Glasgow's Most Notorious WOMEN | Full List of Female Criminals & Life Sentences

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Glasgow has a hard reputation. It earned it the long way over a century of headlines, courtrooms, and cases that the rest of Britain still talks about.

[00:00:09]Most of the names tied to that reputation are men. The gang bosses, the serial killers, the hitmen, the names you already know. The women rarely make the front page. When they do, the story tends to disappear from the news cycle.

[00:00:23]Within a week or two, the country moves on. The cases in this video are the ones the country should not have moved on from. Mothers who killed their own children. Teenagers who left a 14-year-old face down in a river. A drug mule from Lindsay who ended up in a Peruvian prison cell. A woman who walked into a flat fresh out of jail and walked out leaving three dead men behind. The last woman ever hanged in Scotland and the worst case Glasgow's courts have ever heard. 10 women, 10 cases. Glasgow remembers all of them. Section one.

[00:00:59]Edith Malindon, the House of Blood, triple murder. Crossill, Glasgow, 2004.

[00:01:06]On the evening of Sunday the 16th of October 2004, Edith Malindon walked out of prison and went to find her boyfriend. She was 36 years old. She had just finished a 9-month sentence for a serious assault. The man she was looking for was David Gillespie, 42. He lived in a topfloor flat on Dixon Avenue in Cross Hill on the south side of Glasgow. He shared the flat with two older men.

[00:01:31]Anthony Coyle was 71. Ian Mitchell was 67 and owned the flat. He was the landlord. Edith called him Pops [music] because he had been like a grandfather figure to her. By the time the sun came up the next morning, all three men would be dead. The walls, the floors, and the ceilings of the flat would be covered in so much blood that police would later call the place the House of Blood. The four of them had a drinking session that night. At some point during the drinking, Edith and David got into an argument. [music] She picked up a knife.

[00:02:03]She stabbed him in the thighs again and again. One of the wounds cut a major blood vessel in his leg. He bled to death on the floor in front of her.

[00:02:12]Around the same time, Edith's 17-year-old son, John Malindon, and his 16-year-old friend, Jaime Gray, were on their way to the flat. Once they arrived, the killing did not stop with David. Ian Mitchell was attacked next.

[00:02:25]He was stabbed and beaten and stamped on. Anthony Coyle ran into his bedroom and locked the door. He had three locks on his door. The two boys used an electric drill to get through. Once they got the door open, they chased the old man down and beat him to death, too.

[00:02:41]Boiling water was poured over two of the victims after they had stopped moving.

[00:02:44]Police think this was done to check if they were still alive. Around 3:00 in the morning, Edith left the flat and went to a neighbor's door. His name was James Sweeney. She told him something had happened and asked him to come and check. He went up to the flat. The first thing he saw was the hallway. He took out his mobile phone and called 999.

[00:03:04]When the police and paramedics arrived, they found Edith on the floor next to David's body, holding him and screaming at him to wake up. The other two bodies were still inside. The very next day, Monday the 18th of October, Edith Malindon was charged at Glasgow Sheriff Court. At first, the police did not believe one woman could have done all of this on her own. There was so much blood that they thought there must have been two or three strong men involved in the killing. They were partly right. About two weeks later, a man called Brian Gallagher walked into a police station.

[00:03:37]He lived at the same homeless unit as John Molindon. He told officers that John had been bragging about the killings the night before. That tip is what cracked the case open. John and Jamie Gray were arrested and charged. In May 2005, all three of them stood trial together at Glasgow High Court. The prosecutor was Sha Murphy QC. He told the jury the victims had been beaten with knives, with a metal file, with a belt, and with pieces of wood. He told them the men had been hit with a bottle, punched, stabbed, and stamped on the head. The trial was so disturbing that one juror asked to be excused after watching the police video of the crime scene. The judge agreed and let them step down. Each of the three accused had pleaded not guilty when the trial began.

[00:04:25]As the evidence came out, all three changed their pleas. John Molindon admitted he had killed Ian Mitchell.

[00:04:32]Jaime Gray admitted he had killed Anthony Coyle. Edith Molindon admitted she had killed David Gillespie.

[00:04:40]Each of them, by their own words, had taken one life. On the 29th of June 2005, the three of them came back to Glasgow High Court for sentencing. Edith Melinda was given a life sentence with a punishment part of 13 years. That meant she had to serve at least 13 years in prison before she could even ask to be considered for parole. Her son John was given life with a 12-ear minimum. Jaime Gray was given the same life with a 12-ear minimum. The total time the three of them had to serve before any of them could apply for release was 37 years.

[00:05:15]The judge said the killings were among the worst the court had ever dealt with.

[00:05:19]The families of the victims were not happy with the sentences. One of David Gillespy's daughters, who was just 16 at the time, said outside court that 13 years for a triple murder was a sick joke. She said she would have been happy with 20 years. Her mother said she felt sick when the judge spoke the number out loud. The flat on Dixon Avenue stayed empty for a long time after that night.

[00:05:42]Locals would walk past it and cross the road. Three men had gone there to share a drink with people they thought they knew. None of them ever walked out again. Edith Malindum became in that one night one of the most notorious women ever to come out of Glasgow. She had walked free from prison and into a flat she had been welcomed into. Within hours, she had taken the life of the man who welcomed her. Two more men were dead beside him before the night was over.

[00:06:10]The youngest victim was 42 years old.

[00:06:13]The oldest was 71. The blood inside that flat is what the case is still remembered by more than 20 years later.

[00:06:21]That night in Crossill ended with three dead men in one flat. The next case ends with one dead man in his own home and a toolbox full of weapons that had been carried halfway across Glasgow to make sure he never opened his door again.

[00:06:36]Section two. Maria Gardner. The springburn toolbox murder of Brian Mey Glasgow 2022.

[00:06:45]On the morning of the 8th of February [music] 2022, Brian Mey was a 52-year-old grandfather living in a flat on Young Terrace in Springburn on the north side of Glasgow. He shared the flat with his partner Lindseay Patterson. He had three daughters. He had grandchildren. He was, by every account given in court, a normal man living a quiet life on a quiet street.

[00:07:08]He had no idea that across the city in a flat in Govern, three people had spent the night before deciding he had to be hurt.

[00:07:16]2 days earlier on the 6th of February, Michael Anderson had sent text messages to a man called James Houston. In those messages, Anderson said he believed Brian had stolen drugs or money from him. He wanted that money back. He wanted to send a message. Late on the 7th of February, Houston went to Anderson's flat in Govern with his partner, Maria Gardner. Maria was 47.

[00:07:40]She had a long record of previous convictions. The three of them sat in the govern flat and made a plan. The plan was to go to Brian's home and give him a beating. Before they left the flat, they packed a toolbox. Inside it, they put a hammer, a blowtorrch, a chisel, and other tools. None of these tools were going to be used to fix anything. They were weapons picked out and gathered up before the trip across the city. Maria helped carry the toolbox. The CCTV cameras in Glasgow city center would later be played in court. The jury watched the three of them walk from Govern.

[00:08:15]They watched them flag down a taxi. They watched them ride across the city to Springburn with the toolbox between them. Maria left her phone behind in Govern. So did Houston. [music] They did not want a record of where they had been. When they arrived at Young Terrace, they forced their way into Brian's flat. Brian was at home. Lindsay was at home. The three attackers split up. Anderson and Houston went for Brian.

[00:08:40]Maria's job, the court would later be told, was to take care of Lindsay. Her role was to keep Brian's partner away from him, so she could not help him while he was being attacked. The men used the tools from the toolbox. They used a knife. They used a chisel. Brian was stabbed many times. One of the wounds went all the way through his arm.

[00:08:59]That single wound cut major blood vessels. He bled out very quickly. He died on the floor of his own home in his own flat with his own partner unable to reach him. Lindsay was assaulted as well. She survived. [music] The three killers left the flat and went on with their day. Maria and Houston had only just started a relationship together.

[00:09:20]They went into the city center and checked into the Premier Inn at Charing Cross. They spent Valentine's Day there together while Brian's family began to find out what had happened. Police picked them up at the hotel a few days later. Anderson was arrested, too. All three of them denied the murder. They denied the plan. They denied everything.

[00:09:40]The trial took place at the high court in Glasgow. The jury was shown the text messages between Anderson and Houston from the days before. They were shown the CCTV from Glasgow city center. They were shown the toolbox and what was inside it. They heard the medical evidence about the wound to Brian's arm.

[00:09:56]James Houston gave evidence. He told the court he had been played. He said he was just an innocent bystander. He said he thought they were only going to talk to Brian. He said that if he had known anyone was going to be hurt, he would never have gone. The jury did not believe him. On the 24th of January 2024, all three of them were found guilty of murder. They were also found guilty of assaulting Lindseay Patterson.

[00:10:22]Sentencing came on the 4th of March, 2024.

[00:10:25]The judge was Lord Fairley. He read out three victim impact statements from Brian's three daughters. He said the grief in those statements was painfully clear and that no sentence he could pass that day would change what their father had suffered. He gave Maria Gardner life in prison. The minimum she would have to serve before she could ask to be considered for parole was set at 18 years. Anderson got the same. Houston got 18 years and 6 months because he had been out on bail for another matter at the time of the killing. Maria did not accept it. She lodged an appeal against her conviction and against the length of her sentence. Her lawyers argued she had not actually been the one to attack Brian. They argued there was no clear evidence she even knew the men were carrying weapons that could kill. The appeal went all the way up to a panel of seven of the most senior judges in Scotland. In October 2024, the panel refused her appeal. The lead judge said the argument that she had played no real part in the killing was weak. She had been part of the plotting the day before. She had helped carry the toolbox across the city. Her job had been to keep Brian's partner away while he was being killed. She had done that job. A man had been killed in his own home over a small amount of missing drugs and money. A grandfather [music] in a flat in Springburn on a quiet morning in February. Before we move on, if you're enjoying this analysis, please consider subscribing. It helps the channel tremendously.

[00:11:51]That toolbox had been carried from Governor to Springburn. The next case begins on a quiet road in West Don Bartonshire with a 14-year-old girl on her way to meet her boyfriend and three teenagers waiting for her at the bridge.

[00:12:05]Section three. Donna Marie Brand, the 27-year cold case murder of Caroline Glacken. Reton/bonhill 1996 convicted 2023 sentenced 2024.

[00:12:19]Caroline Glacken was 14 years old. She lived in Bonhill, a small village in West Dumbartshire, just outside Glasgow.

[00:12:27]She was a fourthyear pupil at Our Lady and St. Patrick's High School in Dumbartan. She had been born in Derry in Northern Ireland. She was an only child.

[00:12:36]Her mother, Margaret McKe, loved her deeply. The night of the 24th of August, 1996 was a normal Saturday night.

[00:12:44]Caroline had been out with friends near the local shops on the Ledton estate.

[00:12:49]She had told a friend she was going to meet her boyfriend. Her friend told her not to go. Caroline went anyway. She was last seen walking along Dillerip loan, heading towards the bridge that crossed the river Levven. The next day was her mother's 40th birthday. By the morning of that birthday, Caroline's body would be found face down in the river.

[00:13:09]Caroline's boyfriend at the time was Robert O'Brien. He was 18. [music] Caroline was 14. Her mother had not approved of the relationship because of the age gap. Margaret would later tell the court her daughter had been infatuated with him. She would also tell the court that Caroline had told her before she died that Robert had lifted his hands to her. On that Saturday night, three teenagers were waiting at the bridge for Caroline to arrive. One was Robert O'Brien. One was Andrew Kelly, who was 17. One was Donna Marie Brand, who was also 17 and was at that time Robert's other girlfriend. A fourth person, Sarah Jane O'Neal, who was Andrew Kelly's girlfriend, was also part of the group that night, but she would die many years later before she could ever be charged. When Caroline reached the bridge, the three of them attacked her. She was punched. She was kicked.

[00:14:03]Bricks or similar heavy objects were thrown at her. She suffered at least 10 blows to the head. Her skull was fractured in several places. The forensic pathologist who later examined her body, Dr. Marjgerie Turner told the court Caroline was still alive when she went into the river. She was face down.

[00:14:21]She was unconscious. The actual cause of her death was drowning. After the attack, she had been pushed or had fallen into the undergrowth on the riverbank. And from there, her body had ended up in the water. The three of them walked away and left her there. Hours later, [music] on the morning of her mother's 40th birthday, a passer by saw the body in the water at place of Bonhill in Reton.

[00:14:45]A murder investigation began straight away in 1996.

[00:14:49]Detectives spoke to hundreds of people.

[00:14:51]The three teenagers gave their account.

[00:14:54]They said they had spent the night together at a flat in Reon, babysitting two young boys. For 23 years, that story held. [music] The case stayed open.

[00:15:03]Caroline's mother lived without answers for more than two decades. The community lived with it, too. People wondered who had done it. They wondered if the killers were still walking around among them.

[00:15:14]In 2019, Police Scotland's major investigation team reopened the case.

[00:15:19]Officers went back to the same street in Reon. [music] They knocked on the same doors that had been knocked on in 1996.

[00:15:26]They took more than 200 fresh statements from people [music] who had never been spoken to before. One of the people they found was a man called Archie. Back in 1996, when he was a boy, Archie had told his mother, Betty, that he had been near the river that night and had seen people fighting and a girl falling into the water. He had been a child at the time.

[00:15:46]His account had not made it into the original case. This time, it did. An upstairs neighbor from the flat the three accused had said they were in also came forward. She told police she had seen four people leaving the flat before midnight. Their alibi fell apart. Robert O'Brien, Andrew Kelly, and Donna Marie Brand were charged with the murder in November 2021.

[00:16:09]The trial began at the High Court in Glasgow in November 2023. By then, they were all in their 40s. The jury sat through 10 days of evidence. On the 14th of December, 2023, all three of them were found guilty of murder. They had been teenagers when they did it. They were now middle-aged people standing in a dock. Sentencing came in two parts. In January 2024, Robert O'Brien was sentenced to life with a minimum of 22 years. Andrew Kelly was given life with a minimum of 18 years. Donna Marie Brand could not be in court that day. She was in hospital with a respiratory infection. Her sentencing was delayed.

[00:16:49]On the 22nd of April, 2024, she finally appeared at the high court in Glasgow by video link. Lord Brad sentenced her to life with a minimum of 17 years. The judge described what the three of them had done as a brutal, depraved, and above all, wicked murder. He said that while Donna had not personally landed the blows, she shared in the guilt because she had been part of the plan and because she had walked away, leaving a 14year-old girl face down in a river while she was still alive. Caroline's mother, Margaret Mckik, had waited 27 years for that day. She had buried her daughter on her own birthday weekend in 1996.

[00:17:27]Speaking outside the court, she said she had been waiting for that day for 27 years. She said justice had been done, but the void left by her daughter would never close. The three killers had been teenagers when they took Caroline to the bridge. They had built lives in the years that followed. They had families.

[00:17:44]They had jobs. None of that mattered now. The bridge over the river Leven had finally given up its secret. That bridge had hidden the truth for 27 years. The next case happened in a single night on a doorstep on the very first day of a brand new year with a kitchen knife hidden up a sleeve. Section 4. Stephanie Bowie, the New Year's Day stabbing of Darren Russell. Erskin 2021, sentenced [music] 2022.

[00:18:11]Darren Russell was 21 years old. He lived in Erskin, a town in Renfrer, just to the west of Glasgow. He still lived at home with his parents.

[00:18:21]On the morning of the 1st of January, 2021, the [music] very first day of a brand new year, he was out with his best friend Craig Smith and a couple of other young men. One of those young men was 19-year-old Mark Bowie. Darren and Mark had been hanging out earlier that morning in the grounds of Barcel Primary School. At some point during that morning, Darren and Mark had a small argument. It was nothing serious. It was the kind of falling out young men have all the time. Mark left and went home.

[00:18:52]Darren stayed out with Craig. Within hours, Darren would be lying on his own front doorstep, dying from two deep stab wounds to the [music] chest. The person who put those wounds there was Mark's older sister. Stephanie Bowie was 29 years old. She lived in Paisley. When Mark got home and told her about the small argument with Darren, she lost it.

[00:19:13]Court would later hear that she had been drinking and using drugs that morning.

[00:19:17]She decided that Darren needed to be hurt. She walked into her kitchen. She took out a kitchen knife. She slid the blade up the sleeve of her jacket so it was hidden from view. Then she walked out of her flat, called a taxi, and got in. The taxi drove her from Paisley to Erskin. The whole way the knife was up her sleeve. The whole way she knew exactly what she was going to do. The taxi dropped her off near Barcel Primary School. She found Darren and Craig there along with her brother. The first thing she did was scream at Darren. She told him she was going to kill him. She said it more than once. The group started moving away from the school. Darren, Craig, Mark, and Stephanie. All ended up walking down a path near a place called the Grillin the Park Bar and Restaurant.

[00:20:07]Craig later gave evidence in court. He said he had been confused. He had been trying to get Mark to calm his sister down. He said the two young men had been having a kind of discussion. He said he turned away for a moment. When he turned back, Darren was on the ground. [music] Stephanie was already walking past.

[00:20:26]Craig said she went past him skipping.

[00:20:28]She looked happy. She had just stabbed his best friend twice in the chest. The court would later hear that as Stephanie ran off, she yelled out the word, "Yes!"

[00:20:38]She had got what she came for. Craig dragged Darren back to his parents' home nearby.

[00:20:44]Darren collapsed on the doorstep of the house he had grown up in. He never made it back inside. He died there just feet from his own front door on the very first day of a brand new year. Stephanie ran. She got rid of the knife. She got rid of the jacket she had been wearing because it was covered in his blood. She also changed her hairstyle to make herself harder to recognize. None of it worked. The community came forward.

[00:21:09]Witnesses came forward. The police picked her up. The trial took place at the high court in Glasgow. It began in June 2022.

[00:21:18]Stephanie gave evidence. She admitted she had killed Darren. She said she had not meant to. She told the jury that Darren had been standing over her, that she had panicked and that she had brought the knife out only to scare him.

[00:21:31]The wounds in his chest were deep. They went through muscle and into the body.

[00:21:36]The prosecutor, [music] Lorraine Glansancy, was not having any of it. She told the jury that by the time Stephanie had reached the path near the restaurant, she had been raging at Darren for the best part of an hour. She reminded the court that Stephanie had screamed she was going to kill him. She reminded them that Stephanie had skipped away after the killing and shouted yes.

[00:21:56]She told the jury Stephanie had abandoned a dying young man because all she cared about was herself.

[00:22:03]On the 9th of June 2022, the jury at the high court in Glasgow found Stephanie Bowie guilty. She was found guilty of the murder of Darren Russell. She was also found guilty of possession of a bladed article and of an attempt to defeat the ends of justice for getting rid of the knife and her jacket. She showed no emotion when the verdicts were read out. The court was told that day that she already had a number of previous convictions, [music] including for threatening behavior and breaching bail. Sentencing was put off until the following month. On the 7th of July 2022, Stephanie Barry returned to court at the High Court in Sterling. The judge told her she had shown limited remorse. He told her that being drunk and on drugs at the time of the killing was no defense and no excuse. He told her the evidence had been clear. She had traveled from Paisley to Erskin by taxi.

[00:22:52]She had been armed with a knife. She had been ready to use it. He gave her life in prison. The minimum she would have to serve before she could even apply to be considered for parole was set at 16 years.

[00:23:06]A small argument over nothing in particular had ended with a 21-year-old man dying on his own front doorstep on the very first morning of 2021 while his parents were just inside the house.

[00:23:18]Before we move on, if you're enjoying this analysis, please consider subscribing. It helps the channel tremendously.

[00:23:25]Stephanie's case ended in a courtroom in Sterling. The next case begins on a beach in Iba with two girls on holiday and a flight from Lima airport that they were never going to be allowed to take.

[00:23:38]Section 5. Melissa Reed, the Peru 2, Lindsay, 2013.

[00:23:44]Melissa Reed was 19 years old when this story started. She was from Lindsay, a quiet little town just outside Glasgow.

[00:23:51]She had grown up there. She had family there. Her parents were normal, hardworking people. In the summer of 2013, Melissa did what a lot of young people her age did. [music] She went to Iba with friends to enjoy the sun, the beaches, and the night life. She had no real plan beyond having a good time. By the end of that summer, she would be sitting in a holding cell in a police station in Lemur, Peru, with 12 kilos of cocaine in her bags and the rest of her young life about to be turned upside down. While she was in Iba, Melissa met another young woman called Michaela McCollum. Michaela was 20. She was from Dungan in Northern Ireland. She had been working as a waitress on the island. The two of them got talking. They became friends. At some point during that summer, the offer came in. Both girls would later tell the same kind of story.

[00:24:45]They had been approached by men who offered them money to carry a small package from one country to another.

[00:24:50]Easy work. a few thousand in cash, a free flight, a free hotel, a short trip, nothing complicated. They said yes.

[00:25:01]Neither of them really understood what they were agreeing to until it was too late to back out. The plan they were given was simple on paper. Fly from Athera to Peru, spend a few days in Lima, pretending to be tourists, visit some of the famous sites like the ruins of Machu Picchu, so it would all look normal. then fly back out of Lima airport with their bags. The men told them the drugs would be hidden inside their luggage in such a way that no one would ever find them. The cocaine had been mixed with bicarbonate of soda and starch. It had been packed into food packets, including porridge and jelly packets, to try and hide the smell from sniffer dogs. The girls were told it would all be fine. They would be paid around £4,000 each. On the 6th of August 2013, Melissa and Michaela walked into Horge Chavez International Airport in Lemur. Their next flight was supposed to take them to Madrid in Spain. They never made that flight. Customs officers stopped them. Their bags were searched.

[00:26:00]Inside the food packets in their luggage, officers found 12 kg of cocaine. The street value was reported at around 1.5 million.

[00:26:11]Both girls were arrested on the spot.

[00:26:13]They were taken into custody. They were photographed. They were paraded in front of cameras by Peruvian police looking pale and shocked in a video that would be broadcast all over the world within hours. Melissa's family back in Lindsay saw their daughter on the news. In the very first days, both girls told the police they had been forced into it.

[00:26:32]They said an armed gang had grabbed them in Iba, threatened them, and made them carry the bags. As the weeks went on, that story fell apart. There was no proof of any gang. There were no threats anyone could find. There was just two young women who had said yes to a job they should have said no to. In court, they changed their plea. They pleaded guilty. They admitted that they knew they had been carrying drugs. On the 17th of December 2013, both Melissa and Michaela were sentenced. They each got 6 years and 8 months in a Peruvian prison.

[00:27:05]The sentence was the result of a plea deal. The maximum sentence they had been facing was 15 years. By admitting what they had done, they had shaved off years of their lives behind bars.

[00:27:17]They were first held at a prison in Lima called Verhender Fatima. They were later moved to a prison further out called Ancon 2. Conditions inside were not good, but the girls did what they could.

[00:27:30]They both signed up for training places inside the prison so they could learn beauty therapy and hair styling. Those places were hard to get and were highly wanted by other inmates.

[00:27:41]Melissa's parents back home in Lindsay kept fighting for her. They campaigned.

[00:27:46]They visited her when they could. They worked with lawyers. They worked with the British government. In April 2016, the news came through that the Peruvian authorities had agreed to expel Melissa from the country. She did not have to serve the full sentence in Peru. On the 21st of June 2016, Melissa walked out of anu prison. The very next day, she landed at Glasgow airport. Her family were waiting for her. She was 22 years old. She had spent nearly 3 years inside a Peruvian prison for a decision she had made one summer in Athera when she was still a teenager. Michaela McCollum followed not long after. She got out on parole in March 2016, but had to stay in Peru for a while longer. She finally returned to Europe in August 2016, landing at Dublin airport. The story of the Peru 2 became one of the biggest crime stories Britain had seen in years.

[00:28:43]The two of them were on the front of every newspaper. They were on every TV channel. Channel 4 made a documentary about the case in 2015 called Brits Behind Bars: Cocaine Smugglers. Years later, in October 2022, Netflix released its own documentary about Michaela's side of things called Hi, Confessions of an IA drug mule. Books got written, interviews got given. The case became a permanent part of British true crime memory. Melissa Reed was a young woman from Lindsay who flew to IBA for a holiday and ended up in a Peruvian prison. She had no record before that summer. She had no history of crime. She had no real reason to be there at all beyond saying yes when she should have said no. By the time she landed back at Glasgow airport in June 2016, she had become one of the most well-known faces in the country. She had not killed anyone. She had not hurt anyone. She had still earned her place on any list of the most notorious women ever to come out of the Glasgow area. Melissa's case ended at Glasgow airport with her family waiting at arrivals. The next case ends with a 21-year-old apprentice on his way home from a night out, walking down an alley with two strangers who had told him they were just trying to help.

[00:30:02]Section six, Amy Stewart, the mugger's alley murder of Alan Lennox. Glasgow East End, 2003, sentenced 2004.

[00:30:12]Alan Lennox was 21 years old. He was an electrician. He came from Hutcherson Town on the south side of Glasgow. He had just won the apprentice of the year award at Cardon College, which was a big deal for him and a big deal for his family. People who knew him said he had a real future ahead of him. He worked hard. He took his trade seriously. On a Saturday night in August 2003, [music] he had gone out for a night with friends in Glasgow's East End, he had his week's wages in his pocket. Around the time the bars and clubs began emptying out, Alan started making his way home on foot. He had walked through Glasgow at night plenty of times before. He was a young man in his own city. He had no reason to think this night was any different. He was about to walk into the last few minutes of his life. Two strangers stepped out of the dark and called him over. One was a 19-year-old woman called Amy Stewart. The other was a 27year-old man called John Hopkinson. Both of them lived in Glasgow. Amy was from Site Hill. John was from the Gallugate. Both of them were heroin addicts. Both of them needed money for their next fix.

[00:31:23]Amy was also working as a sex worker on the streets at the time. Both of them had knives on them when they spotted Alan walking past. They put on friendly voices. They offered to help. They told him they could show him a quicker way home. Alan did not know the two of them.

[00:31:39]He had no reason to trust them. He also had no reason to think they wanted to hurt him. He went with them. The path they led him down was in the Calton area of Glasgow's East End. It was a thin, dark passage that locals knew well.

[00:31:54]People in the area had a name for it.

[00:31:56]They called it Mugger's Alley. Once they got Allan into the alley, the act fell apart. One of them held a knife to his throat. They went through his pockets.

[00:32:06]They took his wages. Amy then stabbed him in the thigh. The wound she made cut through a major artery in his leg. He started losing blood very fast. Amy and John did not call for help. They did not even run. They walked off down the alley together. Witnesses would later describe them hugging each other as they left.

[00:32:27]They went straight to buy heroin with the money they had just stolen. Alan bled to death in the alley while they were out scoring drugs. Police picked them up not long afterwards. The case went to trial at the high court in Edinburgh. Both of them denied murder.

[00:32:42]The evidence was overwhelming. The jury heard about the knives. The jury heard about the route Allan had been led down.

[00:32:50]The jury heard about the two of them walking away hugging while a 21-year-old man bled out behind them. Both of them were found guilty of murder. The judge was Lord Abenethi. He spoke about Allan when he passed sentence. He said the killing had led to the totally unnecessary loss of life of a young man of great promise. He used two words to describe what Amy and John had done.

[00:33:15]Cruel. Callous.

[00:33:18]Both of them were sentenced to life in prison. The judge ordered that each of them should serve at least 12 years before they could even apply to be considered for parole.

[00:33:27]Amy Stewart was 19 when she killed Alan.

[00:33:31]She was 20 when she was sentenced. She was being told she would not be able to ask about going home until she was in her 30s. She was sent to HMP Cornton Vale, [music] the women's prison near Sterling. It was the only all female prison in Scotland at the time. John Hopinson appealed his conviction. The appeal court agreed with him on one point. They reduced his conviction from murder to culpable homicide. That is the Scottish term for what English courts call manslaughter.

[00:34:02]It meant the court accepted that Jon had not personally meant for Alan to die.

[00:34:06]Amy's conviction for murder stood. She was, in the eyes of the law, the one who had landed the killing blow. Amy Stewart's story did not end at sentencing. By 2015, she had been inside Cornon Vale for over a decade. She was being prepared for life on the outside.

[00:34:23]The prison was sending her out on temporary release licenses. She had been let out 12 times before, and every time she had come back when she was supposed to. On the 25th of June, 2015, she was let out again. She was supposed to stay at her mother's flat in the Newand's area of Glasgow until the 2nd of July.

[00:34:41]On the very first day of that release, she had a row with her mother. She walked out of the flat and went to stay with her boyfriend. When the prison rang to check on her on the Saturday night, her mother said she was not there. Amy called back and lied about where she was. The prison canled her release. They told her to come back the next day. She said she would. She never showed. A nationwide alert went out. Police were looking for a convicted killer who was missing. 3 days later, on the 3rd of July, 2015, her boyfriend's mother phoned the police and told them where Amy was. She was arrested. She was sent back inside. At Fulkirk Sheriff Court in October 2015, she was given another 6 months in prison for absconding and for trying to defeat the ends of justice.

[00:35:28]Her chances of an early parole had taken a serious hit. Amy was 19 when she walked Alan Lennox into a Glasgow alley.

[00:35:35]He never walked back out. His parents had to bury a 21-year-old apprentice of the year. His killers had gone off to buy heroin while he died alone on the ground. Before we move on, if you're enjoying this analysis, please consider subscribing. It helps the channel tremendously.

[00:35:53]That alley in Glasgow's East End was a modern story. The next case takes things back over 100 years to the streets of Catbridge in 1923 where a 13-year-old paper boy knocked on a door to sell a newspaper and never came home.

[00:36:08]Section 7. Susan Newell, the Catbridge go-kart tragedy, 1923.

[00:36:15]Susan Newell was 30 years old in the summer of 1923.

[00:36:19]She had been born in Oben into a poor family. Her first husband had been killed in the trenches in France during the First World War. He had died before he ever got to meet his baby daughter, Janet. Susan was left a young widow with a child to raise. Years later, she remarried. Her second husband was a man called John Newell, an ex-soldier who had come home from the war and found work as a Glasgow underground worker. By June 1923, Susan John and her young daughter Janet were renting a single room in a flat at Nuland Street in Catbridge, a town about 8 mi east of Glasgow. Janet was 8 years old. The marriage was not a happy one. There were rows. There were money problems. There was drink in the house. Susan had a temper, and that temper was already known to the local police. She had recently attacked her own husband, leaving his face bruised and bloody. On the evening of Wednesday the 20th of June 1923, John Johnston came knocking on doors. He was 13 years old. He was a paper boy who sold the evening papers around the streets of Catbridge. That day, there had been a carnival in town, and the streets were busier than normal, so Jon saw it as a good chance to sell more papers than usual. Just before 7 p.m., he knocked on the door of Susan Newle's flat. She invited him inside. She took one of his papers. She did not pay him for it. The two of them began to argue over the unpaid newspaper. The argument grew heated. The argument ended with Susan strangling the boy to death on the couch in her own front room. A little after 8:00 p.m., Janet came home from playing outside. She was 8 years old.

[00:37:59]She walked into the flat and found a dead boy on the couch and her mother standing over him. Newspapers were scattered across the floor. Susan made her daughter help her wrap the body in a rug. She told Janet to keep her mouth shut. [music] She told Janet that if anyone asked, the story they were going to tell was that John Newell, Susan's husband, had killed the boy. Susan rehearsed the lie with her own daughter.

[00:38:22]The next morning, Susan and Janet wrapped the body up tight and loaded it onto a small hand cart. They covered it with a quilt. They set off on foot, pushing the cart out of Cop Bridge along the Glasgow Road. They were trying to get the body all the way into Glasgow around 8 miles away. A lorry driver called Dixon saw the pair pushing the cart and offered them a lift. He had no idea what was inside it. He drove them as far as the east end of Glasgow and dropped them off on Juke Street. While he was helping them unload the cart at the curb, the bundle shifted and the boy's head came into view from under the quilt. His foot stuck out the bottom.

[00:39:00]Dixon did not notice. A woman watching from her window did. She saw the foot.

[00:39:06]She knew something was wrong. She found her sister and the two of them started following Susan and Janet through the streets. They got a man to call the police. Susan tried to leave the cart in a back court and slip away over a wall.

[00:39:20]The police caught her. She was taken to the police station at Tobago Street. The body was found. John Newell handed himself in. Both husband and wife were arrested and charged. Susan tried to push the lie she had built. She told the police Jon had killed the boy and forced her and Janet to get rid of the body.

[00:39:39]Janet, an 8-year-old child, was made to repeat the same story. The police did not believe it. The trial opened on the 18th of September, 1923 at the High Court in Glasgow before Lord Oln. There were 70 witnesses listed. 40 of them gave evidence on the very first day.

[00:39:58]John New York could prove he had been at his brother's funeral on the day of the killing. The case against him collapsed before the trial was even half done. The judge ordered him released and said he should never have been brought to trial.

[00:40:11]He walked out of the dock without even looking at his wife. The most powerful evidence at the trial came from Janet.

[00:40:17]The little girl took the stand and told the truth. She told the court she had come home to find the boy dead on the couch. She told the court her mother had made her help wrap him up. She told the court her mother had drilled her on what to say to the police.

[00:40:32]The defense pleaded insanity for Susan.

[00:40:34]The prosecution called in Professor John Glaster, Senior, one of the most famous forensic experts in Scotland at the time. He had examined Susan in custody.

[00:40:44]He told the court she was not insane.

[00:40:46]The trial closed on the second day. The jury went out for around 35 minutes.

[00:40:52]They came back with a guilty verdict by a majority. One juror had voted for the insanity plea. Every single member of the jury then asked the judge to show Susan mercy. The law gave the judge no choice. The only sentence for murder was death. Lord sentenced her to hang. The Secretary of State for Scotland refused to grant a reprieve. The execution was set for the 10th of October, 1923 at Juke Street Prison in Glasgow. The hangman was John Ellis. Just before 8:00 a.m., he came to her cell. He fitted a leather body belt around her arms. In his rush, the wrist straps were not fully tightened. As they led her to the gallows, Susan managed to wrigle one of her hands free. Asis went to put the white hood over her head. She yanked the hood off and threw it back at him. She told him not to put that thing over her.

[00:41:45]He pulled the lever. She fell with her hands still flailing and her eyes wide open. She was 30 years old. She was the last woman ever hanged in Scotland. No woman had been executed in Glasgow in the 70 years before her, and no woman ever was again. The Catbridge case ended on a gallows in 1923.

[00:42:05]The next case lands back in modern Scotland in a flat in Dundee, where a missing packet of medication and a stolen necklace ended with a hammer attack and a stab wound to the heart.

[00:42:16]Section 8. Carrie Stewart, the Dundy punishment beating murder of Steven Hutton, 2024, sentenced December 2025.

[00:42:25]Steven Hutton was 43 years old. [music] He lived in a flat on Charleston Road in Dundee. He had once been in a relationship with a woman named Carrie Stewart. By the spring of 2024, that relationship was over. Carrie had moved on. She was now with a much younger man named Brian Miller, who was 28 at the time. Carrie herself was 43 years old, the same age as Steven. She had a long history with the police. She had a long list of previous convictions. So did the company she was keeping. Between Carrie and the three men she would soon team up with, the group had over 100 previous convictions sitting between them. On the night of Saturday the 30th of March, 2024, that group decided that Steven Hutton needed to be hurt. By the next day, Steven would be dead in a hospital bed at Nine Wells Hospital in Dundee, and Carrie would be on her way to a life sentence. The trouble started when Carrie and Brian came back to Carrie's flat in Dundee and found the front door sitting open. When they walked inside, things were missing. A packet of tablets was gone. So was a St. Christopher necklace that Carrie thought of as treasured. The first people Carrie pointed the finger at were two men called Barry Murray, 45, and Scott Henderson, 40.

[00:43:40]Both of them had been around the flat.

[00:43:42]After a row, the group decided the actual thief had to be Steven, Car's ex.

[00:43:48]The four of them, Carrie, Brian, Barry, and Scott, agreed on a plan together.

[00:43:54]They were going to go to Steven's flat.

[00:43:56]They were going to make him pay. The group later tried to claim they were only going to speak to him. The court did not believe that for a second.

[00:44:04]Around 11 p.m. that Saturday night, the four of them turned up at Steven's door on Charleston Road. They forced their way in. Steven had been lying on his couch. He had no idea they were coming.

[00:44:17]Within seconds of getting inside, the group were on top of him. The first weapon used was a hammer. Steven was hit on the head and the body with it.

[00:44:25]Threats were thrown around about kneecapping him. After the hammer attack, a knife came out. Steven was stabbed through the heart. The court was also told that a screwdriver or something similar may have been used during the attack. The whole assault was carried out in his own front room with him on the floor of the only place he had to feel safe. What the four of them did next was the part that the judge would later return to. Steven was alive.

[00:44:50]He was bleeding badly. He had been stabbed in the heart. None of the four phoned an ambulance. None of the four called for any kind of help. They left the flat and they walked away. They kept walking until they were far enough from the property that they felt they would be safe. Steven was found by paramedics [music] and rushed to Nine Wells Hospital. He never recovered. He died the next day on the 31st of March, 2024.

[00:45:16]The cause of death was the stab wound to his heart. Police picked up all four within days. The case was so serious that the trial was held at the high court in Glasgow rather than in Dundee.

[00:45:27]The trial began in late 2025 with Lady Haldane on the bench. It was a long trial. The four accused turned on each other. Carrie said she had not been in charge of anything. Henderson said he had no idea how badly Steven had been hurt until he saw blood coming through Steven's jacket. Brian said he had only gone there to talk and had only kicked the front door.

[00:45:49]Brian was also asked under questioning by his own lawyer who had stabbed Steven. Brian pointed at Carrie. He told the jury it could only have been her because she had been alone in the kitchen with Steven at one point. He later denied that he was just trying to dump the blame on her. [music] The prosecutor put it to the group that Steven had been cornered in his own home. None of their stories held together. The jury saw through every one of them. On Monday the 8th of December 2025, the jury at the high court in Glasgow found all four of them guilty of murder.

[00:46:24]Carrie Stewart, Brian Miller, Barry Murray, and Scott Henderson. Lady Haldane sentenced them 5 days later. She gave each of them a life sentence. The minimum each of them had to serve before they could even apply to be considered for parole was set at 20 years. The judge did not hold back when she spoke to them. She said the killing of Steven Hutton had been a frenzied assault in the sanctuary of his own home. She said the entire tragedy had grown out of a missing packet of medication. She said that none of the four of them had even tried to seek help for him as he lay dying. She called their conduct callous.

[00:47:00]Carrie Stewart had walked into Steven's flat that night with three men, a hammer, and a knife. The court was told between them they already had more than 100 previous convictions. They had argued with each other in the dock.

[00:47:13]Every one of them trying to push the blame onto someone else. None of it worked. A 43-year-old man had been killed in his own home over a packet of pills and a missing necklace. The motive, in the end, had been almost nothing at all.

[00:47:28]Before we move on, if you're enjoying this analysis, please consider subscribing. It helps the channel tremendously.

[00:47:35]That hammer and that knife had been carried into a flat on Charleston Road in Dundee. The next case happens in Green in the home of a young mother where the victim was just 19 days old.

[00:47:46]Section 9. Nicole [music] Blaine, the murder of newborn Thea. June Wilson, Green 2023. Convicted 29th April, 2026.

[00:47:58]Thea June Wilson was born on the 25th of June 2023. She was a healthy baby. Her grandmother said she was perfect. She had a mother named Nicole Blaine who was 30 years old and lived in a flat in Green in Invoclide.

[00:48:12]Thea's father was a man named Ross Wilson, 32. He had been in a relationship with Nicole before the baby was born, but that relationship had ended by the time Thea arrived. Thea's paternal grandmother was a 59-year-old woman called Laura Wilson, who lived in Asia with her husband, Alan, also 59.

[00:48:31]Laura saw Thea for the last time on the 8th of July, 2023.

[00:48:36]She would later tell the High Court in Glasgow that her granddaughter had been fantastic that day. She had no worries at all about her well-being. By that point, Thea had been alive for just under 2 weeks. She had 6 days left.

[00:48:50]After Thea was born, Nicole told people she was struggling. She said she had post-natal depression. The court would later see text messages she had sent to Thea's grandmother during those weeks, [music] and the messages backed up that she was finding it hard to cope. Social workers were already involved with the family. A support practitioner had been visiting the flat. Health professionals were checking in. On the morning of Monday, the 14th of July, 2023, just 19 days after Thea had been born, the plans for that day were normal. Nicole was supposed to take the baby across to Laura's home in Air for a family visit.

[00:49:26]A social worker saw Thea in her cot at the flat that morning. The baby was alive. The baby was settled. Thea was due to leave the flat with her mother and travel to her grandparents house.

[00:49:37]She never made that trip. At around 2:00 p.m. that afternoon, a support worker who had been called out to the flat arrived to find a scene of panic. Nicole told her another child in the home had taken Thea out of her cot and dropped her. Around the same time, the paternal grandfather, Alan Wilson, took a call on his wife's mobile phone. He would later tell the jury he could hear screaming on the other end of the line. He said he had never heard anything like it in his life. Paramedics were called. Thea was rushed to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. She arrived at around 2:30 p.m. The doctors who took her in saw straight away that the situation was catastrophic. Dr. Daniela Sedan told the court there was obvious bruising to the baby's head with swelling above her ears. The pupils were fixed and dilated. That meant her brain had already been starved of oxygen for a long time. The medical team did everything they could. They never had a chance. Thea was pronounced dead later that day. She was 19 days old. The postmortem told the story of what had been done to her. She had two broken ribs. She had three fractures to her skull. She had bleeding behind both eyes. She had brain damage. The pathologist, Leanne Deo, [music] told the jury the injuries were caused by a combination of violent shaking and impact with a hard surface.

[00:50:59]Another medical witness compared what the had suffered to the kind of injuries you would expect to see in a car crash victim.

[00:51:07]Nicole was arrested. She was charged with murder. The trial opened at the high court in Glasgow before Lord Scott.

[00:51:15]Nicole denied the charge. Her story was that she had taken a nap on the day of the killing while Thea was asleep in her cot. She said she had been woken up by a neighbor at her door. She said she had then somehow not seen the now naked baby on the floor at first. She said another child had been responsible. She told the court that never in a million years would she have hurt her own daughter.

[00:51:40]She gave evidence and sobbed in front of the jury. She told them the only thing she could be blamed for was being asleep and that she would have to live with that for the rest of her life. The prosecutor was Alan Cameron KC. He told the court the story about another child being responsible was nonsense. He said Nicole had hurt the baby and then realized she was in serious trouble. The pathologist also ruled out the idea that another child could have caused those injuries. Falls and drops do not produce three skull fractures and broken ribs and bleeding behind the eyes all at the same time. Those injuries were caused by an adult. A social worker named Stacy Jones gave evidence, too. She had been at the hospital with Nicole on the day Thea died. She told the court that Nicole had been extremely distressed.

[00:52:29]She also told the court that Nicole had said something to her at the hospital.

[00:52:34]She said Nicole had told her she did not know how she would forgive the other child for what had happened. That comment made within hours of her own daughter's death was one of the most telling moments of the whole trial. On Wednesday the 29th of April 2026, the jury at the high court in Glasgow returned with their verdict. Nicole Blaine was found guilty of the murder of her own 19-day old daughter. Nicole, who had been on bail, cried hysterically as she was led down to the cells in handcuffs.

[00:53:04]Lord Scott told the jurors that the trial had been a thankfully unusual case involving the murder of a baby.

[00:53:10]Sentencing was deferred for reports.

[00:53:13]Nicole will return to the dock the following month to learn how long she will spend behind bars before she can apply for parole. The court heard she had only one minor previous conviction for assault. A 19-year-old baby had three skull fractures, two broken ribs, brain damage, and bleeding behind her eyes. Her mother sat in the witness box and told a jury another child had been to blame. 12 members of the public looked at the medical evidence and decided otherwise. That trial in Glasgow ended with a mother going to prison for killing her own newborn child. The next case takes us into a different kind of horror entirely and a place inside Glasgow that the courts came to call the Beasty House.

[00:53:56]Section 10, the Beasty House ring.

[00:53:58]Elaine Lannry, Leslie Williams, and Marianne Gallagher, Town Head, Glasgow.

[00:54:03]Offenses 2012 to 2019, sentenced 2025.

[00:54:09]The case that ends this video is the worst of all of them. It is also the case that has to be told the most carefully. Three women were among the people convicted in it. Their names are Elaine Lannry, Leslie Williams, and Marannne Gallagher. The crimes they were convicted of were committed against children. The full details of what happened inside that flat were heard in court over an 11week trial, and the judge himself said that the depravity went beyond anything in his entire experience of the law. Out of respect for the victims, who are still alive and still children, this section will not walk through the specifics of the abuse.

[00:54:45]The convictions, the sentences, and the words of the judge will be enough. The flat sat in the town head area of Glasgow. The court was told it was used as a drugs den. Heroin and crack cocaine were used inside it. The court came to call the place the Beasty House. The crimes inside it were committed between 2012 and 2019.

[00:55:06]Three children were the victims. The case was reported to police in June 2019.

[00:55:12]11 people were eventually arrested and charged in October 2020. After an investigation that lasted years, eight of those people stood trial together at the high court in Glasgow. The trial began in 2023 and ran for around 11 weeks. In November 2023, the verdicts came in. Seven of the accused were found guilty of a string of charges. An eighth, Marian Gallagher, was found guilty of one charge of assaulting a child. Sentencing was then put off for 14 months while Lord Beckett ordered full risk assessments to be carried out.

[00:55:45]He wanted to know exactly how dangerous each one of these people would be if they were ever released from prison. On the 27th of January 2025, the seven who had been convicted of the most serious charges came back to the high court in Glasgow for sentencing.

[00:56:01]Lord Beckett handed every single one of them an order for lifelong restriction.

[00:56:05]That is one of the most serious sentences in Scottish law. It means the person will be monitored, supervised, and risk assessed for the rest of their life. It also means that even if they are released on parole one day, they can be pulled back into prison at any time if they are judged to be a risk again.

[00:56:22]The judge made clear from the bench that the public should understand that the people in front of him may never be released at all. Within those lifelong restriction orders, the judge then set what is known as the punishment part.

[00:56:34]That is the minimum number of years each person has to serve in prison before they are even allowed to ask the parole board to consider letting them out. The numbers were as follows. Ian Owens, age 46, the man treated by the court as the central figure of the group, was given a punishment part of 20 years. Elaine Lannry, age 40, was given a punishment part of 17 years. Paul Bran, 42, was given 15 years.

[00:57:04]Leslie Anne Williams, 42, was given 14 years. John Clark, 48, was given 10 years. Barry Watson, 48, was given 9 years and 6 months.

[00:57:18]Scott Forbes, 51, was given 8 years. The total time the seven of them are required to serve before they can even start asking for release adds up to 93 years and 6 months between them.

[00:57:32]The convictions themselves tell you what the women in front of the judge had been part of. Elaine Lannry was convicted of crimes that included her role in the gang rape of a child, the attempted murder of a child, and supplying class A drugs. Leslie Williams was convicted of attempted murder, assault, rape, and drug supply. Both women had been found guilty alongside the men of trying to kill one of the child victims by pushing the child into a microwave and trapping the child in other dangerous places.

[00:58:02]The third woman, Marian Gallagher, aged 40, was convicted of assaulting a child in the same setting. [music] She came to court for sentencing on the 6th of January, 2025.

[00:58:12]Lord Beckett admonished her, which in Scottish law means he formally rebuked her in court, but did not impose a custodial sentence. He told her she would be in pretty severe trouble if she ever offended again. He also called her conduct reprehensible.

[00:58:27]When Lord Beckett spoke from the bench, his words on the case became one of the most quoted parts of the whole hearing.

[00:58:33]He said that this court [music] is used to hearing some of the worst examples of human behavior, but such depravity as the accused had demonstrated was beyond his experience.

[00:58:44]He spoke about the children. He told the court he had taken account of their terrible suffering. He said the impact of what had been done to them was extremely serious and could be expected to last for the rest of their lives. He spoke about a victim impact statement from the oldest of the three children and he said an impression of innate humanity shone through her words. The institutional response after sentencing was strong. Detective Inspector Leslie Anne McGee of Police Scotland led the investigation. She said the case had been long, complex, and challenging and that her team had worked through some of the most harrowing evidence imaginable to bring the abusers to court. She thanked partners in social work, health, education, and the Crown Office. Mary Glasgow, the chief executive of the children's charity, Children First, called it one of the most extreme cases of abuse ever seen in a Scottish court.

[00:59:37]Colin Anderson, the independent chair of Glasgow's Child Protection Committee, announced that he had already started a case learning review. That review is an investigation led by an independent reviewer into how three children were able to suffer that scale of harm over that many years without being protected sooner. That is where the list ends. 10 women, 10 very different stories. One thing they all share. Every single one of them passed through a courtroom in Glasgow and every single one of them was given a sentence that the city is unlikely to forget.

[01:00:11]If you enjoyed this breakdown, make sure to subscribe. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next