Scottish case involving 11 adults accused of ritual sexual abuse of children continued after hearing

Editor's note: The information in this article will be triggering to some. Please exercise caution reading beyond the scheduled court dates.

Glasgow, Scotland: Ironically, the scheduled hearing took place on Monday, October 31 at the High Court in Glasgow before Judge Lord Beckett.

During the hearing Judge Beckett called the case "a unique situation."

During the hearing questions were posed concerning how best to present evidence and witness testimony. The lawyers were given until the end of the year to file any complaints about proceedings ahead of the scheduled court date in September 2023.

The next hearing has been scheduled for some time in January.

The indictment indicates that children, two girls and one boy, were all, at various times, sexually abused including some instances where individuals stood observing to "clap, cheer, and verbally encourage" the abusers.

The abuse is believed to have happened between January 2010 and March 2020 at various locations around Glasgow.

A total of 16 individuals were named in the 43 count indictment.

Iain Owens, 44, Elaine Lannery, 38, Lesley Williams, 41, Paul Brannan, 40, Marianne Gallagher, 38, Scott Forbes, 49, Barry Watson, 46, Mark Carr, 49, Richard Gachagan, 45, Leona Laing, 50, and John Clark, 46, have all denied the respective charges against them.

Also mentioned in the indictment were five other individuals who are now indicated as being deceased. Those individuals are Maureen Goudie, Steven McHendrie, Robert Brown, James McLean and Douglas Gachagan.

In the indictment, prosecutors state that all 11 individuals forced the elder girl and the boy to take part in seances and to use a Ouija board in order to "call on spirits and demons." After being involved in witchcraft, the children were reportedly led to believe that they had "metamorphosed into animals."

During some of the rituals that the children were forced to participate in, they allege that the adults would sometimes wear cloaks, devil horns and even masks, and force the children to kill animals.

One of the charges details that the boy was reportedly placed into a bath by Owens, Lannery, Williams, Brannan and Gallagher and told that it was filled with blood.

Owens, Lannery, Williams, Brannan and Clark are accused of abusing the younger of the two girls and even attempting to murder her while abusing her between December 2015 and June 2019.

During that time, the five are accused of making the girl "act like a dog" and feeding her pet food, chasing her while wearing  a devil mask, hanging her by her jumper on a nail on the wall, and eventually placing the girl into a microwave, an oven, a freezer, and various cupboards.

The individuals charged also face separate drug charges with mention in the indictment that one of the girls was allegedly forced to take drugs and the boy was forced to "courier controlled drugs" on their behalf.