Gavin Robert Gray sentenced for child exploitation material in Bundaberg District Court

When police arrived at the home of a Bundaberg funeral parlour worker, he made shocking confessions about a sinister secret he’d hidden for 10 years. *Warning: Distressing content

He was a respected mortician, community volunteer and father of three but Gavin Robert Gray was harbouring a sinister secret.

For 10 years he’d been adding to a video and image library featuring thousands of files of children being sexually abused.

Bundaberg District Court heard police had seized multiple storage devices at Gray’s home in April this year.

A portion of the material viewed by police contained 673 images and 123 videos ranked as Category 1 and a further 1039 images and 19 videos under Category 2.

The sick collection included footage of prepubescent children being sexually assaulted by adults.

When interviewed by police, Gray made full admissions, including that he had thousands of child exploitation files, had been using his phone to search for the content before saving it and moving it to other devices, that he’d been doing so for 10 years and had shared around 20 files with another person on January 20, 2021.

Some of the files were kept in a password protected app, to which he gave police access.

The court heard Gray had been a cane tester before taking on mortician work with a local funeral home and he’d held that job for the past 29 years.

He had also donated time to volunteer for the Lions Club as well as being a Justice of the Peace for 32 years.

Barrister Callan Cassidy said Gray had a low risk of reoffending and that his conduct was spurred on by his line of work.

“ … It is indicated that his employment in the funeral industry appears to have contributed to his offending,” Barrister Cassidy said, referring to a psychologist’s report tendered to the court.

Gray’s wife of 19 years was in court supporting her husband, an act Judge Katherine McGinness noted was ‘brave’.

Numerous references were tendered to the court attesting to Gray’s character, with some noting his offending was out of character – a point contested by the Crown who argued that by his own confession, he had a decade-long history of offending.

Gray has sought counselling since being found with the child exploitation material and had carried out various mental wellbeing courses as well as a child exploitation course.

The court heard he suffered from anxiety and a depressive disorder as well as autism and Asperger’s.

Gray pleaded guilty to two charges – the distribution of child exploitation material and possession of child exploitation material.

In sentencing, Judge McGinness said Gray’s offences were not victimless crimes.

“Mr Gray, as you’re now aware, the possession and distribution of these types of images supports a market that involves serious exploitation of young children,” she said.

Gray was sentenced to 18 months’ jail for each charge, to be served at the same time and suspended after he has served three.

He must not commit another offence punishable by jail for an operational period of 18 months and will be listed as a reportable offender.