November 2011 Care worker who abused youngsters in children’s homes has minimum jail term cut A former care worker who groomed youngsters in children’s homes for abuse has had his minimum jail sentence cut. John Marshall committed a catalogue of sex crimes against vulnerable children while working as a houseparent in children’s homes in Glasgow before later being extradited from Australia to face trial. The 66-year-old was sentenced to life carrying a minimum of 12 years in 2006. Judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh on Friday reduced the punishment part of the sentence to four and a half years following a landmark decision earlier this year. Marshall’s counsel Geoff Forbes told appeal judges Lord Carloway and Lord Osborne that both the discretionary life sentence imposed on his client and the length of the minimum term to be served were challenged. The defence counsel said the life sentence was inappropriate and excessive and that the punishment part of 12 years was also too long following the ruling in the case of Robert Foye earlier this year. Lord Carloway said the appeal judges were satisfied that Lord Brailsford was correct in his assessment of Marshall and the risk that he poses to children and rejected the appeal against the imposition of the life sentence. They cut almost two thirds of the 12 year minimum term imposed using the sentencing calculation in Foye’s appeal. Marshall’s sentence was backdated to March 2006 making him eligible to take his case to the parole board now rather than in 2018, as would have been the case under the original decision. To date none of the Scottish prisoners on lifelong restriction orders have been freed from prison. Marshall previously admitted 14 charges of indecency against children aged between three and 14 starting in 1974 and continuing over an eight year period while he was employed at Eversley Children’s Home in Pollokshields before it closed and all residents and staff were transferred to Castlemilk’s Downcraig Children’s Home, where he continued the abuse. Both boys and girls were subjected to abuse by Marshall which he took photos on some occasions. His offending was first revealed when an abuse victim alerted his MP to the behaviour he was subjected to in local authority care in 2000. The MP reported it to Strathclyde Police and inquiries found further victims. Marshall was traced in Australia where he was arrested in 2006 before being returned to Scotland. In imposing the original sentence on him Lord Brailsford told him his crimes were “appalling”. The minimum term reduction comes after Foye, 32, who raped a schoolgirl while on the run from an open prison, had his nine year term as part of a lifelong restriction order reduced to four and a half years. November 2006 Paedophile who preyed on children in his care is given life A FORMER social worker and self confessed predatory paedophile who subjected children in his care to a catalogue of abuse was jailed for life yesterday. Some of John Marshall’s victims applauded as a judge told him he must serve at least 12 years behind bars, while others became so emotional they had to leave the court. Marshall, 61, abused 16 children aged from five to 14 between 1974 and 1982 at Eversley Children’s Home and Downcraig Care Home in Glasgow. At the city’s High Court, Lord Brailsford said: ‘These are appalling offences perpetrated against both male and female children, which were exacerbated by the fact these children were already vulnerable people and in your care for protection.’ Marshall previously admitted 14 counts of abuse against the 16 children. An investigation was sparked after current Health Minister Patricia Hewitt, then a junior minister in the DTI, wrote a letter to Strathclyde Police in 2000. One of her Leicestershire constituents said he had been abused by Marshall at a Glasgow care home. A warrant was issued for his arrest and he was extradited from Australia, where he had moved, to face trial. He was arrested earlier this year. In 1981, Glasgow-born Marshall, who was 37, married the 60-year-old matron of Eversley, Joyce. They later moved to Corby Glen, Lincolnshire, where Marshall worked in a factory. Around the time police began probing abuse allegations, Marshall moved to Queensland – but he kept in touch with some former home residents. At the High Court in Glasgow last month, he admitted 14 charges of lewd and libidinous behaviour against youngsters in his care. The victim, who had written to Leicester West MP Miss Hewitt, said he was pleased with the sentence. The man, now aged 38, said: ‘To be honest, I didn’t think he would get as much as 12 years because he admitted it. But today I am happy. ‘I was there from when I was four up until I was ten. Since then I’ve been anxious, I suffer from clinical depression and have had several suicide attempts. ‘This man not only deserves to be behind bars but for the safety of the public he has to stay there for a long time.’ Another victim, aged 37, said she had been abused at one of the care homes when she was just five. She said: ‘He got what he deserved. He has taken so much of me. I had to face him every day and live with what he did to me.’ Lord Brailsford said Marshall had caused his victims ‘incalculable harm’ and many of them had suffered ‘serious psychological consequences’. He said: ‘You are a predatory paedophile who to this day still fantasises about prepubescent children. Society, in particular children, requires to be protected from you.’