'My husband viewed indecent images of children and it has absolutely destroyed me'

But that morning in April 2018 marked the beginning of the end of her 11-year marriage.

"I called down and said, 'what’s happening?'," she recalls. "My husband said, 'I think you better get dressed and come down'.

"There was just this feeling that I don’t want to go down there. I felt there was something that was going to change my life and not in a good way."

Waiting downstairs were police officers and safeguarding officers who told her they had a warrant to search the property for indecent images of children.

"I can’t even begin to describe how horrific it is. It just takes your breath away. It’s just horrendous. I couldn’t then go around my house without a female officer with me in case I tampered with evidence."

Convinced initially that it must be a malicious allegation, she would hug her husband later that day and say she loved him.

"I said to him, 'I’m going to have to ask you the question. Whatever you tell me, I’m going to believe - but you have to be honest with me'.

"We sat down in the lounge and he said that he had been looking at adult pornography and children had popped up and he had looked at it out of curiosity. I remember saying that isn’t the answer I thought I was going to get and that isn’t the answer I wanted.

"I moved into the spare bedroom that day. I looked at him and I just felt sick. I couldn’t believe that someone I had been with for so long didn’t have the same morals as me. I thought he would find anything like that disgusting - and he didn’t. I just cried and cried and cried."

Upset and terrified that vigilantes would target their home, Sophie asked her husband to leave four days later.

"After about a month I started to grieve I suppose for my relationship. I was married to someone that I loved and thought we would be together forever. We were talking about retirement and what we were going to do. All of a sudden, I haven't got that."

Sophie's husband later blamed her for his offending, citing the amount of time they spent with her family, the fact that she used to go out with her friends and the unpredictable hours she worked.

He offered to forgive her and take her back if she left it all behind to start a new life with him.

"He is in prison now. We’re getting divorced. The house sold quite quickly. I now live in a different house. My life has changed beyond recognition. It’s just totally different.

"Everyone says you’re so strong. I’m not. I’ve got no other choice. I have to keep going.

“For a good long while, I couldn’t do a day without crying. I’m on pretty heavy anti-depressants and I also have other medication for when I have panic attacks. I’ve had one time where I felt suicidal. I didn’t want to be here anymore.

"I’m not happy, I just live. I go to work, I come home. I just put a face on for everybody. I’ve been destroyed by this, absolutely destroyed."

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Sophie has found support through a forum for family members run by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation - a charity dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse.

She says that only those who have experienced this directly can really understand, although her own family and a number of friends have done their best to help.

"I’ve only had one person say to me that I must have known what he was doing. You don’t know. They keep it secret from everybody because of the repercussions."

The effects for her have been far reaching and she doubts that she will ever be in a relationship again.

"How do you move on from this and let it go and make another life? How would you trust anybody ever, ever again? I trusted him implicitly and look what has happened to me.

"I can’t imagine being with anyone ever again because I can’t trust anybody ever. At the age of 58, that’s quite sad."

The Lucy Faithfull Foundation provides confidential information and advice through its Stop It Now! Helpline on 0808 1000 900

Alternatively, visit the stopitnow.org.uk website.