SEVEN members of a twisted paedophile ring who preyed on kids in a drug den dubbed the ‘Beastie House’ have been jailed for a total of 93 YEARS.
Iain Owens, 46, and six other sickos appeared today at the High Court in Glasgow more than one year after they were nailed over the sex abuse plot.
Judge Lord Beckett told them they may “never be released” for committing “dreadfully depraved sexual offences” as he also imposed each with life long restrictions orders.
Owens was given 20 years, Elaine Lannery 17, Lesley Williams 14, Paul Brannan 15, Scott Forbes eight, Barry Watson nine years and six months and John Clark 10 years.
The seven sickos were convicted in November 2023 of preying on kids in a hellhole flat in the city.
Lord Beckett told the sentencing hearing for the child abuse ring: “This court is used to hearing some of the worst example of human behaviour but such depravity as you demonstrated is beyond my experience. Such extreme abuse seems to be rare.
“The children showed extraordinary fortitude, strength and stamina as investigators struggled to comprehend what you had done to them.
“The children’s exceptional courage and perseverance in the face of threats allowed justice to be done.”
He said the crimes “were about as serious as it’s possible to be”, and praised the actions of a married couple who “provided respite” to the children, and said they were rescued from “desperate darkness of their earlier life”.
Fiend Owens was nailed with Elaine Lannery, 40, Paul Brannan, 42, and Lesley Williams, 43, for a bid to murder a tot who they forced into a microwave.
They were also convicted for rape along with Barry Watson, 48, John Clark, 50, and Scott Forbes, 51.
They finally learned their fate today after a series of delays caused by the complexity of the case and disagreements over the findings of risk assessment.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Glasgow ‘beastie house’ thug mingles with Greggs customers as she awaits sentence for attacking paedo ring victims ” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6344328295112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]The judge told the seven child abuse ring members: “Each of you faces at least one charge of extreme gravity; including very serious and repeated sexual offending against a very young child.
He described the abuse as “life endangering and in some cases murderous assaults” and said the sentence was “to deter others, and expressing the abhorrence of the community of such atrocious abuse of vulnerable children”.
He added: “I take account of the terrible suffering of the children. The impact is extremely serious and can be expected to be enduring. At the very least you have inflicted extreme damage on their relationships.”
The judge praised victim impact statements from the children, adding of the oldest child: “An impression of innate humanity shines through her words.”
He told Iain Owens, who was jailed for 20 years and given an order for lifelong restriction: “Yours is the worst example of extreme child abuse.”
The court heard that Owens forced two of the children to ingest heroin and cocaine, and the judge branded the offences “humiliating, degrading sexual crimes against incredibly vulnerable children”.
Lord Beckett had earlier told the seven fiends he had to decide how to protect the public, especially kids, after their convictions for “appalling” sex crimes.
He said at an earlier hearing: “You may, at liberty, seriously endanger members of the public, particularly younger children.
“Each of you face a substantial prison sentence and these may be extended.”
The court earlier heard from Gary Allan KC, representing Owens, he was challenging the findings of a court-appointed risk assessor for his client.
Mr Allan said another defence-appointed expert had reached a different conclusion and as such an evidence hearing should be set to resolve the matter.
A similar scenario was put forward by solicitor Jim Wallace, representing co-accused Forbes, who was convicted of filming the abuse.
We told how Forbes accused a victim of being “promiscuous”.
He made the slur to a psychologist about a schoolgirl he and six others subjected to sex attacks in the hellhole pad.
Dr Angela Holmes, a forensic psychologist and risk assessor, told the court: “He was very derogatory towards the children and accused them of lying and accused the foster parents of coercing the children to lie.
“He referred to the girl as being quite promiscuous. He did not present any empathy towards the children at all.”
She gave evidence during one of a number of January hearings held to debate the issue and inform Lord Beckett’s sentencing decision.
We told how they were all nailed for raping a child and abusing other kids in the filthy pad one victim described the flat as a “dark and scary beastie house”.
Lord Beckett said at the time: “It plunges to the depths of human depravity.”
The trial heard the offences, involving three children, happened between 2012 and 2019.
Cops were seen lugging bags of evidence from the flat in 2020.
In all, 11 people stood trial. Three of them were acquitted.
Allegations of Satanic rituals and dog-killing were dropped by prosecutors.
Ringleader Owens and partner Lannery were remanded in custody after being found guilty at trial along with Brannan, Williams, Watson, Clark, and Forbes.
