Prison cell sex torturer faces life

QUESTIONS about the supervision of prisoners were raised last night after an inmate at a young offenders' institution was subjected to nine-hour sex and torture attack by his cellmate.

James McColgan, 21, carried out the horrific attack last September at Polmont Young Offenders' Institution while awaiting trial for raping a 17-year-old female student.

McColgan, formerly of Johnstone, Renfrewshire, was due to be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to both the rape and the attack on his cellmate.

However, after reading background reports, judge Lady Dorrian said she was considering imposing an order for lifelong restriction. That would mean McColgan being jailed until a parole board considered it safe to release him then kept under supervision for the rest of his life.

The victim of the cell attack earlier said no-one came to help him during the night-time attack, in spite of his screams.

Last night Bill Aitken, the Scottish Tories' justice spokesman, said: "I think it is extraordinary, almost unbelievable, that this could be going on when prisoners should be supervised and observed, within limits, in their cells. Serious questions need to be asked about the management of this institution."

The youth described how McColgan plunged his hand into a kettle of boiling water, burned him with a cigarette, stabbed him with a pen and made him drink water and cigarette butts from an ashtray before seriously sexually assaulting him.

McColgan will remain in custody for detailed reports to be prepared and is due back in court in July.