LIFE FOR POOL CUE RAPIST
Woman sexually assaulted with pool cue tells of her ordeal
Brutal Michael Gray jailed for attacks on women
A SERIAL rapist who sexually assaulted one of his victims with a pool cue was jailed for life yesterday.
Predator Michael Gray, 50, was told he must serve at least seven years behind bars for a string of rapes and attacks spanning 25 years.
The former fish farm worker abused at least seven women but one of his victims says she knows of even more.
The woman – who was the victim of Gray’s brutal pool cue assault – said his sentence had not given her closure.
She said: “I don’t think someone like him can be rehabilitated.
“He’s done it since he was a young lad and right up until 2012. I know there are more women out there that he’s abused.”
The woman, who cannot be named, was subjected to multiple rapes and assaults. She believes the brute caused her to miscarry a baby in January 2005.
Gray, who also uses the name Banks, was found guilty of 18 charges including nine rapes, indecent assaults and assault to danger of life by a jury in October.
He appeared for sentence at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday.
A cry of “Yes” came from an onlooker in the public gallery as he was led to the cells.
After he was jailed, the woman said: “I thought I would have felt better but I don’t.
“I thought I would have got some closure.
“I don’t have any regrets about coming forward. Maybe it’ll just take a bit of time to get my head around it”
She added: “My mum never spoke to me because she didn’t want me being with him.
“She was scared in case she opened the paper one day and read that he had killed me.
“Now I know what she must
I don’t have any regrets but I haven’t got closure
VICTIM
have been thinking and feeling like.
“But at that time, I didn’t and I didn’t leave him even though I knew what he was doing to me was wrong.
“I torture myself every day asking myself why I didn’t leave him.
“Why did I keep letting him do that stuff to me? Obviously I was devastated when I lost the baby but thinking back, there is a part of me that is a bit relieved.
“I’d probably have gone on to have the baby and then I’d have been tied to him for life.
“The baby was saved from a life of abuse because God only knows what our lives would have been like with him.
“It was probably a blessing in disguise.” The victim also told how Gray, from Lochgelly, Fife, sexually assaulted her with the pool cue and a glass Irn-Bru bottle.
On other occasions, he smashed her in the face with a glass ashtray and forced her to take off her trousers in the street before biting her on the cheek.
Gray’s “trademark” form of violence was strangling women with his hands and – on one occasion – a belt.
Judge Lord Mulholland branded the thug “a danger to women” and commended his victims for coming forward and reporting him.
The judge said: “The jury unanimously rejected your evidence of denial and believed the women.”
He said that Gray “treated the women appallingly” and added: “These courts regard abuse, physical and sexual violence and rape very seriously.”
Detective Chief Inspector Debra Forrester said: “The courage of the victims who spoke out against him should be commended.
“I hope it encourages others who are suffering abuse to have confidence that they will be taken seriously.”