A gang of seven Glasgow men and women operated unhindered for seven years despite obvious warning signs. Several children, including some still in nappies, were subjected to organised “rape nights”. The perpetrators were addicts who also gave the children alcohol and cocaine.
None of the bystanders tried to help the children, all under the age of 13. Instead, they applauded, filmed and paid for the abuse to continue.
One boy remembers the sound of a timer ticking when one rape ended and another began. The horror unfolded behind the door of a filthy drug den, a ground floor flat in a Glasgow suburb known as the “beast house”.
They were pushed into microwaves and locked in fridges
The gang even forced primary school children to eat dog food and abuse each other while they watched. They were pushed into microwaves and locked in fridges and freezers. One girl was hanged by her clothes on a nail in the kitchen.
During the 2023 trial, in which seven abusers were sentenced to prison terms, Judge Lord Beckett said the scandal went to the “depths of human depravity”.
The paedophile gang consisted of:
Iain Owens (46)
Elaine Lannery (40)
Leslie Williams (43)
Paul Brennan (42)
Scott Forbes (51)
Barry Watson (48)
John Clarke (48)
They were sentenced to a total of almost 100 years in prison.
However, the question arises as to how this could have happened in the first place. The children were visited by social workers, and were even registered as children in care in 2018 before the police solved the case.
The children were malnourished
Sky News visited the Glasgow suburb in question, but no one would speak. Except for one witness who spoke to police during the investigation. Speaking publicly for the first time, he recalled the night he spotted the lice on the girl and tried to arrange treatment.
– One of the girls had messy hair from lice and since she was the same age as my child, I asked her why she hadn’t fixed her hair. I later realized that she had deliberately left the lice in her hair to try to keep these beasts away. The lice were protecting her from them, he said.
The man also said he was concerned about the malnutrition of some of the victims and added that he had noticed the situation getting worse.
– The children were constantly hanging around the adults trying to get food. They were collecting food. It was terrible. The system had broken down, he said.