ABERDEENSHIRE WOMAN FOUND GUILTY OF CHILD NEGLECT AND FAILING TO PROTECT VICTIMS FROM RAPIST HUSBAND
The former wife of Aberdeenshire child rapist John Sinclair has been found guilty of cruelly treating children and failing to protect them from his abuse.Ella Cowan stood trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court, where she lodged special defenses of incrimination against four charges of cruel and unnatural treatment concerning women with whom she was in contact when they were children.Her case comes almost three years after her former husband Sinclair was jailed for a campaign of abuse, including rape and assault involving the same victims.It took a jury of 15 people about four hours to find Cowan guilty of the charges.The 70-year-old will now return to the dock in August to be sentenced.Victims speak out about neglectThe four women who gave evidence against Cowan cannot be identified for legal reasons.They told the court they were each aged between three and 13 when they were neglected.
The victims said Cowan and Sinclair went by the nicknames Tootie and Dodo, and described being humiliated with punishments for wetting the bed, including being called derogatory names and being deprived of sufficient food.Victim A was between three and seven when she was mistreated by Cowan between July 1977 and May 1981, feeling "scared" and "lonely".
She expressed that now, she feels anger and disappointment, stating, "No person should ever treat a child like that, or children like that, and get away with it.
It’s not right."Victim B’s abuse coincided with Victim A’s, at ages five to eight.
She told the court that she reported Sinclair climbing into her bed while drunk, and that Cowan did nothing.
She said, "Once I got free, I wriggled, I ran downstairs.
I told Tootie something.
She just said ‘oh no, not again’.” She reflected on her feelings today: "I feel nothing.
Nothing towards her.
I feel disappointed, let down.
Confused.
Confused at how you can let a child suffer and not feel anything for that child suffering."Victim C, aged 11 to 13, detailed her abuse from August 1977 to February 1980, which left her with lasting mental scars, including difficulty being around alcohol.
Victim D described her experience of three years of terror in Cowan and Sinclair’s home, which greatly impacted her life.Paedophile preyed on the girlsVictims A, B, and C also testified about how Cowan failed to protect them from Sinclair’s non-sexual abuse, even when he was incarcerated in HMP Grampian for his crimes.
Sinclair’s behavior went unpunished for decades despite reports made to police in the 1990s.
Throughout her trial, Cowan maintained that any crimes attributed to her were committed by Sinclair, and she claimed she was unaware of his actions in their shared home, asserting that his crimes occurred when she was not present.She denied all allegations, stating, “I never made a big deal of it,” regarding bedwetting, adding, “I thought making a big deal of it would make the matter worse.” She said she might have given children a slap over the fingers rarely.
Cowan also reported being a victim of Sinclair’s drunken violence, though no domestic violence charges were filed against him.She admitted that she was unsure about what Sinclair was doing while they lived together, but believed persuasion from his sister and Sinclair himself, that he didn’t mean to hurt the children, influenced her.
She added: "I wasn’t sure he had done that intentionally."Following the verdict, Sheriff Craig Findlater warned Cowan that “all sentencing options” would be considered and advised her to be honest with social workers before her sentencing in August.
