Child abuse ring warned of potential life sentence

Top row, left to right: Paul Brannan, John Clark, Scott Forbes, Barry Watson. Bottom row, from left: Iain Owens, Lesley Williams, Elaine Lannery, Marianne Gallagher

A group of seven people convicted of sexually abusing children in Glasgow have been told that they face possible life sentences.

Five men and two women were convicted in November in what is believed to be the largest prosecution of a child abuse ring in Scotland.

They had been due to be sentenced on Thursday but the judge deferred the case until Tuesday of next week.

The adjournment is to allow for risk assessors to be appointed.

The assessors will help the judge to decide whether a lifelong restriction order should be placed on some or all of the gang, who carried out horrific abuse against three children in a Glasgow drug den known as the "beastie house" by one of their victims.

It will look at whether the abusers would potentially "seriously endanger the lives or physical or psychological wellbeing of the public at large" and should therefore be subject to risk management for the rest of their lives.

They would also be ordered to serve a minimum period in jail - a punishment part - before they could be considered for parole.

Warning: This article contains details readers may find upsetting

Iain Owens, 45, Elaine Lannery, 39, Lesley Williams, 42, Paul Brannan, 41, Scott Forbes, 50, Barry Watson, 47, and John Clark, 48, had denied all of the allegations against them but were found guilty after a nine-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

All seven were convicted of sexual abuse - including rape - with Owens, Lannery, Brannan and Williams also being found guilty of attempting to murder a child by pushing her into a microwave and trapping her in other places.

Judge Lord Beckett told the seven that they had been convicted of crimes of "extraordinary depravity" and they all faced a "very substantial prison sentence".

He added: "Some of you have been convicted of sexually abusing three children and some of you two children.

"All of you were convicted of sexual abuse of a young child in the most appalling circumstances.

"All the crimes you were convicted of are serious. All the sexual cases are of extreme gravity."

• Child abuse ring victims suffered 'horrific ordeal'

However, the judge also said that: "You are not all in the same position and the court will consider the case of each of you and your own circumstances and the charges you were convicted".

Another woman, Marianne Gallagher, was found guilty of assaulting a young girl and had her sentence deferred for a year for good behaviour and she was released on bail.

A further three people - Mark Carr, 50, Richard Gachagan, 45, and Leona Laing, 51, were acquitted by the jury.

The court heard two girls and a boy, who were all aged under 13 at the time, 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.

Charges related to causing the children to take part in seances and witchcraft were dropped during the trial which ran between September and November.

Jurors had returned verdicts on 21 charges which were committed between April 2012 and June 2019.

The court heard that the children first came into contact with social work in Glasgow in August 2017 and were deemed to be at risk in July 2018.

But the allegations of violence and sexual abuse did not come to light until March 2020.

The trial took place at the High Court in Glasgow

The trial heard that police were alerted by a man who had got to know the children.

One of the victims became hysterical when she mistakenly thought she had been shut in a room.

The man told the trial he had then been "driven by his conscience and principles" to help the victims.

He and his wife documented details of what the children recalled happening at the hands of the gang.

There were said to have been "rape nights" and "dance and sex nights" in a squalid flat in the city that was frequented by drug users.

A girl was raped by members of the gang while she was still young enough to wear a nappy.

She described the flat as the "dark and scary beastie house" because she had been locked in a cupboard with a box that was full of spiders.

An older boy and girl were also subjected to savage beatings and sexual violence.