A prominent domestic abuse campaigner from Perthshire, who was found guilty of physical and sexual abuse of children, has been jailed for three years.
Nicola Murray forced her tongue into the mouths of two children and made another youngster view an explicit image she had taken of a man she was dating.
Murray, 46, also spoke to the children about her sex life, including describing the size of her lover’s penis, and indecently assaulted another child after stripping them naked.
Murray – who ran the domestic abuse support group Brodie’s Trust – denied assaulting the children over a 20-year period but was found guilty by a jury following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month.
She returned to the dock for sentencing on Thursday and Sheriff Gillian Sharp said: “You have been convicted by a jury of your peers of all 10 charges on the indictment spanning a total of 20 years regarding four children.
“You were a mature adult when the offences were committed and the abuse was deliberate and targeted and breached the highest degree of trust.
“It is clear you have minimised your behaviour and I find no evidence of remorse, regret, insight or victim empathy.”
Jailed
Murray, from Stanley, was jailed for a total of three years and was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
The sheriff also issued non-harassment orders banning Murray from having any contact with her victims for the next 10 years.
Solicitor advocate Kris Gilmartin told the court his client had been a victim of domestic abuse and had been diagnosed with PTSD two years ago.
The lawyer said Murray had “played an important role in changing the law in relation to domestic abuse” and she “continued to deny the offences”.
Mr Gilmartin added Murray had received “threats of violence” since being found guilty and said she would be “particularly vulnerable in a custodial setting”.
‘Treated like a dog’
Last month the jury heard evidence the abuse included Murray blaming one child for causing her to suffer a miscarriage and restricting the breathing of another by smothering their face with a pillow.
She assaulted the children by punching, kicking and slapping them to the head and body over several years and she also pushed one youngster down a flight of stairs on several occasions.
The jury was told of incidents in which Murray dragged a young child out of a top bunk bed onto the floor and labelled a child “a tranny” after they had styled their hair to look like their favourite pop star Pink.
All the abuse took place at addresses in West Lothian and Perthshire and Murray was arrested and charged after one victim reported her to the police in 2022.
Prosecutor Cheryl Porter told the jury Murray had “systematically physically, emotionally and sexually abused these children over 20 years” and one child said they had been “treated like a dog”.
Ms Porter said the victims had been “repeatedly struck, slapped and dragged” and Murray had “repeatedly engaged in sexual conversations” with the victims.
She said one victim had been left “naked, injured and distressed” on the floor following a savage assault and another had been left so terrified of repeated assaults they had wet themselves.
High-profile campaigner
Murray was a high-profile domestic abuse campaigner and set up the Brodie’s Trust support group that advocates for women who have lost babies through domestic violence or forced termination.
She set the group up after suffering a miscarriage and introduced a petition to create an offence that enables courts to hand down longer sentences for violent domestic abusers who cause their victims to lose their babies.
Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw, convener of the Public Petitions Committee, chaired a full chamber debate on Murray’s petition at the Scottish Parliament in May last year.
MSPs unanimously agreed to note the petition but said further consideration would be needed before any amendments to the law are made.
Murray was found guilty of three charges of assault, two sexual assaults, two of indecent communication, one indecent assault and two offences of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, all between December 2002 and August 2022.
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