Gerald McGrory 64

Description

A GREENOCK pervert carried a hoard of child abuse images around with him on his mobile phone for months including disgusting sexual exploitation of girls as young as three.

Gerald McGrory, 62, was also involved in the distribution of moving and still images from the device before cybercrime police swooped on his town centre flat in a dawn raid.

It was later discovered that the he had engaged in a text message conversation about image-sharing with another paedophile over a period of 15 months prior to his arrest.

McGrory was caught in an intelligence-led police sting and had an array of appalling images on his phone, including category A material classed in law as the worst level.

Prosecutor Martina McGuigan told the sheriff court: "Police received confidential information and a search warrant was sought and granted.

"The accused's flat was searched and various items were seized including the mobile phone, a laptop computer and paper containing numerous usernames and passwords.

"An initial examination of the phone revealed indecent images of children."

The court heard that McGrory later gave a 'no comment' interview at Greenock police office on October 28, 2020 and made no reply when cautioned and charged.

His phone had a total of 72 images, made up of still photos and videos, 69 of which were readily accessible.

McGrory's haul of still images contained five category A photos, five category B and 49 category C.

His collection of depraved videos was made up of eight category A movies, three category B and two category C.

McGrory collected the material between July 1 and October 28 2020.

He also pleaded guilty through lawyer Aidan Gallagher to a charge of distributing or showing still and moving images on various occasions between November 26, 2019 and March 3, 2020.

The court was told that he used an app called 'Telegram' to share indecent images and also to have a 'lengthy' text conversation with a fellow deviant.

Fiscal depute Ms McGuigan said: "A conversation was found within this application which involved the discussion and sharing of images depicting child sexual exploitation as well as adult pornography.

"The conversation was lengthy and was found to be dated from July 31 2019 until October 27 2020."

The prosecutor added: "The accessible images were predominantly found in both the gallery application of the device and/or the Telegram application, whereby a quantity had been shared with the user through a user group.

"It should be noted that one of the moving images and one still image was found to have been shared by the user of the device."

The Crown is seeking a five-year sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) against McGrory with seven stated conditions.

Such orders are made where there is a specific concern about a person and can include stipulations such as preventing a sex offender from accessing the internet without monitoring software being installed on devices.

Sheriff Joseph Hughes deferred sentence for a background report and continued consideration of a SOPO until April 27.

Solicitor Mr Gallagher has reserved reserved his plea in mitigation on behalf of McGrory until then, with McGrory placed on the Sex Offenders Register with immediate effect.