One victim was three months oldParents welcome length of sentences
Leaders of biggest Scottish paedophile network get life
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Two paedophiles who molested the young children of family friends and shared “appalling” images of child abuse with fellow perverts were jailed for life yesterday.
Neil Strachan and James Rennie were the ringleaders of Scotland’s biggest paedophile network, whose members committed offences in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and East Lothian.
Yesterday, the two ringleaders, both from Edinburgh, were sentenced for a catalogue of child pornography and abuse offences that included the sexual assault of a three-month-old boy.
HIV-positive Strachan, 41, was ordered at the High Court in Edinburgh to spend a minimum of 16 years behind bars. He was convicted at a trial earlier this year of attempting to rape an 18-month-old boy and sexually assaulting a six-year-old boy.
Rennie, 38, once a prominent and respected gay youth worker, was told he must spend at least 13 years in jail.
The former boss of LGBT Youth Scotland, an organisation dedicated to helping young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, was convicted of molesting a young boy over more than four years, beginning when the child was just three months old.
The pair were also convicted of a string of child pornography offences alongside six other men who have already been sentenced.
They were further found guilty of conspiring to abuse children, as were three other members of the network, after a 10-week trial.
The parents of Rennie’s victim rejected his attempt at an apology in court yesterday. The boy’s mother said: “I think he’s very sorry he’s been caught and he’s very sorry he’s in the position he’s in.”
The parents both welcomed the sentences.
The mother said: “I think it’s what I’d hoped they would both get.”
Lord Bannatyne told Rennie the level of betrayal of his victim’s parents was “truly appalling”.
He said: “These people had always stood by you, they had been there for you, given you their friendship, brought you into their lives and into the life of their child.”
Referring to Strachan’s abuse of the 18-month-old boy, which was captured in a photograph known as the “Hogmanay image”, the judge said: “By its very nature, what is shown in that photograph is utterly appalling and would shock to the core any right-minded person who has had to see it.”
The men were traced through their internet conversations about sexual fantasies involving children.
Nearly 125,000 indecent images were seized during Operation Algebra, which reached about 200 individuals across the world.
All the offences were committed in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and East Lothian between February 2004 and May last year.
Paint firm engineer Strachan, who was diagnosed as HIV positive in June 2007, was convicted of attempting to rape an 18-month-old boy in Edinburgh on New Year’s Eve in 2005.
Strachan, convicted of eight charges, was also found guilty of repeatedly touching a six-year-old boy indecently on the same night while he was asleep.
The jury found trained teacher Rennie guilty of 14 charges, including one of molesting a young boy over more than four years.
He circulated pictures of the abuse and offered the boy to other paedophiles – an offer taken up by Strachan.
Strachan was found to have 7,223 still pictures and 184 video images, while Rennie had 6,545 photographs and 662 movie files.
The judge said a risk assessment of Strachan found him to pose a high risk of future sexual violence against children.
Defence counsel Mark Stewart QC said Rennie, who had no previous convictions, wanted to make a formal apology and place on public record his “shame and sorrow” at what happened.
The court heard that Rennie was categorised as posing a high risk to the safety of the public.
Strachan and Rennie were both placed on the sex offenders register for life.
Ross Webber, 27, from North Berwick; Craig Boath, 24, from Dundee; Colin Slaven, 24, from Edinburgh; and John Milligan, 40, Neil Campbell, 46, and John Murphy, 44, all from Glasgow, were sentenced in June for their involvement in the paedophile ring.
Milligan was jailed for 17 years, insurance worker Boath for nine years and nine months, while bank teller Webber was jailed for eight years and nine months.
Slaven was jailed for three years, Campbell was ordered to spend three years and four months behind bars, while Murphy was jailed for two years.
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