Category Archives: Glasgow

Brian Hunter – Glasgow

11 Sunday Apr 2021

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April 2021

Child rapist who battered woman with hammer dies month after Barlinnie cancer diagnosis

A sex offender who raped 13-year-old girl and battered a woman with a hammer died less than a month after being diagnosed with cancer.

Brian Hunter was a prisoner at Barlinnie when he was transferred to Glasgow Royal Infirmary in the weeks before he passed away January last year, a Fatal Accident Inquiry reports this week.

The 63-year-old had a shocking record of violence and abuse. He was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow in 1989 to life behind bars for the horrific knife-point rape of a 13-year-old in Bearsden on Christmas Day as she walked home ahead of her parents. He even robbed the sobbing child of 20p after carrying out the terrifying attack.

Hunter also stalked and robbed six other women at knifepoint and threatened to cut the fingers from one 30-year-old to get her engagement and wedding rings from her.

He was eventually released on licence after serving 17 years in prison, but it wasn’t long before he was back behind bars after carrying out a terrifying hammer attack on another woman in the south side in January 2008.

He was sentenced to a further four-and-a-half years in jail.

The inquiry at Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that Hunter was again released on licence in January 2016, but landed back in prison again in December 2018 after breaching the terms of his release.

A report published by Sheriff Charles Lugton on Friday explains that Hunter was diagnosed with lung cancer a year later in December 2019 and eventually transferred to hospital on Boxing Day.

He died on January 8.

The inquiry – a legal requirement when someone died in custody – found that his death was an anticipated event and resulted from natural causes.

June 1989

Vagrant jailed for life after knifepoint rape of girl, 13

A man who pounced on helpless women after stalking them through streets was jailed for life at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday for what was described by the Judge as a ”chronicle of evil.”

Lord Mayfield told Brian Hunter, 32, he was a ”dangerous man, particularly to women.”

The court was told how Hunter, a vagrant at the time of the attacks, pounced on a 13-year-old girl on Christmas Day as she walked home ahead of her parents.

She was dragged into a garden and raped at knifepoint by Hunter who, ignoring her sobs, threatened to kill her and robbed her of 20p.

Advocate-depute Mr Colin MacAulay told the court that DNA tests of the girl’s underwear identified Hunter as the attacker.

Hunter, who slept rough in derelict houses and the backs of cars, was caught but freed on bail. He later robbed six other women at knifepoint and threatened to cut the fingers from one 30-year-old to get her engagement and wedding rings from her.

Hunter had robbed the women because he had no money and was hungry, and he said he would not have raped his child victim had he realised she was so young.

Hunter admitted that on Christmas Day last year he threatened the 13-year-old with a knife, forced her into a garden in Bearsden, threatened to kill her, robbed her of 20p and raped her.

He also admitted assaulting and robbing six other women at knifepoint in Glasgow’s West End, kicking a policeman and breaching the Bail Act.

Jailing Hunter, whose last known address was 12 Queen’s Road Hill, Bedford, but who was homeless at the times of the attacks, Lord Mayfield told him: ”I have listened to what I can only refer to as a chronicle of evil in which you have admitted to a series of crimes, including the rape of a thirteen-year-old girl and assaults on women, sometimes with a knife.

”In my view you are a dangerous man. You are certainly not safe to be around, particulary to women.”

The Crown accepted pleas of not guilty to charges which had alleged that Hunter raped a 24-year-old woman in the Botanic Gardens and attempted to rape a 14-year-old girl in Maryhill.

Graham McGill – Glasgow

09 Friday Apr 2021

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April 2021

Serial sex offender found guilty of 1984 murder

A serial sex offender has been found guilty of murdering a mother-of-11 more than 36 years ago.

A jury took just over two hours to convict Graham McGill, 59, of strangling Mary McLaughlin, 58, in her Glasgow flat.

The grandmother’s body was discovered on 2 October 1984, six days after she was last seen alive on a night out in the city’s west end.

McGill will be sentenced at the High Court in Aberdeen next month.

Judge Lord Burns told him: “I have to pronounce a sentence of life imprisonment and will do so in due course.”

He thanked the jurors who sat through what he described as “a distressing and difficult case.”

It can now be reported he was on a week’s release from HMP Edinburgh when he carried out the horror murder.

He was serving a term for two sex attacks and was later jailed for another rape bid in 1999.

At the time of Ms McLaughlin’s murder, McGill was on day release from a 1981 prison sentence for assault with intent to rape.

During the four-day trial at the High Court in Glasgow, the jury heard she had enjoyed a night out drinking and playing dominoes at different bars on 26 September 1984.

She was last seen at about 22:45 leaving to go to a chip shop on her way home. But a short time later she met McGill, who was 22, and he ended up back at her flat.

There he launched what the prosecution described as a “brutal attack” and throttled Ms McLaughlin with the cord of her own dressing gown.

Ms McLaughlin’s death sparked a major police investigation and dozens of lines of inquiry.

The cold case remained unsolved until modern DNA techniques placed McGill in her flat with a greater than billion-to-one likelihood.

DNA found on her dress, inside the knot of the dressing gown belt, a cigarette end, and on a black bra all matched McGill, forensic scientist Joanne Cochrane told jurors.

McGill’s ex-wife Suzanne Russell also told the court that in 1988 he had confessed to murdering a woman because he “just wanted to know what it felt like”.

Prosecutor Alex Prentice QC revealed that McGill, who worked as a fabricator, was out on day release from HMP Edinburgh as part of a Training For Freedom initiative.

He was serving a six-year sentence for assault with intent to ravish and rape imposed in 1981.

He said: “It was during parole liberation that he carried out the murder of Mary McLaughlin. He was 22 at the time.”

Members of Mary’s family had written letters to the court expressing their grief.

Mr Prentice said: “The pain and sense of loss suffered by them has been prolonged.”

The prosecutor also told the court that McGill was jailed for life in 1999 for a brutal assault with intent to rape and was released on licence in 2007.

He was arrested and charged with Ms McLaughlin’s murder on 4 December 2019.

Allan Mooney – Larkhall/Glasgow

26 Friday Mar 2021

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March 2021

Lanarkshire pervert admits sharing thousands of child abuse images

A man caught with thousands of child abuse images had been sharing the disgusting material with another paedophile.

Allan Mooney was arrested after an early morning police raid on his home in McNeil Street, Larkhall.

As well as finding images on a phone and a computer, officers discovered more than 2000 messages between Mooney and others who shared his perverted interest.

Mooney, 37, now of Bridgeton, Glasgow, appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Friday.

He admitted possession and sharing of indecent images.

Jennifer McCabe, prosecuting, said police conducted a “systematic” search of the house around 7am on March 27 last year.

On the computer and phone they found 8815 images. Although most were described as Category C, 316 were in Category A, assessed as being the most depraved type

Ms McCabe told the court: “The images featured both male and female children, thought to be aged between four and 14 years.

“Cybercrime officers also recovered 2113 messages representing 30 conversations between the accused and others.

“These were sexually explicit with a clear focus on child abuse and the sharing of images.

“On the accused’s iPhone it could be seen that the accused had sent eight Category C images to another user on one day.

“These were accompanied by messages such as ‘Mmm, she’s lovely’ and ‘Wow, that’s sexy’.”

Sheriff Ray Small called for a criminal justice social work report and a risk assessment.

Sentence on Mooney, who has no previous convictions, was deferred until May and he was put on the sex offenders’ register.

Robert Palmer – Glasgow

06 Saturday Mar 2021

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March 2021

Pervert kissed missing girl, 12, on bus in Glasgow

A pervert who kissed a missing 12-year-old girl on a bus has been jailed for nearly 20 months.

Robert Palmer had earlier drank alcohol with the youngster in Glasgow’s Springburn in March 2018.

The 23-year-old later told police he believed the girl was 17.

Prosecutor Sarah Latta told Glasgow Sheriff Court: “Her dad who she was to be staying with that day reported her missing to the police.

“This is how the police became involved in the matter which was captured on CCTV.

“The friend who was with the girl on the bus was the subject of other matters.

“As a result of this, the girls were spoken to and got the version of events.

“It was only then that the version of events came to light.”

Palmer pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl.

The offence took place more than two years before Palmer sexually assaulted and racially abused two women – both 23 – at a flat in the city’s Germiston.

Palmer groped one of the women in a broom cupboard and tried to kiss the other victim.

He then brandished a knife at both of them.

Palmer shouted “black b******s, f***ing Osama Bin Ladens and go back to where you came from” and made animal noises.

Palmer pleaded guilty to the sexual assaults in February was sentenced for both matters on Friday.

He was jailed for 81 days for the kissing case and 18 months for the later offences.

Palmer was also put on the sex offenders register for seven years.

Sheriff Paul Crozier said: “As you have acknowledged, due to the nature of these offences and your previous convictions, there is no other appropriate method of dealing with you other than prison.”

Paul Reynolds – Moodiesburn

04 Thursday Mar 2021

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August 2009

Ex-football player gets four years for attempted rape

A former professional footballer has been jailed for four years for trying to rape a young woman he met in a nightclub.

Paul Reynolds, who played for Scottish league clubs Clyde and Airdrie United, had to be dragged off his 20-year-old victim by two bouncers.

He later said his sex attack “could have been much worse” if the stewards had not stepped in.

Reynolds, 19, was convicted of attempted rape after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow last month.

Judge Sean Murphy QC yesterday told him a substantial sentence had to be imposed for such a “grave offence”.

Reynolds, of Lochwood Lane, Moodiesburn, near Glasgow, looked on the verge of tears as he was led downstairs to the cells.

The court heard how Reynolds spent most of the night with the young woman in Glasgow’s Play nightclub on May 4 last year, but he claimed not to know her name.

They left after last orders and she believed they were going to share a taxi home. But when they reached Midland Street in the city centre, Reynolds pounced and forcibly tried to have sex with her.

Her desperate screams were heard by bouncers at a nearby pub, who dragged Reynolds away and held him until police arrived.

He claimed during the trial the incident had been “blown out of all proportion” and the woman wanted to have sex with him. He alleged she was a “willing partner”.

But Reynolds, who latterly worked in a call centre, told social workers in a pre- sentencing report the incident could have been worse had he not been stopped.