HUGH MCALLISTER COATBRIDGE CHILD RAPIST SENTENCE REDUCED BY APPEAL JUDGES

In April 2018, Hugh McAllister, a 60-year-old man from Coatbridge, who had been convicted of abusing young girls as young as three, saw his sentence reduced after an appeal. Originally sentenced to nine years in prison for his crimes, the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh deemed his sentence to be 'excessive' and reduced it to six years. McAllister, who continues to maintain his innocence, alleged that he was the victim of a conspiracy.

Earlier, in September 2017, McAllister, then aged 59, was sentenced to nine years after being convicted of crimes committed when he was a teenager. He had been accused of raping two young girls—one at the ages of three and four—at a residence in Coatbridge during the early 1970s. The offenses involving his older victim, which included rape and making sexual remarks, occurred over a four-year span starting in 1971, when McAllister was 13. The second girl was raped on various occasions between 1973 and 1976.

A jury at Edinburgh High Court found McAllister guilty by majority of raping both girls, along with charges of lewd, indecent, and libidinous conduct. He was immediately taken into custody following his sentencing.

The jury also returned not proven verdicts on three additional charges of sexual misconduct. These included allegations of an 'unnatural carnal connection' with a young boy between 1975 and 1977, indecently assaulting a 16-year-old girl twice between 1977 and 1979, and making a lewd remark along with performing lewd practices towards a 14-year-old girl in 1978.