Graham Marshall, Paige Reaney: Sheffield man coerced partner into acting out fantasy through sex with pet pug

Paige Reaney and Graham Marshall both sobbed during different parts of the hearing when their ‘grotesque’ sexual abuse of Charlie was laid bare during the course of a two-hour Sheffield Crown Court hearing.

The full sex Marshall, aged 39, encouraged, and coerced, Reaney into carrying out with Charlie was part of a ‘fantasy’ he held after watching a female having sex with a dog when he was younger and developing a ‘preoccupation’ with bestiality, the court heard.

In addition to subjecting the animal to full sex on a number of occasions between August 2019 and December 2022, both Reaney and Marshall performed sex acts on the dog.

The case was brought before South Yorkshire’s most senior judge, The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, who described the defendants’ crimes as ‘comprehensively gross’.

He told the pair: “In a professional life in law covering now 45 years, in my case I thought I had encountered most acts of depravity of one kind or another. I freely confess: this case is perhaps the worst case of its kind I have ever encountered.”

“It can only be described as grotesque sexual conduct. Indeed, by use of the word grotesque, it almost camouflages the horror of the acts.”

Judge Richardson said he would sentence both defendants on Monday (March 3), to allow him time to ‘calibrate’ the sentence of each defendant with ‘some care’. He noted that all parties agreed Reaney had been coerced into carrying out the sexual acts with, and upon, Charlie.

Reaney also engaged in sexual activity with the dog while she was alone, under Marshall’s instruction, prosecutor Helen Chapman told a hearing held on February 28, 2025.

Reaney obliged in sending images to Marshall.

Videos were made, involving both defendants, with Marshall heard instructing Reaney on what to do.

Reaney and Marshall’s offending was exposed after a police raid on their family home, which they then shared with their two children, after the force received information suggesting Marshall was in possession of child abuse images.

Electronic devices were seized from both Reaney and Marshall, and ‘interrogation of all devices exposed offending on behalf of both defendants,’ Ms Chapman told the court.

Police analysis also uncovered a number of additional sexual offences committed solely by Marshall, including the creation of an indecent image involving a child, along with the possession of child abuse images of all categories.

Ms Chapman suggested it was noteworthy that Marshall used applications which ‘are designed to store images in a way that makes them more difficult to detect’.

Marshall was also found to have committed voyeurism, relating to a hidden camera he installed in a bathroom, which captured clandestine footage of two adult women - neither of whom were Reaney - using a toilet.

“It is not clear where the toilet was where Graham Marshall chose to install a camera but it was not a public lavatory nor in some commercial premises. It appears to be a residence though it is not thought to be his residence,” Ms Chapman said.

She said the device also contained images of adult women, usually of their buttocks, in public places like gyms and shopping centres.

“Whilst not separately charged, the Prosecution suggest that Marshall’s predilection for images of women taken in a clandestine fashion is relevant to the consideration of the voyeurism count,” the prosecutor said.

The defendants entered guilty pleas to all of the charges they faced over a number of hearings.

Reaney, of Bowman Drive, Gleadless, pleaded guilty to having intercourse with a dog and to a second charge specifying four occasions of intercourse, at Sheffield Crown Court November 28, 2024. She also admitted a further charge of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, namely Charlie, in that she subjected him to ‘habitual sexual activity’ during today’s hearing.

Marshall, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting a female person to have sexual intercourse with a dog during a separate hearing at the same court on October 4, 2024.

He also pleaded guilty to number of other charges, including one count of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, ‘namely regularly subjecting him to habitual sexual activity including ‘inappropriate physical handling of the dog’; and one count of failing to ensure the welfare of the dog in that he ‘failed to protect him from pain and suffering caused by habitual sexual activity’.

Marshall also admitted one count of voyeurism, three counts of possessing extreme pornographic images relating to sexual acts involving a ‘dead/alive animal, along with seven counts of making indecent photographs/pseudo-photographs of children of Categories A, B and C.

He has admitted to a further count of making indecent photographs of children of Category C.

Ms Chapman confirmed Charlie the dog now resides with a member of Reaney’s family, and applied for the defendants to be banned from keeping animals.

Amy Earnshaw, defending Reaney, said her client did not want to commit the offences and she was ‘forced, pressured and coerced’ into doing so by Marshall, with whom she was in a relationship from the age of 17, until their arrest. It was at that point she learned of the true extent of his sexual offending.

Ms Earnshaw said Reaney has learning difficulties, which render her more vulnerable to manipulation, and Marshall - who is seven years her senior - had manipulated Reaney throughout their relationship, exerting control over Reaney and subjecting her to both verbal and physical abuse.

Ms Earnshaw suggested Marshall’s control over, and ill-treatment of Reaney has hampered her ‘emotional development’.

“When she was arrested in January 2023, that’s when her relationship ended, social services became involved, the children were taken from her, and her whole world came crashing down around her ears,” continued Ms Earnshaw.

Andrew Bailey, defending Marshall, said his client found himself in a similar situation, having lost his job as a driver, along with his home, his relationship, his children. He said he had also been the subject of ‘vigilante attacks, social media abuse, shaming and humiliation’.

Mr Bailey said Marshall has also been ‘ostracised’ from almost all members of his family, and the predicament he finds himself in means he is now homeless, and has taken to ‘living in a tent in the woods’.

In addition to Marshall’s ‘preoccupation with bestiality,’ a practice recognised by the World Health Organisation as a ‘sexual disorder,’ Mr Bailey also detailed an experience Marshall endured as a child, which, he suggested, had left him in a ‘psychological mess,’ leading him to self-medicate, primarily with alcohol, but also with cocaine and cannabis on occasion.

Marshall was remanded into custody until Judge Richardson passes sentence on Monday, while Reaney was released on bail.