Seven members of a child sëx abuse ring who preyed on children as young as 13 in a Glasgow drug den nicknamed the ‘Bestie House’ were today handed jail terms ranging from eight to 20 years.
The two women and five men abused three children in the squalid flat, holding ‘rapë nights’ when they would be abused and forced to consume dog food, drugs and alcohol over a period of more than seven years.
They also used the property to hold ‘dance and sëx nights’ and ‘dog killings nights’ – all without neighbours suspecting anything was amiss.
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 found guilty of attempting to murder a child by pushing her into a microwave and trapping her in other places.
One of the victims, a girl, was rapëd in the dismal house when she was still young enough to wear a nappy.
She knew it as the ‘dark and scary beastie house’, so called because she had previously been locked inside a cupboard that was full of spiders and beetles.
Besides being raped, the youngest girl was shut inside an oven, a microwave and locked inside a freezer as members of the gang tried to kill her. She was also chased by people wearing devil masks during the abuse, which she suffered between 2015 and 2019.
The girl told the court during last year’s trial: ‘It is not nice when people laugh at you when you are hurting.’
The depraved gang even made one of the children dress up and ‘dance’ before being rapëd.
