Jail for man branded ‘a danger to women’
● Gray to serve at least seven years and order made for life-long restriction
A sex attacker who preyed on seven women in a campaign of domestic abuse spanning nearly three decades has been given a life sentence.
Michael Gray, 50, who has been branded a “danger to women”, was described as an “opportunist” who sexually assaulted his victims while they slept and used them as punch bags when they were awake.
Gray subjected one former partner to sexual assaults using a pool cue and a soft drinks bottle.
He also forced two of the women he met to engage in a threesome with him, and compelled both of them to have sex with other men while he watched.
His “trademark” form of violence was putting his victims’ lives at risk by compressing their throats with his hands. On one occasion, he used the belt from a bathrobe, the jury heard.
Gray, of Adamson Road, Loch gelly, who also goes by the surname Banks, had denied charges including rape, indecent assaults, assaults to danger of life and a knife attack.
But jurors at the High Court in Livingston unanimously found him guilty of 18 charges, including nine rapes of four women.
The jury took just two hours to convict the unemployed former fish farm worker of committing the offences, which occurred at addresses across Fife between January 1987 and January 2016.
Yesterday at the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lord Mulholland – who had previously branded Gray a “danger to women” – handed Gray an order for life-long restriction and ordered him to serve a minimum of seven years behind bars.
The judge said: “The jury unanimously rejected your evidence of denial and believed the women.”
He said Gray “treated the women appallingly” and said “they are to be commended for reporting your crimes to law enforcement”.
The judge added: “You will now be sentenced for these crimes. These courts regard domestic abuse, physical and sexual violence and rape very seriously.”
A cry of “yes” was shouted from the public gallery as Gray was led away.
Detective Chief Inspector Debra Forrester, from Police Scotland’s Domestic Abuse Task Force, said: “The courage of the victims who spoke out against him should be commended.
“I hope it encourages others who are suffering domestic abuse to have confidence that they will be taken seriously, by both the police and our partners, if they come forward.”
“The courage of the victims who spoke out against him should be commended”
DEBRA FORRESTER
Not so very long ago, domestic abuse was viewed by some as a private matter, nothing for the police to concern themselves with.
It was not until the 1980s that the police first started charging men over the rape of their wives in Scotland, leading to a historic court ruling in 1989 that this was actually illegal. The Lord Justice General threw out arguments that a legal principle laid down in 1796 – stating that a husband could not be found guilty of the rape of his wife – still applied.
During the case, a defence lawyer had tried to convince the court that “a wife has no absolute right to say no whenever she wants” and that a man who “overcomes his wife’s reluctance by force … could be charged with assault”. Criminalising marital rape would “break marriages” rather than “help them in any way”, he added.
As the life sentence given yesterday to 50-year-old Michael Gray shows, such attitudes are long gone.
Over nearly three decades of domestic abuse, Gray’s crimes included rape, sexually assaulting women while they slept, using them as punch-bags while awake, and compelling them to have sex with other men. The judge branded him a “danger to women”. After the case, the police said they hoped it would encourage others who are the victims of domestic abuse “to have confidence that they will be taken seriously, by both the police and our partners, if they come forward”.
Gray will serve seven years in prison before he’s eligible for release, just one year short of the minimum imposed on serial rapist John Worboys in London. Parole board chairman Nick Hardwick has said he is “confident” Worboys will not reoffend.
However, the decision to release a man suspected of more than 100 rapes after only serving the minimum required has caused widespread uproar, with London mayor Sadiq Khan lodging an application for a judicial review of the move.
The tide of public opinion is continuing to turn sharply against rapists, domestic abusers and male violence against women in general, as the #Metoo campaign clearly shows.
So, in seven years’ time, when Gray comes up for parole, he may find board members will view his bid for freedom in a rather different light.
Given his appalling crimes, they will surely wish to be certain that this “danger to women” no longer poses a risk if he is ever to be released.