Eight people guilty in one of the largest paedophile ring trials in Scotland
Eight people have been found guilty of abusing children after a trial believed to have been the largest prosecution of a child abuse ring in Scotland.
Five men and three women were convicted after the court heard four children, all under the age of 13, were introduced to a world of drugs and alcohol, then exposed to sexual abuse and violence. The offences included rape and attempted murder.
A further three people - two men and a woman - were acquitted of the charges, after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow. Seven of the 11 accused were convicted of committing sexual abuse, including rape, and four were found guilty of attempting to murder a young girl by trapping her in various places including a cupboard.
The trial of 11 people accused of child sex abuse heard regular “child rape nights” and “dog killing nights” were allegedly held in a Glasgow drugs den attended by heroin addicts.
The convictions bring to an end one of the largest paedophile ring trials in Scottish history. (James Chapelard)Three child complainants made allegations that originally related to witchcraft but developed to include child sex abuse, including rape and attempted murder, the High Court in Glasgow heard.
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Four of the accused – Iain Owens, 45, Elaine Lannery, 39, Lesley Williams, 41, and Paul Brannan, 41 – are alleged to have attempted to murder a girl, who was allegedly put in a microwave, forced to eat dog food, and hung by her clothes from a nail, as well as being chased by people wearing a devil mask, on occasions between December 2015 and June 2019.
The court heard two girls and a boy were violently and sexually assaulted on multiple occasions between 2012 and 2019, and members of the group used Class A drugs in front of the children and caused them to consume alcohol and drugs.
One of the children said in evidence: “Two witches holded my legs down, it felt uncomfortable, all the witches and wizards were watching.” The Crown said it would have been “off the scale devious” to concoct the allegations.
An allegation that the accused used an Ouija board to “call on spirits and demons” causing the child victims to “believe that they could see, hear and communicate with spirits and demons” and making them take part in “witchcraft” was dropped.
Sending jurors out to begin their deliberations on Thursday, judge Lord Beckett told them to consider the “intensity of denials” from the accused and “how clear and emphatic they are”, along with “the confidence they expressed that they would have nothing to fear from DNA analysis”.
Iain Owens, 45, Elaine Lannery, 39, Lesley Williams, 41, Paul Brannan, 41, Barry Watson, 47, Scott Forbes, 50 and John Clark, 46, were found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of rape and sexual assault. The charges against them included making children perform sex acts on each other, serious sexual assault, rape and neglect.
An eighth accused, Marianne Gallagher, was found guilty of assault.
Owens, Lannery, Brannan, Williams and Clark were found guilty of attempting to murder a baby girl, who was put in a microwave, forced to eat dog food and hung by her clothes from a nail, as well as being chased by people wearing a devil mask on occasions between December 2015 and June 2019.
Two of the accused were found guilty of neglect – wilfully exposing children to harm by failing to give them clean clothing, adequate food or sanitary living conditions, and not treating chronic head lice infestations.
Judge Lord Beckett remanded the seven guilty of the most serious offences in custody. The eighth was released on bail. All will be sentenced in January.
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