February 2015: Caroline Dunsmore, was given a 12-year jail term in 2007 – but under automatic release laws she will leave HMP Cornton Vale in June this year after serving eight years of her sentence when she is set to get married to her her long-term partner, Thomas Miller.
**Other members of paedophile ring pictured and profiled at bottom of page
June 2007
Jail for mother who watched as daughter aged nine was raped
A mother who stood by as her nine-year- old daughter was gang-raped by members of a paedophile ring has been jailed for 12 years.
Caroline Dunsmore allowed Dana Fowley to be abused so often that it became a ‘way of life’ for the girl.
John O’Flaherty, who admitted raping Miss Fowley on at least 12 occasions, was jailed for 13 years.
Morris Petch, who had denied involvement but was convicted of raping Miss Fowley and another girl, was told he faces a possible life term when he is sentenced on August 10.
But it was the ‘grievous breach of trust’ on the part of Dunsmore to her child that stunned the High Court in Edinburgh.
Despite her mother’s behaviour Miss Fowley, who is now 27 and fled the courtroom in tears during sentencing, said last night that she still loves her.
However, she added that she was ‘delighted’ her mother would pay for allowing her to be subjected to years of systematic sexual abuse.
Passing sentence the judge, Lord Malcolm, said he would take into account public revulsion at the grievous crimes against the two girls. He told 43-year-old Dunsmore: ‘It is hard to imagine a more grievous breach of trust on the part of a mother towards her child.
‘Over many years you have participated fully in a paedophile group whose repeated abuse of your daughter obviously caused her very serious damage and you took no steps to remove her from that situation.’
The court heard that the abuse had taken place throughout the bulk of the victim’s childhood.
Dunsmore, O’Flaherty and Petch were described as members of Edinburgh’s worst-ever paedophile ring, orchestrated by Dunsmore’s husband Billy King, who died in 1995.
O’Flaherty and Petch, both aged 50, from Edinburgh, were his friends. Other abusers linked to King are still being investigated by police.
Dunsmore of Newhaven, Edinburgh, and O’Flaherty had previously pleaded guilty to the horrific abuse of Miss Fowley in a caravan in Perthshire on a single night between April 1990 and June 1990, and to years of earlier sexual abuse and rape of the girl at a house in Edinburgh when she was as young as six.
Jailing O’Flaherty, Lord Malcolm told him: ‘You were prepared to take advantage of this young child to satisfy your deviant desires and it is clear from the reports you display no real remorse or understanding of the damage caused to her by your conduct.’
At an earlier hearing Iain McSporran, prosecuting, described how, from an early age, Miss Fowley experienced ‘extraordinary’ abuse, beginning at the instigation of her stepfather King.
Miss Fowley remembered that in a caravan park in Perthshire she was woken up by King who blindfolded her and took her into another room where she was raped by three men who ignored her pleas to stop.
Mr McSporran said: ‘The accused Caroline Dunsmore was present during the assault and rape although (the girl) did not know that at the time.
‘She names John O’Flaherty as one of the men who raped (the girl) that night.’
Mr McSporran said when O’Flaherty was questioned by police, he initially denied all the allegations but eventually admitted he had sex with the girl about 12 times and also admitted he knew other men were having sex with her.
Mr McSporran said: ‘It appears that not only had these girls become so accustomed to being raped, that it was seen as a way of life, but their rapists saw it that way too, being utterly indifferent to the effects upon the victims and not even particularly conscious of the gravity of their crimes.’
The court heard that both girls had contemplated suicide.
Dunsmore’s lawyer said his client had grown up in an ‘extremely deprived’ household and was abused by her own father as a child. She was described as having an extremely low IQ and learning difficulties.
Outside court Miss Fowley, who waived her right to anonymity, said: ‘I’m delighted, but there’s a lot of mixed emotion.
‘Growing up, I thought the abuse was normal because she was my Mum and I trusted her. It was only when I became a mum myself that I knew that what she did to me is wrong.
‘I decided to go to the police after I gave birth to my first child because I didn’t want paedophiles like them walking around when they were growing up.
‘I do hate her for what she’s done, but I still love her, just because she’s my mum.
‘Part of me still feels sorry for Mum. I don’t know why she did what she did. I found out she was raped as a child, but that doesn’t give her any excuse.
‘One day I want to visit Mum and ask if she’s sorry, but I don’t think she’s capable of feeling anything – she’s got mental issues.’
2007
A mother has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for her part in the gang rape of her young daughter and another girl.
Caroline Dunsmore (pictured above) was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh for overseeing 10 years of abuse of Dana Fowley and a second victim.
John O’Flaherty (pictured above)was sentenced to 13 years for his role.
Morris Petch (pictured above) given life with a tariff of 12 years
Outside the court on Friday, Ms Fowley said she still loved her mother.
She said: “Of course I realise that my mother had to be brought to justice, but as a daughter I love her and when I heard her getting sentenced today I was gutted.
“I was totally gutted with what my mum was given, but at the end of the day it was a justified sentence. It was a victory, all of the sentences that were handed out.”
During the trial, the court heard how the children were subjected to frequent sexual abuse.
The offences took place in the Pilton area of Edinburgh over several years and began when the girls were under the age of 10.
The abuse was orchestrated by Billy King, (pictured above) who was married to Dunsmore, 43, and who is now deceased.
Dunsmore had previously pleaded guilty to several rape charges and to abusing Ms Fowley between 1987 and 1995 when she was aged six to 15, while acting with King.
O’Flaherty, 50, admitted having sex with the same girl at least 12 times and was jailed for 13 years.
THE FATHER: Alcoholic Thomas Fowley (pic below) who was Dana’s father, was an ‘extremely violent man’. He was jailed for raping Dana’s sister
GRINNING with excitement in their nightdresses, the two sisters look just like any other children on Christmas Eve. But behind the innocent smiles, ten-year-old Dana Fowley and her eight-year-old sister were hiding a secret too terrible to imagine.
But behind the innocent smiles, ten-year-old Dana Fowley and her eight-year-old sister were hiding a secret too terrible to imagine.
Dana’s mother, Caroline Dunsmore, 43, was jailed for 12 years for raping and abusing her, while John O’Flaherty, 50, was sentenced to 13 years for his role in the abuse
After the case, Dana, now 26, described the sentences as “justified” and “a victory” after her “life of hell”.
But the trio in court were just three of up to 15 adults who abused the girls. Some of the others are in prison for other child abuse offences, some are dead and some are still being hunted by police.
Today, Dana recalled how the horrific abuse she and her sister suffered simply became a fact of life for them.
At the time the photograph was taken, in 1991, Petch regularly visited the family’s Granton home to rape her. That year, he spent Christmas with the family, having been invited to the house in Wardieburn Road by her mother and her husband, Billy King – who police believe was the head of the paedophile ring. Aged only ten, Dana was molested by the trio each day from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day back in 1991.
She said: “Me and my sister still saw Christmas as a special time. We just accepted what else would happen to us. We had no choice.
“Petch was always at the house and this was no different. And every time he was there I would be raped.”
The girls faced a sickening catalogue of abuse over 12 years, starting when Dana was just six.
Former ice cream man Billy King was said in court to have “orchestrated” the systematic abuse of his step-daughters.
King’s mother and father, Peter and Mary King,(pic below) who are both now dead, were involved in the first attack when Dana was just six
Dunsmore’s own lawyer, Gordon Jackson QC, described how she brought her daughter into a bedroom at the elderly couple’s house in Muirhouse Green to allow the first abuse to take place.
Dana today described Peter King as the “most sadistic” of her tormentors, recalling how he forced her to admit it was her fault she was being raped.
Dana said his wife Mary, who later suffered from dementia, willingly joined her husband in the attacks, which started when they were in their early 60s.
The grandad (pic above) jailed for 5 years for sexual abuse against a child
Another of her abusers was Caroline Dunsmore’s father, William, who raped and abused both his daughter and granddaughters. He is currently serving a five-year sentence for raping Dana’s younger sister.
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