50 years in jail for paedophile gang

Six men all from Scotland have been jailed for their involvement in a paedophile ring, believed to be Scotland's biggest child pornography and abuse network.

Sentences range from 2 to 17 years after the graphic trial last month.

Trial judge Lord Bannatyne told the defendants "These offences involve real children and many of the photographs involve children being sexually abused, often in the most appalling ways,"

"There are real victims of these offences, namely the children who are photographed and abused."

Milligan, a 44-year-old civil servant from Glasgow, was found with 75,289 photographs and moving images of child sex abuse, and was “at the heart of this most serious conspiracy and a very major player,” said judge Lord Bannatyne, passing sentence. Milligan's co-conspirators, Craig Boath from Dundee and Ross Webber, from North Berwick, received sentences of nine years and nine months and eight years and nine months respectively.

Yeah the other men were convicted of the lesser charges of distributing, possessing and making indecent images. Neil Campbell, 46, a bell-ringer at Jordanhill parish church in Glasgow, was jailed for three years and four months. A married man, Campbell was formerly a Church of Scotland elder.

John Murphy, a receptionist at a gay sauna in Glasgow was jailed for two years, and Colin Slaven, a 24-year-old IT worker from Edinburgh was jailed for three years, a year of which was for contempt of court, after he arrived at court drunk during the trial.

The judge said all the offences were of the most serious nature, involving real children. “Many of the photographs, involved children being sexually abused, often in the most appalling ways,” said Lord Bannatyne. “These are not victimless crimes. They are real victims of these offences, namely the children who are photographed and in many of these photographs are actually being abused. In many of the photographs the children were of tender years.”

Two other members of the gang, Neil Strachan, 41, and James Rennie, 38, a senior figure in youth work in Scotland, will be sentenced in seven weeks, for conspiracy and for other serious charges including the abuse of a three-month-old baby, left in Rennie's care by close friends who had no knowledge of his abusive activities. Both men face the prospect of life sentences.

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Paedophile network members jailed

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uploaded by mudricky

Speaking outside court, a father of one of the child victims said this to BBC Scotland: "I think they got a sentence which reflects what they have done, they got what they deserved.

"We saw in court at least one defence of them saying they didn't think it was real, it was just a fantasy but I simply cannot accept that.

"It happened to my son, who is a real person with a real name, real friends, real interests, real parents and a real bed that he sleeps in at night. He is a real child and the effects on those real children are extremely distressing and traumatic and in many cases will damage them for the rest of their lives."

The ring was uncovered during Operation Algebra, launched by police after the discovery of indecent images on a hard drive installed on Strachan's business laptop when he took it for repair.

Using digital software analysis from the US and new techniques to trace emails, detectives in Edinburgh were able to tie all eight men into a conspiracy to create, share and then pass on child pornography using file-sharing sites and email.

Their abuse and activities lasted for more than four years, and the investigation uncovered activity by about 200 people around the world. Leads on about 70 other people were sent to police forces across the UK.

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