Source: National Crime Agency (NCA) published on this website Monday 13 December 2025 by Jill Powell
A man from London, who planned to travel overseas and rape children as young as six, has been convicted following a National Crime Agency investigation.
Edward Gratwick, 68, from Mitcham, was arrested at Stansted Airport on 7 March 2025 as he attempted to board a flight to Bucharest, Romania.
NCA officers received intelligence about a UK national who had been communicating with another individual online, where they discussed meeting up to sexually abuse a nine-year old girl. The pair had also been planning to drug the girl with GHB so she would not remember anything.
The UK national was identified as Edward Gratwick and officers urgently deployed to arrest him when it became known he was flying out of the country. Overseas law enforcement officers identified the other individual and he was arrested, with three children safeguarded.
Following Gratwick’s arrest, officers searched his house and a number of electronic devices were seized. Officers analysed thousands of messages on his phone and identified he was using encrypted applications – including Teleguard, aTox and Session - to communicate online with offenders in the UK, across Europe and around the world. They also discovered he had been sharing extremely graphic sexual messages and indecent images of children.
Within the chat messages, Gratwick was actively discussing child sexual abuse with people who he believed had access to young girls aged between six and ten. He would outline, in explicit detail, how he wanted to sexually abuse them and, in some instances, offered to pay varying sums of money as a fee.
Gratwick made frequent references to drugging his potential victims so they wouldn’t remember anything, suggesting rohypnol and GHB which he described in his messages as “a good rape drug.” When officers searched his house, they found bottles stored in his kitchen fridge which were examined and found to be Gamma Butyrolactone (GBL) which is a Class B drug.
During the analysis of his devices, officers found images of these bottles – which he had sent to someone he was communicating with - saying “I'll bring enough GHB so you can have some fun when I'm not there”.
In some conversations, Gratwick was clearly touting himself as a ‘pimp’, offering a service to other paedophiles. As part of his role, he told other online users he would take a 25% cut of the payment made for his part in the arrangement of the sexual abuse of young girls.
Investigators recovered a booking for an Airbnb in Bucharest for 7 to 9 March 2025, located in some chat logs between Gratwick and a contact in Romania, who stated they were the mother of a 10-year old girl. The conversations took place between February and March 2025 and contained detailed descriptions of the sexual abuse Gratwick intended to carry out when he arrived in Bucharest.
Chat logs showed the person Gratwick was talking to was concerned their house was being watched, with Gratwick asking “Do you have a time operated plug? One you can set to turn a light on and off’. He also discussed with the person a specific top he wanted the young girl to wear, stating ‘[she] will look great in the sleeveless top’.
When Gratwick was stopped at the airport, officers searched his travel bag and recovered various items including a time operated plug and a small child’s sleeveless top.
Officers discovered more than 1,300 indecent images of children (IIOC) on his devices, including 632 category A images, the most severe. He had shared some images with the people he was communicating with and in one conversation, stated the images he had were ‘not terribly extensive but a diverse library’.
On 9 March 2025, Gratwick was charged with 11 child sexual abuse offences including 10 charges of arranging the commission of child sex offence – namely the rape of a child under 13 – and was remanded into custody. He was subsequently charged with additional offences during his trial.
Today [10 October] Gratwick was found guilty of 38 charges including arranging or attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, distributing indecent images of children and possessing indecent images of children.He is due to be sentenced on 28 November at Guildford Crown Court.
Danielle Pownall, Senior Investigating Officer at the NCA said:
“The chat logs recovered from Edward Gratwick’s devices are some of the worst seen by specialist child abuse investigators at the NCA.
“Gratwick has continually denied the offences he faced, despite overwhelming and indisputable evidence, which shows his lack of remorse and disregard for the safety and welfare of children.
“I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the members of jury, who over the last six weeks have considered distressing evidence which no-one should ever have to hear. I echo the words of gratitude from Her Honour Judge Harden-Frost in light of what they have heard, culminating in guilty verdicts against Gratwick.
“Work continues with our international partners to identify those who Gratwick was engaging with and we will do everything in our power to safeguard any children from harm, wherever they are. We are grateful for the immediate response and support from UK and international partners during this investigation”.
