A paedophile ring has been smashed after eight
men were found guilty of a horrifying catalogue of more than 50 child
pornography and abuse charges.
Among the crimes was a shocking sexual attack
carried out on a three-month-old baby boy by an executive adviser on child sex
issues.
James Rennie, chief executive of a
publicly-funded gay rights group, was one of the men exposed yesterday as
members of Scotland's biggest paedophile
ring.
Rennie, 38, molested the toddler
son of unsuspecting friends - a little boy he had been trusted to babysit -
recording the abuse and sharing it with other perverts.
In the course of the police
investigation, the boy's parents were forced to watch a video of their baby son
being violated by Rennie.
Last night, after the eight men
were found guilty of a string of child sex charges at the High Court in Edinburgh,
the child's parents reacted with disgust.
They said: 'For over 15 years,
James Rennie seemed the closest of family friends and it is hard to put into
words the extent of the betrayal he has exacted upon us.'
During their investigations,
police recovered tens of thousands of still and moving images of the most vile
child abuse.
Police sources revealed yesterday that the activities of 70 other men around
the
More than 35 people have been
arrested or been subject to enforcement action. Two investigations are
continuing in
One of the most worrying aspects
of the case is the way Rennie was able to reach a position where he could
influence Executive policy on child sexuality.
A trained teacher, Rennie became
the boss of LGBT Youth Scotland, a publicly-funded support group for lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender young people.
He took on the £40,000 a year
role when the group was set up in 2003 and became the Executive's most
important and influential adviser on gay issues affecting children.
Under his leadership, the group
backed proposals to allow gay adoption. As well as appearing in the Scottish
parliament, he was invited to a Royal Garden Party and to
Yesterday, Rennie, from
He allowed the boy, whom he
called his 'nephew', to be abused by another paedophile and also offered him to
other deviants in a series of emails.
When his home was raided in
December 2007, Rennie had gone to the trouble of hiding computer hard drives,
discs and CDs in a gap next to the water tank in his kitchen. Between these
storage devices and his laptop computer, he was found to be in possession of
thousands of images, many of them at the most extreme level of the scale.
Rennie carried out his vile
activities as part of a Scottish paedophile ring swapping images of child
pornography on the internet.
He was suspended as soon as LGBT Youth Scotland was told of his arrest in
December 2007 and resigned soon afterwards.
Last night, a spokesman for LGBT
Youth Scotland, which received £1.1million in 2008 from the Executive, councils
and health boards, said: 'We are appalled by the abuse and exploitation of
children by James Rennie, and wholeheartedly welcome his conviction. Our
immediate thoughts are with the children and families who have been directly,
and indirectly, abused by him and the other co-accused also convicted.
'We had no suspicion whatsoever
of the crimes James Rennie was committing. He was obviously skilled at hiding
his actions and adept at deceiving people. There is no suggestion James Rennie
directly threatened the safety of young people accessing our services.'
Last night the Executive said
that it would continue to fund LGBT.
When he was arrested, Rennie had
a steady boyfriend, but trawled the internet looking for gay sex dates.
He also used the internet to meet
other paedophiles, including Neil Strachan, a child molester who was jailed for
three years at
Strachan, 41, joined Rennie for a
sex session with Rennie's 'nephew' at his flat in Meadowbank when the boy was
between one and three.
Rennie then boasted about the
encounter to another paedophile, Lachlan Anderson, 51, from Cumbernauld,
Dunbartonshire.
Strachan was found guilty of
attempting to sodomise a different 18-month-old toddler on the night of
Hogmanay 2005 at his flat in the Dalry area of
Last night, the boy's mother
said: ' The anguish I feel towards Mr Strachan is indescribable.
'I feel that no matter what
punishment is given to Mr Strachan it will never be able to compensate for the
hurt, devastation and great deal of stress brought to me and my family.
'Mr Strachan used and abused our
trust in order to satisfy his and others' sick needs.'
Strachan's 23-year-old boyfriend
Colin Slaven was cleared of taking part in the sex act, which was photographed
and sent to Rennie.
Rennie involved John Milligan,
40, in his sick acts by allowing him to listen to the baby boy being abused.
Milligan also discussed getting
his hands on the child - and passed on images of Rennie's abuse to others.
The paedophile ring was uncovered
when photos of naked boys were found on Strachan's computer. He handed it in
for repair at a company in
A computer engineer found one
indecent image of a child on the machine and police were called in.
An examination by Northumbria
Police revealed other images.
The inquiry moved to
Detective Superintendent Allan
Jones, senior investigating officer in Operation Algebra, said of the men:
'Many of them wouldn't stand out from a general member of the public; but in
the background they lead this double life, looking at some of the most vile
material you would ever care to imagine.
'Quite what motivates them and
why they take this course of action I really don't know. What I do know is we
can't be forgiving of it and we've got to pursue it to the nth degree to make
sure that this material is stopped.'
A jury found Rennie, Strachan,
Milligan, Ross Webber, 27, and Craig Boath, 24, guilty of plotting to arrange
access to children to carry out acts of gross sexual abuse. It is the first
time a conspiracy charge has been used successfully in
Church bell ringer Neil Campbell,
46, was cleared of that charge. But all six, along with Slaven and John Murphy,
44, were found guilty of charges relating to child pornography.
Having been convicted of actual
physical abuse of children, Rennie and Strachan face a possible life sentence.
Prosecutor Dorothy Bain, QC,
asked for 'a full risk assessment' which would allow the court to impose an
order for lifelong restriction - under which a judge imposes a minimum sentence
but the accused are only freed when the parole board considers it safe to do
so.
They then remain under strict
supervision for the rest of their lives.
Judge Lord Bannatyne said: 'I am
going to go down that route and investigate an order for lifelong restriction
for both these accused.'
All eight men were remanded in
custody to await sentence.