Massage therapist who hosted child exploitation website jailed

“No-one and no age range” was immune from the “callous” offending of an Adelaide massage therapist who secretly filmed many of his clients undressing, while also procuring children online and hosting a child exploitation site, a judge has found.

Mark Anthony Gray pleaded guilty to dozens of charges including indecent filming, producing and disseminating child exploitation material, grooming children for sexual activity and hosting a website to publish child exploitation material between November 2018 and May 2020.

The 58-year-old has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for the crimes, which were a “pre-meditated betrayal of trust designed only to serve his needs”.

“The depths of your disregard for others and the number of people for whom you had that lack of regard sets your offending apart from many others,” District Court Judge Ian Press said.

“The degree to which you were prepared to ignore the suffering of others and the damage being done to them for your own benefit is, in many respects, difficult to grasp.

“You offended at the expense of your patients, children you met online and any number of children depicted in the child exploitation material you disseminated and possessed.”

The District Court heard Gray secretly filmed 22 of his clients while they were undressing at his “relatively successful” massage practice — only 15 have been identified.

At the same time, Gray was having sexual communication online with undercover police officers believing they were underage girls.

He added an undercover police officer to a social media chat group promoting child exploitation — of which he was an administrator and had about 50 members.

A rule of that group required members to add a female to the group.

Police also found more than 360 images and videos of child exploitation material on his desktop computer, laptop, phone and hard drive when he was arrested.

Judge Press said Gray had a “callous disregard for others” and had told psychologists he viewed child exploitation material “in a manner you would a magazine or a coffee table book”.

In sentencing, Judge Ian Press said the impact of this offending on his patients he indecently filmed was “wide-ranging and profound” and many now had a distrust for health professionals.

“Your deceit and your selfishness have clearly left a long lasting mark on those who were entitled to trust you,” he said.

“That you offended to fulfil an unmet sense of intimacy and to relieve loneliness and emotional deficits does not mitigate your offending.

Sentence ‘not enough’, victims say

Judge Press said Gray’s wife of 35 years was in the process of divorcing him and neither his children nor his mother had had contact with him since the offending came to light.

“They are understandably extremely dismayed to learn of your other life and the crimes that you have been committing,” he said.

“You are now 58 years of age and alone in Mount Gambier prison.

“You continue to find the prison environment extremely confronting; you have been threatened and are in a constant state of fear.”

But Judge Press said Gray was not considered a paedophile and had sought treatment in prison and was at low risk of re-offending provided he have ongoing treatment and a risk management plan.

Gray was sentenced to six years and four months in prison with a non-parole period of five years and 25 days, backdated to when he was taken into custody in May 2020.

Outside court, victims of Gray’s offending said the sentence was not harsh enough for the trauma they had — and will continue — to endure.

“Every time I walk into a room, I have to make sure there’s no cameras,” one said while fighting back tears.

She said the sentence was “definitely not” long enough.

“We’ve still got the whole of our lives to go,” she said.

Another victim said the “three years specifically for the filming charge” felt like a “slap to the face”.

“He’s already served half of that,” she said.

“It’s not enough.”