Child sex abuse victims in Glasgow 'failed', says minister

---

The SNP government has acknowledged that the victims in one of Scotland’s worst child sex abuse rings were failed. This statement has come after members of the gang were given life-long sentences when three victims under the age of 13 were subjected to sexual abuse and violence over a period of seven years. Children’s minister Natalie Don-Innes, speaking at the Scottish Parliament, described the case as horrifying and vowed to ensure that it would never happen again.

Opposition MSPs accused the government of failing to respond with urgency to the issue. Alba’s Ash Regan described the case as an institutional failure and called for swift action to address the issue of serious safeguarding failures. Labour MSP Pauline McNeill also questioned why the abuse was not detected earlier. Conservative Douglas Ross criticized the government’s lack of urgency in responding to the issue.

Minister Don-Innes confirmed that the government was already taking steps to protect children in addition to setting up an independent review of the Glasgow Child Protection Committee. She assured MSPs that there would be a full learning process from this failure. The minister revealed that the government had already created the National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group and a task force to tackle online harms to protect children.

Members of the gang were sentenced to jail for between eight and 20 years and given orders for lifelong restriction on Monday. These restrictions are reserved for the most serious court cases in Scotland that do not involve murder and mean the individual will either be in prison or on parole for the rest of their life. Judge Lord Beckett told the gang, whose jail sentences totalled over 93 years, that they may never be released from prison. The members of the gang subjected their victims to unimaginable abuse in a Glasgow drug den dubbed “the beastie house.

Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More

---