'Satanic' child sex ring case in Glasgow - involving attempted murder and sexual assaults - to be continued

A case for 11 people accused of taking part in a child sex ring involving witchcraft, attempted murder and serious sexual violence will be continued early next year.

A hearing was held at the High Court in Glasgow.

Seven men and four women are facing a 14-page indictment listing 43 different charges on alleged crimes that happened between January 2010 and March 2020 at various addresses in Glasgow. The accusations involve multiple young children, but mainly centre around two girls and a boy. Some charges claim the alleged victims were forced to take part in satanic "seances" where they were told they were drinking blood and eating a heart.

It is claimed they were made to kill animals and made to use a Ouija board, or similar object, "to call on spirits and demons". There are also claims members of the group did cheer on, as well as video record the children being sexually abused.

Iain Owens, 44, Elaine Lannery, 38, Lesley Williams, 41, Paul Brannan, 40, Marianne Gallagher, 38, Scott Forbes, 49, Barry Watson, 46, Mark Carr, 49, Richard Gachagan, 45, Leona Laing, 50, and John Clark, 46, deny the charges they face. Maureen Goudie, Steven McHendrie, Robert Brown, James McLean and Douglas Gachagan are also mentioned as being involved in a number of the charges, but court papers said they are now deceased.

At a hearing at the High Court in Glasgow on Monday, Judge Lord Beckett described the case as "a unique situation".

Members of the group are accused of getting the young boy to “courier controlled drugs” on their behalf.

The second charge is against 10 members of the group, apart from Forbes, who have been accused of assaulting one of the girls over half a decade from when she was six years old.

It is then said Owens, Lannery, Williams, Brannan and Gallagher assaulted the young boy. Owens, Lannery, Williams, Brennan and Clare are then accused of attempting to murder the younger of the two girl victims.

The charge states between 2015 and 2019, they forced her to eat pet food.

Court documents claim all 11 members wore cloaks and devil horns and got the children involved in "witchcraft". Owens then faces a number of charges that he raped the older girl on various occasions over seven years between 2012 and 2019. Some of these incidents are said to include Watson, Brannan, Clark and Forbes, who are also charged with raping the girl at several points over four years.

One charge involves members of the group threatening one of the young girls that they had arranged for her to go to Turkey with a male stranger. And prosecutors state Gachagan, Laing, Carr, Forbes and Watson allegedly paid for “sexual services” for three of the children.

Owens and Lannery also face charges of attempting to defeat the ends of justice and attempting to pervert the course of justice. The indictment goes on to detail further separate drugs charges against the group.

Judge Lord Beckett set an eight-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow for September next year. A further hearing has been fixed for January.