{"id":976434,"date":"2026-05-21T22:27:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T22:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/976434\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T22:27:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T22:27:19","slug":"swinney-apologises-on-behalf-of-state-for-failures-in-beastie-house-report-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/976434\/","title":{"rendered":"Swinney apologises on behalf of state for failures in \u2018Beastie House\u2019 report \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scotland\u2019s First Minister has apologised to those involved in a \u201cdeeply distressing\u201d major report into a notorious abuse ring.<\/p>\n

John Swinney offered an apology on behalf of the state for any failures outlined in the report into the so-called \u201cBeastie House\u201d gang.<\/p>\n

The 75-page report published on Wednesday found several children at the centre of a Glasgow abuse ring were failed by authorities despite clear warnings and cries for help over the course of years.<\/p>\n

The learning review found it was \u201cdifficult to comprehend\u201d that abuse was not detected earlier despite more than a decade of involvement from social work and a host of other public agencies.<\/p>\n

\"Soldier<\/a>\"Prince<\/a><\/p>\n

When asked by journalists in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday if he would make an apology for failures outlined in the report, Mr Swinney said: \u201cYes, I would make that apology because I think the contents of the report are deeply, deeply distressing.<\/p>\n

\u201cLord Beckett \u2013 when he summarised the court case and disposed of the case and stressed the extreme nature of what he had experienced, what had been presented to the court \u2013 Lord Beckett made the point that the court hears terrible things, but that was of a different order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is completely unacceptable, and I apologise to everybody who has been involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two women and five men were all convicted of gang raping a child and abusing other children, and were given sentences of between eight and 20 years in jail before they can apply for parole.<\/p>\n

Iain Owens, 46; Elaine Lannery, 40; Lesley Williams, 43; Paul Brannan, 42; Scott Forbes, 51; Barry Watson, 48; and John Clark, 48, were convicted in November 2023 following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.<\/p>\n

Four of the group \u2013 Owens, Lannery, Brannan and Williams \u2013 were found guilty of attempting to murder a child by pushing them into a microwave and trapping them in other places.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s review found staff repeatedly failed to thoroughly investigate abuse and neglect of several children between 2012 and 2019.<\/p>\n

This was despite mounting evidence over more than a decade, including adults around them taking drugs, several children missing multiple teeth at a young age, reports the children were dirty and smelled like urine, and one of the children saying they wanted to kill themselves.<\/p>\n

\"SixSix of the seven people convicted for their roles in the child abuse ring (Police Scotland\/PA) <\/p>\n

Glasgow City Council chief executive Susanne Millar held senior roles in social work services during this time.<\/p>\n

In 2012, she became the city\u2019s assistant director for social work and retained the chief social work officer job while taking on roles for planning and strategy until she became interim chief officer role in 2019.<\/p>\n

Mr Swinney was asked if Ms Millar should resign given her role in social work during this time period.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI think, obviously, there\u2019s proper discussions that have got to take place by the individual responsible bodies, and it shouldn\u2019t be for me to comment on those issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor my part, I obviously lead the Government, and this is a deeply distressing report about an extreme example where child protection has clearly failed. There\u2019s no other way to talk about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had other examples where there have been failures in performance, and there are measures taken to strengthen that. There is obviously inspection regimes taken forward of individual child protection arrangements. Indeed, this review is part of that process to identify where there are failings, and where those failings have got to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman from Glasgow City Council said: \u201cThe Independent Learning Review did not ascribe blame to any individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cA recent joint inspection by the Care Inspectorate, Education Scotland, His Majesty\u2019s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland, and Healthcare Improvement Scotland gave a \u201cgood\u201d rating to Glasgow\u2019s services for children and young people at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlasgow City Council accepts the findings of the review and will act, alongside other agencies, to ensure any necessary changes are implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland\u2019s First Minister has apologised to those involved in a \u201cdeeply distressing\u201d major report into a notorious abuse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":976435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7826],"tags":[271949,271950,748,27009,5169,271951,918,10650,4884,271952,271953,7852,271954,271955,285,712,82537,10022,26109,26656,271956,16,15],"class_list":["post-976434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-glasgow","tag-barry-watson","tag-beastie-house-gang-abuse-report","tag-britain","tag-child-abuse","tag-child-protection","tag-elaine-lannery","tag-glasgow","tag-glasgow-city-council","tag-great-britain","tag-iain-owens","tag-john-clark","tag-john-swinney","tag-lesley-williams","tag-paul-brannan","tag-politics","tag-scotland","tag-scott-forbes","tag-social","tag-social-services","tag-social-work","tag-susanne-millar","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/976435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}