10 hours ago
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A mother, grandmother and stepfather who subjected three children to years of abuse in a "house of terror" have avoided jail.
Shirley Freeman, Julia Stephen and David McColl's victims were beaten, starved and psychologically tormented between 2003 and 2012.
Freeman, 51, and Stephen, 69, were earlier found guilty of cruel and unnatural treatment. McColl, 50, admitted the crimes.
At Aberdeen Sheriff Court, Sheriff Craig Findlater said no sentence could "repair the awful childhoods" of the trio's victims.
McColl was sentenced to 220 hours of unpaid work, 18 months probation, and an 11-month restriction of liberty order, as a direct alternative to custody.
Stephen was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and given 18 months probation.
And Freeman was sentenced to 18 months probation, 240 hours of unpaid work, and a 12-month restriction of liberty order, as a direct alternative to custody.
The abuse happened at an address in Balloch, Dunbartonshire, and at a flat in Aberdeen's Bedford Avenue.
A trial heard that Freeman, now of Cullen, Moray, had created a "house of terror" for the children.
Two of their victims, William and Meaghan Murphy, who are now 25 and 28, told BBC Scotland News the violence and cruelty they experienced as children became their normal reality.
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