A TEENAGE paedophile from Greenock who fantasised about kidnapping, raping and murdering babies has been jailed for five years.

Alan Gray, 19, had been sent to the High Court for sentencing by Sheriff Derek Hamilton because the lawman felt he couldn’t impose a sentence appropriate to the worst sexual offences case he had ever heard.

As well as sending hideous online messages, Gray, who lived in Larkfield, accessed almost 20,000 images of young children and infants being abused.

Judge Nigel Morrison QC was last week told that specially trained medical staff had interviewed Gray and concluded he didn’t appreciate the seriousness of his crimes while social workers also found Gray was at high risk of reoffending.

This prompted the judge to postpone sentencing, so he could decide how to deal with the deviant.

As Gray appeared again in front of him yesterday at the High Court in Edinburgh, Judge Morrison said it was appropriate for him to impose an extended sentence. 

After serving five years, Gray will be supervised by the authorities for a further three years following his release from prison.

Gray had plead guilty to charges in which he admitted making indecent photographs of children at his home between January 2016 and June 2016.

He also admitted sending online messages where he expressed ‘a desire’ to ‘kidnap, sexually abuse, rape and kill babies’.

Police who seized Gray’s computer found he had 19,884 images made up of 16,120 still pictures and 3,764 videos.
These included 1,864 pictures and 2,254 moving images of category A abuse, the worst level.

The age range of the children who were abused was less than a year to 12-years-old.

Detective Inspector Tom Carty, who led the investigation into Gray, said the sentence imposed reflected ‘the gravity of his offending’.

DI Carty added: “If you are involved in the download, viewing or manufacturing of indecent images of children, don’t think you are anonymous, it’s not a matter of if but when we will catch you.”