Eleven in court for child sex ring including witchcraft and Ouija boards and Satanic animal killings
3 August 2022, 13:05 | Updated: 3 August 2022, 13:07
Eleven people have appeared in court accused of taking part in a child sex ring which also allegedly involves witchcraft, serious violence and neglect.
A court in Glasgow heard that the sex ring mainly centres around two young girls and a boy between 2010 and 2020 and the eleven suspects are said to have got the boy and the older girl to take part in 'seances (and) use a Ouija board...to call on spirits and demons.'
They also allegedly got the children involved in 'witchcraft' leading them to believe that they themselves had 'metamorphosed into animals'.
The group, of seven men and four women, are also believed to have worn cloaks and devil horns and made the young boy stab a budgie to death.
One of the girls is also said to have been shut in a microwave during an attempt to kill her, while also allegedly being trapped in an oven and a fridge freezer too, prosecutors allege.
Read More: 2021 was worst year on record for child sexual abuse online, watchdog finds
The eleven suspects faced a 14-page indictment listing 43 different charges during a hearing at the High Court in the Townhead, Maryhill and Craigend areas of Glasgow.
The accusations claim that the three young children were raped at different times while some of the group did 'clap, cheer and verbally encourage' and film a ten-year-old girl being sexually assaulted.
Iain Owens, 43, Elaine Lannery, 38, Lesley Williams, 40, Paul Brannan, 40, Marianne Gallagher, 37, Scott Forbes, 49, Barry Watson, 46, Mark Carr, 49, Richard Gachagan, 44, Leona Laing, 50, and John Clark, 46, deny the charges they face.
There are thought to be other members involved, namely Maureen Goudie, Steven McHendrie, Robert Brown, James McLean and Douglas Gachagan but the indictment states they are now 'deceased'.
Judge Lord Beckett set an eight week trial at the High Court in Glasgow for September next year. A further hearing was also fixed for October.
