www.dailyrecord.co.uk
Jun 10 2010

William Lauchlin and Charles O'Neill
THE two worst child sex perverts in Scotland were jailed for a total of 56 years yesterday for murdering a mum who tried to expose them.
Serial paedophiles Charles O'Neill and William Lauchlan strangled Allison McGarrigle nearly 13 years ago and dumped her at sea in a wheelie bin. Her body was never found.
O'Neill got at least 30 years. Lauchlan, his gay lover, was jailed for a minimum of 26 years.
As the killers began their life terms, a senior detective told the Record: "I don't know of any more dangerous people in this country - perhaps in the whole UK.
"They are enormously bad people."
Rapists O'Neill, 47, and Lauchlan, 33, had already been destroying the lives of young boys for years when they killed Allison, 39, in June 1997.
And when she bravely confronted them in a bid to save another of their victims, she paid for her courage with her life.
The perverts befriended mum-of-three Allison, described in court as "vulnerable", after she left her husband, and she eventually became a lodger at their flat in Largs, Ayrshire.
But while Allison was there, she found out O'Neill and Lauchlan were molesting a young boy, who cannot be named, at the flat.
And after an angry row on June 20, she shouted at the pair: "I know what you're up to and I'll make sure I see what's coming to you!"
Allison then went to bed, in tears.
The boy the perverts had been abusing told their trial what happened next.
As the frightened youngster listened, O'Neill told Lauchlan they had to "get rid" of Allison to stop her going to police.
The witness added: "They were talking about cutting her up."
Next morning, Allison's bed was empty. She was never seen again.
The court heard Allison was killed by "seizing the neck and compressing the throat".
O'Neill, a former boxer, and Lauchlan then hid her body under rocks at Largs beach before stuffing it into a wheelie bin, taking it out in a boat and dumping it in the Firth of Clyde.
Despite massive searches in the years that followed, no trace of her was ever recovered.
A year after the murder, O'Neill and Lauchlan were found guilty of THIRTY-ONE child abuse charges.
They had preyed on six boys, aged 11 to 15, at a house in Skelmorlie, Ayrshire, and elsewhere, plying them with drink and drugs before raping and abusing them.
The boys' ordeal went on for five years.
O'Neill was jailed for eight years and Lauchlan for six.
Both beasts were freed early, in 2002, and O'Neill was soon terrorising children again.
He drugged and molested a boy of 14 in Irvine, Ayrshire, after worming his way into the trust of the lad's family.
The following year, when O'Neill and Lauchlan were living in Spain, they abducted a 15-year-old English boy in Benidorm and subjected him to three days of horrendous abuse.
The Spaniards deported them and they were sent back to jail in Scotland for breaking their parole.
But in 2007, the authorities again put O'Neill and Lauchlan back on the streets.
And in 2008, police surveillance of their phones suggested they were grooming another child.
This time, the lad was only six. The perverts, who posed as cousins to fool the families of their victims, had hatched a plot to take the boy and his mother to Spain.
But they were arrested before they could put it into action.
O'Neill and Lauchlan were convicted last month of abusing the boy in Benidorm and grooming the six-year-old.
O'Neill was also found guilty of molesting the boy in Irvine.
The case could not be reported until the end of the pair's trial for killing Allison. Police fear O'Neill and Lauchlan abused dozens more children who have not been found.
The perverts were quickly identified as the prime suspects for Allison's murder but it took years to nail them.
Prosecutors decided not to take the case to trial after police charged them with the crime in 2005.
O'Neill and Lauchlan were charged with the murder again after their 2008 arrest.This time, Crown lawyers decided to go ahead with the prosecution.
And in the end, the killers were brought to justice by their sick boasts about what they had done.
O'Neill could not resist bragging about his crime. Shortly af ter the murder, he nodded towards the Firth of Clyde and told one of the boys he was molesting in Skelmorlie that Allison was "feeding the fishes down there".
The killer added later that if police couldn't find a body, "you don't have a crime".
The boy, now 27, told the jury: "I will not forget it. It chilled me to the bone."
He added that O'Neill had made "disgusting" comments about Allison, which Lauchlan had found "amusing".
O'Neill also told a fellow-prisoner at Barlinnie in 1998 that Allison had been "done away with". And Lauchlan made similar boasts in 2004 to a man he met in Spain.
Another witness, a child rapist who recently committed suicide, revealed under police interrogation that O'Neill and Lauchlan had access to a boat at the time of the murder.
Despite the evidence against them, amassed in a huge police investigation involving several forces, the two paedophiles said they were innocent.
Coward O'Neill tried to blame Allison's husband for the murder.
But following a three-week trial and more than seven hours of deliberation, the jury at the High Court in Glasgow convicted both men by majority.
Sentencing, Lord Pentland told them they had committed a "despicable murder". And he branded them "determined and dangerous predatory paedophiles, with no respect for the law or the values of a civilised society".
The judge said O'Neill and Lauchlan used "calculated and devious manipulation of vulnerable individuals" to satisfy their sexual appetites.
He added: "When you became aware Mrs McGarrigle intended to report you to the authorities, you conceived a callous and depraved plan to murder her and dispose of her body.
"You then put this plan into effect with chilling composure.
"You went to great lengths to cover your tracks. You must have thought for some time that you had succeeded in escaping detection."
Lord Pentland said O'Neill deserved the longer sentence because he was "the more dominant" of the pair. And he warned both killers: "It may be that you will never be released."
The judge also sentenced the perverts to 10 years each for the sex abuse they were convicted of in May.
O'Neill and Lauchlan had treated their trial with contempt, often laughing and joking in the dock.
But they were stone-faced as they were led to the cells.
One of Allison's relatives on the public benches shouted: "Who's laughing now?"
Allison's son Robert, 26, said outside court: "Lauchlan and O'Neill have taken away the best mum in the world.
"Allison McGarrigle was a bubbly, happy-go-lucky woman with a heart of gold. She loved children and was taken away from us trying to protect a young boy from abuse.
"For many years, we have had to live with not knowing what had happened to her, but we knew she was not missing.
"If she was still alive, she would not have left her three kids and missed out on watching her four grandchildren growing up. We miss her terribly and we wish we could lay her to rest."
Robert was flanked by dad Robert snr, brother William, 32, and sister Elizabeth, 30.
He said he was "over the moon" with the sentences and Elizabeth said she "could not be happier".
The Record's police source said: "O'Neill and Lauchlan are in jail at last - hopefully forever.
"They are exceptionally clever, which makes them doubly dangerous. But children in Scotland are now beyond their reach.
"I send my thoughts to the McGarrigle family. I hope they can find some closure from this verdict."
The killers are expected to appeal.
Timeline
August 1998 O'Neill and Lauchlan are jailed for a five-year catalogue of depravity against six youngsters aged 11 to 15. They lured boys to sex dens in Ayrshire and Bute before raping and abusing them.
June 2003 O'Neill, freed from jail, drugs and abuses a boy of 14 in Irvine.
April 2004 The perverts subject a 15-year-old English boy to a harrowing sex attack after abducting him for three nights in Benidorm. They are arrested by Spanish cops, but not prosecuted.
April 2005 O'Neill and Lauchlan are charged with Allison's murder but prosecutors drop case.
December 2007 O'Neill and Lauchlan make contact with mother and six-year-old son in Falkirk.
March 2008 Police set up a Scotland-wide taskforce to map the movements of O'Neill and Lauchlan since Allison vanished. Cops meet mum of Falkirk six-year-old and the perverts are arrested 24 hours later.
May 2010 O'Neill and Lauchlan found guilty of grooming Falkirk boy and abusing boy in Spain. O'Neill convicted of Irvine sex attack.
June 2010 Perverts found guilty of murdering Allison.
Evil paedophiles told victim they would murder his mum if he went to the police
Jun 20 2010 Exclusive by Norman Silvester
Sunday Mail
A VICTIM of killer paedophiles Charles O'Neill and William Lauchlan yesterday told how the pair threatened to murder his mum if he told about his rape ordeal.
Chris Hunter bravely waived his right to anonymity to expose how the evil pair secured his silence after sexually abusing him for five years.
Chris, now 29, was just 12 when he was held captive in a small cupboard by the fiends who took turns to rape him.
His torture at the hands of Allison McGarrigle's killers began in 1993, when O'Neill himself was still a teenager.
It continued until 1998 when the pair were imprisoned for a combined total of 14 years for abusing Chris and three other boys.
But when they were released, they targeted Chris again and kept him prisoner for more than nine months in Spain.
Chris - who contracted deadly Hepatitis B as a result of the abuse - told police about their activities after he escaped in 2005.
It started a chain of events which led to them being sentenced to a total of 56 years for the murder of would-be whistleblower Allison McGarrigle.
Chris, originally from Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, said: "When I was 12 they told me they would kill my mother and the rest of my family and make me watch, if I ever told them or the police.
"I knew then, even as a young innocent boy, that they would carry out the threat.
"What they did to Allison McGarrigle proved that they are capable of murder. They killed her because they thought she was about to expose them.
"I am sure they would have issued the same threat to all the other boys they abused and who would have been just as scared as me.
"That's why they got away with what they did for so many years.
"Over the years, they repeated the threats to me about my mother and family but I never forgot the first time they said they would kill them and make me watch.
"It was a terrible thing for a 12-year-old to hear.
"Even now I am still terrified they will come after me for revenge and do what they promised to do all those years ago.
"Though they are doing life in prison, they have people on the outside who will do things for them."
In prison they will be the king of the beasts and run the show in the protection wings. They will be among the few sex offenders who could go into prison and not fear anyone.
"They are also both very intelligent and manipulative which makes them even more terrifying.
"I don't think that I will ever feel safe from them."
O'Neill and Lauchlan were convicted last month of sexual abuse charges relating to a 15-year-old boy in Spain and a six-year-old boy in Scotland.
O'Neill was also convicted of abusing a boy aged 14 in Irvine.
After the pair were convicted of killing Allison, 39, and dumping her body at sea, O'Neill, 47, was told that he must serve at least 30 years in prison. Lauchlan, 33, was given a minimum of 26 years.
Chris, who now lives in Ayrshire, was first introduced to Lauchlan by a school friend.
He said: "I went to their flat in Rothesay at lunchtime and they would prepare me a meal.
"But when I went to their flat at night, they would lock me in a small cupboard and take turns to abuse me. A lot of the time I think I was drugged up.
"If anyone called at the flat when they were abusing me they would tell me to stay in the cupboard."
Chris says the pair often targeted children of respectable parents who they befriended under the guise of running boxing and football clubs.
He felt he was getting his life back together in 2004 but was then contacted by O'Neill - by then released from prison.
He made Chris drive him to Spain - a trip lasting three days - where he was reunited with Lauchlan.
Chris said: "I did it because I was so scared of O'Neill. Again, he threatened me with violence against my family if I did not do what he said.
"They kept me locked in a mobile home - a revamped bus - and only let me out when it suited them.
"They both found work in local bars in the Calle De Londres district of Benidorm.
"One of the bars was opposite the mobile home, so they could always keep an eye on me.
"The only food I ever ate was what they kept on the bus. They held me prisoner for about nine months and I only escaped when I managed to steal back my passport which they had confiscated and kept in a safe on the bus.
"I then sold a pair of trainers and my watch to buy a ticket back to Britain.
"They sexually abused me while in Spain but they were never charged because it was only my word.
"Once I returned to Britain, I told the police that they were in Spain.
"Both had gone there without telling the authorities.
"That started the chain of events that led to them being extradited back to Britain and eventually being convicted last week.
"Neither of my parents could believe what had happened to me."
Chris's dad - PR consultant Norrie - said: "Neither his mother nor I had any inkling what was happening to our son and the threats these people had made about us.
"However, the fact that they murdered Allison McGarrigle for threatening to go to the police proved they were as good as their word. They were not empty threats.
"There is no doubt in my mind that had Chris told the police when the abuse started, they would have killed him."
Mum reveals fears evil Scottish predators murdered her snatched son
Jun 13 2010 Exclusive by Steve Smith,
Sunday Mail
THE heartbroken mum of a missing schoolboy broke her silence last night after two Scots sex killers were caged and wept: "I'm convinced those monsters took my little boy."
Seven-year-old Yeremi Vargas disappeared three years ago as he played near the family home on Gran Canaria.
And in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mail, Yeremi's mother Ithaisa Suarez told how she fears paedophile predators Charles O'Neill and William Lauchlan snatched the youngster.
The evil pair ran a cleaning business in the small Canarian town of Vecindario, where Yeremi, lived and were on the island when he vanished in March 2007.
possible links to the Madeleine McCann case : seems circumstantial as they appear to be homosexual
DETECTIVES are to question a Scottish suspect over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
By Oliver Farrimond Sunday, June 28, 2009
deadlinescotland.wordpress.com
Private investigators working for the McCanns have confirmed that they want to question the man, who is currently awaiting trial for murder and child sex offences in Barlinnie prison in Glasgow.
Already wanted by Spanish police in connection with the disappearance of a German boy, the man was spotted by a prison officer at Barlinnie due to his likeness to a pencil sketch of the chief Maddie suspect.
The insider said: “This man looks like the Maddie suspect drawing that has been in the papers.
“He is also well known to have spent a lot of time in the Spanish region – staff at the prison want the investigation team to speak to him.”
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, operated a cleaning firm for Spanish holiday homes when Maddie vanished in May 2007.
According to the Sun
Life for murder paedo wanted by Maddie tecs
11 Jun 2010 By ANTONELLA LAZZERI
the sun.co.uk
A SERIAL paedophile linked to the Madeleine McCann case was yesterday jailed for life for murder.
Charles O'Neill has repeatedly refused to be quizzed by detectives working for Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry. But the private eyes will now try again.
O'Neill, 47, is believed to have been in Portugal when Maddie, then three, vanished from an apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve in May 2007.
The pair had been jailed in 1988 over 31 charges of drugging and assaulting young children but were freed in 2002.
They fled to Spain and set up a cleaning business for holiday apartments.
They travelled to Portugal several times.
In April 2004 they abducted, drugged and abused a 15-year-old English boy in Spain.
O'Neill was still there three years later when seven-year-old Spanish Jeremy Vargus vanished from Gran Canaria.
Two months later Maddie went missing - and O'Neill was thought to be on the Algarve at the time.
Jeremy's mother Ithaisa Suarez, 24, and Kate, 41, from Rothley, Leics, have written to each other regularly.
Kate and Gerry have also included information about the Jeremy case on their website.
Last night the McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell confirmed: "Investigators have been fully aware of O'Neill and his background but have not been able to take him any further forward as an active line of investigation."