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	Paedophile Scots in Toddler Murder Probe By Rod Mills Daily Express May 8, 2009 http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/99825/Paedophile-Scots-in-toddler-murder-probe MEMBERS of the largest paedophile gang in Scotland were last night facing life behind bars as it was revealed police were investigating?links to a child murder. Eight men, including a gay?rights?campaigner and an HIV-positive serial?sex?offender,?were found guilty of a horrific catalogue of pornography and abuse charges against children. Ringleaders Neil Strachan, who had already served three years for abusing a child, and James Rennie were convicted of sex attacks on children, including a three-month-old baby, in the ground-breaking trial. Strachan, 41, and Rennie, 38, both of Edinburgh, were also found guilty of conspiring to abuse youngsters, along with three other gang members, in acts prosecutors branded "barbaric". The network's tentacles stretched from the US to Australia. Chillingly, information has now been passed to police on the Continent of an undisclosed child murder while officers have established links to an alleged case of torture in the Netherlands. Last night sickened officers described the "spider's web" of evil which led to 35 UK arrests, the identifying of 200 individuals, and the seizing of over 125,000 images. Detective Superintendant Allan Jones of Lothian and Borders Police said two investigations are continuing in Scotland. But he added: "Those that we managed to identify we have pursued and arrested and dealt with. However, it's a spider's web of a network and intricate contacts." The gang members, all seemingly respectable professionals, led sordid double lives which were traced through their explicit internet chats about sexual fantasies involving children. Ross Webber, 27, of North Berwick, Craig Boath, 24, from Dundee, and John Milligan, 40, from Glasgow, were all found guilty of conspiring to participate in the sexual abuse of children along with Strachan and Rennie, the first time a conspiracy charge has been used successfully in a paedophile case in Scotland. The five men, with Colin Slaven, 23, from Edinburgh, and Neil Campbell, 46, and John Murphy, 44, from Glasgow, were also convicted of a catalogue of child porn offences after the 10-week trial at Edinburgh High Court. They hid behind their reputations of bank manager, church bell ringer and insurance claims adjuster. Scottish detectives have passed details of an e-mail conversation between Milligan and a paedophile in the Netherlands, in which the foreign suspect boasted of his involvement in a child murder in France, to police on the Continent. The six convicted of the conspiracy charge were all actively working towards gaining access to a three-month-old baby, known as Child F to protect his identity. Rennie repeatedly abused the child for four years, at least once with Strachan, who is HIV positive, all the while offering the child to other gang members. After the guilty verdicts were delivered the child's parents said: "As such, this is not the end for us, but the start of the process to rebuild our lives." The mother of an 18-month-old boy abused by HIV positive Strachan said she would never be able to forgive him for the "sick" attacks on her son, who is not infected. She added: "I feel that no matter what punishment given to Mr Strachan it will never compensate for the hurt and devastation." Had it not been for Strachan accidentally handing in for repair a hard drive that contained vile images, police admitted the gang may never have been caught. When the alarm was raised and police exmained the hard drive, they found 7,223 child abuse images and video clips, and e-mail links between Strachan and someone calling themselves kplover99@hotmail.com – which, it emerged, was James Rennie. Using the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the US, Lothian and Borders Police's major crimes unit contacted Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, for their help in accessing Rennie's account. A single picture of one of the eight paedophiles' thumbnails gave officers a foothold of evidence to crack the child pornography ring. The photograph shows Neil Strachan molesting an 18-month-old toddler on Hogmanay 2005, but only his naked thighs could be seen. Former secondary school teacher Rennie, the successful chief executive of LGBT Youth Scotland, had been invited to the Scottish Parliament for a debate on helping young gay people. He has also attended a royal garden party at Holyrood. In online conversations with another accused, he expressed a wish to see children with Down's Syndrome sexually abused. Strachan and Rennie are facing life and all the gang members will remain under strict supervision. The trial judge, Lord Bannatyne, will sentence the pair in July. The other six will be sentenced next month.
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