A new mum has described her horror and disgust after finding out her husband was a paedophile, days after she gave birth to his child.
Amy became suspicious of her fiancé Jamie Kennedy as he had shown little interest in their newly born daughter. She went through his phone five days after bringing the tot home, suspecting he was having an affair.
She found messages proving he had been grooming children and blackmailing them into sending indecent images of themselves. Amy then went to her mother and the pair transferred evidence from the online chats.
She then asked her mother to report Kennedy to the police three days later. Kennedy was convicted of 16 charges relating to rape and sexual activity with children, last month, reports the Mirror.
Amy said: “I literally lost everything in the space of an hour. I was up in the middle of the night with our baby and his phone was on charge on the floor, so I picked it up thinking he was definitely having an affair.
"At first I couldn’t find anything but I kept looking and eventually I saw all these conversations with really young girls sending fully nude photos... It was awful. I was in complete and utter shock - we were engaged, saving for a mortgage and I’d just had a baby 17 days before.
"My child no longer had a dad. My mortgage plans were off. Our wedding was off, in the snap of a finger I’d become a single parent who had essentially lost her whole life. I didn’t know what to do so I carried the baby into my mum’s room and said, ‘You need to get up’.
“She said, ‘What’s wrong?’ and I replied, ‘Jamie’s a paedophile.’"
Kennedy was only convicted following a trial last month, despite Amy making her discovery in 2016. Some of his offences were committed as recently as 2022, however.
He was found guilty of grooming a series of girls aged between 11 and 16, over a period of almost 25 years. He had made them promises of becoming models and given them presents including perfume.
Prosecutor Nina Ellin KC said Amy learned Kennedy had been pursuing an underage girl almost a decade earlier, and reported this new information to police. She had been told he was "a nonce" at a barbecue.
During last month's trial, one victim described how Kennedy had messaged her online before threatening to share screenshots of their "flirty" chats with her parents unless she did what he asked.
She harrowingly described to the court how he raped and sexually assaulted her in his car while it was parked down a country lane, after blackmailing her into meeting him.
A second victim came forward after seeing a court report about Kennedy. She met Kennedy more than 20 years ago - when she was just 13.
She told the court how, following an invite to Sunday lunch, he sexually assaulted her while a relative lay passed out from drink, just metres away.
The final charge took place while the sex offender was on baiil awaiting trial. A 13-year-old girl was coerced into sexual activity at his home.
Kennedy claimed in a police interview he had been messaging children "for 'research purposes", for an online safety app he was developing, but later admitted this was untrue.
Kennedy told the court he had only lied as he was being blackmailed by Amy - outrageously claiming that it was actually she who had committed all the crimes for which he had been accused.
He also accused her of forcing him to admit to the offences, saying she had threatened to take away his daughter if he refused.
Kennedy was unanimously convicted of all 16 charges; two of causing or attempting to cause a child to engage in sexual activity; three relating to indecent images of children; six counts of rape and sexual assault and five counts of sexual activity with a child.
He was remanded into custody and will be sentenced in early September.
Amy said: "Hearing the verdict was a very surreal experience. I sat between my mum and my husband and they each held one of my hands for that awful wait.
"Throughout the seven years, there have been times when I’ve been beside myself, probably depressed and had overwhelming anxiety, but I’ve had to just keep going knowing eventually we will get there.
"I was just so scared that he would get away with it. The public gallery is so close to where the defendant sits and he came in and he just stared at me – even in the courtroom he was still trying to intimidate me.
"But then the absolute relief when I heard that ‘guilty’ was something I've never experienced before. We all burst into tears because you are all pent up with adrenaline and anxiety.
"It was surreal because I had felt like I was never going to get there. It had been going on for so long and it had such a huge impact on our lives."
Kennedy will be sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on September 8.
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