Man convicted of 38 paedophile offences revealed as police informer who spied on UK activists | Crime

A man who planned to rape six-year-olds was a police informant who spied on environmental activists, his trial has revealed.

Nick Gratwick, 68, was found guilty on Friday of 38 “disgusting” pedophilia offences; these include schemes to pay for the rape or sexual assault of children in the UK and abroad over the past two years.

The hearing at Guildford crown court in Surrey heard the contents of graphic conversations about encrypted apps, described by the National Crime Agency (NCA) as “some of the worst cases ever seen by specialist child abuse investigators”.

Gratwick discussed harming children for sexual pleasure, arranging to pay a Romanian mother to allow him to rape her daughter, and advised others on how to drug children to abuse them.

The radio engineer, of Mitcham, south London, was also found guilty of possessing more than 1,300 photographs and videos showing children being abused.

Shockingly, the trial also revealed his previous role as an informant working for the police who infiltrated prominent environmental and animal rights protests for six years in the 1990s and 2000s.

He posed as an activist keen to protect the environment and prevent the exploitation of animals, but unbeknownst to campaigners, he was also secretly passing information to the police.

Among the campaigners he spied were those taking part in the Newbury bypass protest. a turning point A campaign to prevent the felling of thousands of trees on a largely protected ancient site to make way for a 9-mile ring road around Newbury in Berkshire.

In 1996, thousands of activists set up 30 camps along the planned route, erecting treehouses, digging tunnels and clinging to trees to thwart the plans. The road cost £74 million to build, £5 million for the police and £25 million for the 800 security guards deployed to deter campaigners. Nearly 800 people were arrested.

Activists told the Guardian that Gratwick played a key role in organizing the protests, overseeing the purchase and distribution of equipment such as ropes and harnesses to assist with the protests.

Campaigner Craig Logan said: “People from literally every camp were coming and talking to him about what they were doing in their camps, what they wanted to build, what they were trying to do. I can’t think of a better role as a whistleblower… He’s absolutely at the heart of this.”

Gratwick was known by the nickname “Radio Nick” because he was instrumental in establishing a network of CB radios at a time when mobile phones were becoming widely used; so activists in different camps could communicate and warn each other about upcoming police actions.

Another campaigner, Helen Beynon, said: “If you wanted to spy on people, it was certainly a very good place to be as one of the vital people on our radio network. You could hear everything that was going on. He was right in the middle of it.”

Gratwick later infiltrated animal rights groups, including a campaign to shut down an animal testing laboratory run by a commercial company called Huntingdon Life Sciences.

The prosecution told the court that in March Gratwick, whose full name is Edward Nicholas Gratwick, was arrested by NCA officers at Stansted airport as he was about to board a flight to Romania to rape a child as part of a paid agreement with his mother. There was an item in her bag that she had previously said she would use to slowly strangle the child while raping him.

Crown Prosecution Service specialist prosecutor Robbie Weber said: “Abuse [he] He explained that inflicting violence on young children with like-minded people is disgusting. It was clear from the evidence that he intended to harm and exploit children and was prepared to pay a significant amount of money to do so. “Not content with satisfying his own sexual desires, he also advised and encouraged others to commit equally horrific crimes.”

In his interviews with police, Gratwick referred to his past undercover work for Thames Valley police and suggested that officers “speak to Special Branch”, the undercover unit responsible for monitoring political groups. Gratwick and Thames Valley police refused to comment on his work as an informant.

A statement about the case, agreed upon by attorneys for both the prosecution and defense, revealed: “The records show that, during the eight-year period between 1995 and 2003, [Gratwick] In total, he gave information to police for about six years. “He gave information on animal rights and environmental issues.”

At his trial, his defense said he created a false persona to deceive abusers and obtain information so they could be prosecuted.

Prosecutors told the court Gratwick also planned to rape and abuse children in the US and Switzerland.

Danielle Pownall, a senior investigating officer at the NCA, said: “Gratwick has consistently denied the crimes he faced, despite overwhelming and incontrovertible evidence showing his lack of remorse and disregard for the safety and welfare of children.”

He will be sentenced on November 28. He pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing and offering to supply prohibited drugs.