Nadine Osman
A group of seven people convicted of sexually abusing children in Glasgow have, on January 4, been informed that they face possible life sentences.
Five men and two women were convicted in November in what is thought to be Scotland’s largest conviction of a child abuse network.
They will be compelled to serve a minimum period in jail before being considered for parole.
Iain Owens, 45, Elaine Lannery, 39, Lesley Williams, 42, Paul Brannan, 41, Scott Forbes, 50, Barry Watson, 47, and John Clark, 48, pleaded not guilty but were convicted after a nine-week trial at Glasgow’s High Court.
All seven were convicted of sexual abuse, including rape, with Owens, Lannery, Brannan, and Williams being found guilty of attempting to murder a child by shoving her into a microwave and confining her elsewhere.
The charges against the seven included making children perform sex acts on each other, serious sexual assault, rape and neglect.
An eighth accused, Marianne Gallagher, 38, who was found guilty of assault was told today that she would not be sentenced on January 9, with the rest of the convicted gang members, with her sentencing instead deferred for a year.
Judge Lord Beckett told the seven that they had been convicted of crimes of “extraordinary depravity” and that, “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.”
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 for which 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 that two girls and a boy, all under the age of 13, were brutally and sexually attacked on many occasions between 2012 and 2019 and that members of the gang used Class A substances in front of the children and forced them to ingest alcohol and narcotics.
Jurors had returned verdicts on 21 charges that were committed between April 2012 and June 2019.
The court heard that the children first met social workers in Glasgow in August 2017 and were deemed to be at risk in July 2018.
However, the allegations of violence and sexual abuse did not come to light until March 2020.
The trial heard that police were alerted by a man who had gotten 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.
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.
Photo: (top row, from left) Barry Watson, Elaine Lanney, and Iain Owens; John Clark, Paul Brannan, and Scott Forbes. (Credit: Police Scotland)
