'Chatroom sex' controls urged

Anthony Gray was an active church goer

A judge has questioned the lack of checks on internet content after an Oxford academic is jailed for five years for assaulting a boy he met through a chatroom.

During a six-day trial in February, theology lecturer and church youth club leader Anthony Gray, 31, from Bicester in Oxfordshire, was found guilty of two charges of serious sexual assault on the teenager at a Cardiff hotel.

You imposed your lust on his young body. You are an intelligent man but he was just 14 years old

Judge David Morris

Sentencing him, Judge David Morris said: "I know there is a growing public debate as to what controls can be imposed on material on the internet.

"I believe there should be some way of checking internet content."

The trial had heard how Gray met the 14-year-old boy from Cardiff - who was said to have been having difficulty establishing his sexuality - after logging on to a gay website.

Greg Bull, prosecuting, explained that the boy used a computer he had been bought to help with his school work, to use a teenage chatline.

'Terrible secret'

"Many miles away in Oxford, Gray was seemingly a pillar of the community," he went on.

"But he had a terrible secret. He has a fascination with young boys and was attracted to the teenage gay internet line."

The pair chatted several times before arranging to meet in the capital, where Gray was due to attend a business meeting.

The court heard that even though his meeting had been cancelled, Gray - whose wife was pregnant - decided to still make the 200-mile round trip.

The victim was bought a computer to help with his studies

Gray, who had denied the assault charges, said that sex did not take place.

Judge Morris told Gray - a Doctor of Philosophy from Oxford who worked as a lecturer for the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship - that he was guilty of "sickening hypocrisy."

"You befriended a boy of 14 and realised he was confused," he said.

"Under the guise of offering him friendship you set about schooling him into entering a physical relationship for your own sexual gratification.

"You imposed your lust on his young body. You are an intelligent man but he was just 14 years old.

"Society needs to know that adults that cynically exploit the young for sexual gratification as you did will be punished severely.

"You didn't plead guilty and made the boy go through a humiliating experence about being questioned publicly about his thoughts and feelings. You committed quite sickening hypocrisy."