A man from London, who planned to travel overseas and rape children as young as six, has been jailed for life.

Edward Gratwick, 68, from Mitcham, was arrested at Stansted Airport on 7 March 2025 as he attempted to board a flight to Bucharest, Romania.

He was identified by officers from the National Crime Agency after an overseas law enforcement partner shared intelligence about a UK national, who had been contacting another individual to try to arrange a meeting to sexually abuse a nine-year old girl.

In the online chat, the pair had also been planning to drug the girl with GHB so she would not remember anything.

Officers identified Gratwick and urgently deployed to arrest him when it became known he was flying out of the country. Overseas law enforcement officers had already identified and arrested the other individual, and put in place safeguarding measures for three children.

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”.

Investigators also 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.

When Gratwick was stopped at the airport, officers searched his travel bag and recovered various items, including a small child’s sleeveless top, which were mentioned in the chat logs.

Officers discovered more than 1,300 indecent images of children (IIOC) on his devices, including 632 category A images, the most severe.

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.

In October 2025, 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.

At Guildford Crown Court today (23 January) Gratwick was jailed for life and told he will serve a minimum of 19 years and 46 days behind bars.

Before sentencing him, Her Honour Judge Harden-Frost said that there was no doubt that Gratwick was responsible for “grave and serious crimes.”

She added the following comments: “The jury saw through your account. You, Mr Gratwick, have been unmasked.”

“What follows can properly be described as the stuff of nightmares.”

“You have been dragged out of the dark web and shone a light on by officers from the NCA and prosecution team.”

“You are manipulative and had the tools to deceive.”

“You are a very high risk to children for as long as you remain alive and in moderate health.”

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, and he has shown no remorse for his actions, either throughout his trial or since his conviction.

“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 and work continues to identify any other people Gratwick has been engaging with.”

23 January 2026