WEST LOTHIAN COUPLE JAILED FOR SAVAGE FIVE-YEAR CAMPAIGN OF TORTURE AND ABUSE
A violent couple who carried out a “savage” five year campaign of torture and abuse against two children have been jailed and banned from having any contact with their victims for five years.Paul Dodds and Amanda Thomson abused one terrified victim by tying them up with a dressing gown cord and gagging them with a piece of clothing to muffle their screams.
The cruel pair then made the child sit near a hot radiator, deprived them of food and failed to provide medical attention to injuries to their head, neck and hands.
Dodds also battered the child - who was aged between eight and 13-years-old during the abuse - by repeatedly striking them to the face and body and smashing their head off a cabinet and a window sill.
The violent brute pulled the youngster from their bed and dragged them down a flight of stairs, repeatedly threw objects at them and pinned them on the ground before punching them in the face.
Thomson, 42, attacked the same child by repeatedly hitting them to the head and seizing them by the neck and restricting their breathing.
The shocking catalogue of abuse saw the victim forced to sit on the floor to eat their meals and on one occasion Thomson threw cutlery at the child which resulted in a knife striking them on the neck.
Dodds, 47, also attacked a second child, aged just nine-years-old, when he wrapped a dressing gown belt around their neck and restricted the youngster’s breathing by him standing on the belt.
The abusive incidents all took place on occasions while the couple were tasked with looking after the children at addresses at in Bathgate and Livingston, West Lothian, between October 2015 and April 2021.
Dodds, from Glenrothes, Fife, and Thomson, from Bathgate, West Lothian, denied the allegations but were found guilty by a jury following a four day trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.
The couple returned to the dock for sentencing yesterday (TUES) where Sheriff Kevin McCarron said: “You have both been convicted unanimously, and unsurprisingly, by a jury of offences that span over a period of five and a half years.
“During that period you behaved that can only be described as savage brutality towards two children who merited nothing more than your love, your care and attention.” “Those children can only be admired for the the manner that they eventually came forward and told the truth with hesitation initially.
Sheriff McCarron sentenced Dodds and Thomson to 30 months in custody and imposed non-harassment orders banning any contact with their victims for five years.
