Seven members of ‘depraved’ Glasgow grooming gang jailed for life
Seven members of ‘depraved’ Glasgow grooming gang jailed for life
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Seven members of a Scottish grooming gang which plunged to ‘the depths of human depravity’ have been jailed for life. The two women and five men were all convicted of gang raping a child and abusing other children under the age of 13 at a Glasgow drugs den over a seven-year-period.
Iain Owens, 46; Elaine Lannery, 40; Lesley Williams, 43; Paul Brannan, 42; Scott Forbes, 51; Barry Watson, 48; and John Clark, 48, were convicted in November 2023 following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow. Four of the group: Owens, Lannery, Brannan and Williams, were also found guilty of attempting to murder a child by pushing her into a microwave and trapping her in other places.
The gang were sentenced to between eight and 20 years in prison before they can apply for parole, and were handed lifelong restriction orders which mean they may never be released. Lord Beckett said: ‘This court is used to hearing some of the worst examples 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 that 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 rescued them from ‘desperate darkness of their earlier life’.
