In some ways lockdown was a blessed relief. Working from home meant little or no social interactions with colleagues, family or friends and it was easier to hide the secret. OH took voluntary redundancy and secured some key worker contract work to keep him busy, not stewing on what was happening which was entirely nothing as far as the investigation was concerned. Although we had been warned it could take a while, the DC had mentioned that they had secured additional funding to start fast tracking some of the investigations but a text early in the year told us that his hadn’t even started.
I was too scared to google anything related to sex offenders so remained ignorant to what support there was out there. OH buried his head in the sand, whenever I suggested he might want to confide in a friend he refused point blank. They wouldn’t be able to keep their mouths shut he would say. We didn’t know what we were dealing with or what the outcome would be so I made sure I saved as much money as possible in case he went to prison then at least I could still manage the mortgage and bills. I had a little sideline online selling clothes and anything else I could find in the loft to boost the savings. OH was earning decent money from his contract work and in some ways life was normal. My new boss left, another victim of the bullying from the senior manager. My only confidant, I was sad to see her go. Our cranky old cat got sick and passed away. Another Christmas came and went, quieter still due to lockdown restrictions in our area.
But the reality was we were in limbo and 15 months after the knock with no updates from the police other than covid has slowed things down, my OH employed a solicitor to find out what was going on. Eventually we were told they had found something and he was to attend the police station for an interview. I confided in a close friend, she was so supportive as I cried and offloaded 15 months of pent up emotions. She knew my OH, she had seen him with her kids in the past and had no concerns that he had ever been inappropriate.
He had 90,000 different files on his computer, 12 were Cat A-C - 0.0001% of the files. Years of drunken downloading films, music and porn. He had deleted a whole bunch of files to free up some space which had included these and that is what had flagged up. They couldn’t tell us if they had been viewed, only that they had been accessed which was probably from when he deleted them as it had created a cache or something (I’m not technical). He hadn’t categorised them or searched specifically for them but they had been there and for that he was charged with possession of IIOC.
We were devastated and he appeared at the local magistrates court, referred to crown. As part of the dealings with police and probation he had told them that we had young family members that came to the house and that was when I had the phone call from social services..
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