woman in which he talked about abusing children between September 2 and 14, 2016.
The court heard such claims were unsubstantiated, but that a search of his computer had revealed illegal behaviour.
Gray had denied two further charges but was found guilty of downloading child abuse images between July 17 and November 22, 2014, and having illicit images between July 17, 2014 and November 3, 2016.
Detective Constable Malcolm Peebles said forensic examination of Gray’s online history discovered that he had been discussing exchanging child abuse images and video with others while using Skype.
“The user of the devices has carried out internet searches for images of young girls,” he told the trial.
“They had received and maintained indecent images of children and they had created indecent images of children.
“The content of the conversations discussed indecent images.
“Videos of young children being sexually abused are discussed and files are exchanged, but the exact content is not known.”
DC Peebles said the search of the online chat site’s history established that Gray and another user had been sending each other files to watch. When police officers searched the computer’s hidden file locations they found three videos and 46 still images that gave them cause for concern.
Sentence was deferred until later in the year. Gray has been placed on the sex offenders register.
