A once-prominent gay rights activist who ran a youth LGBT charity in Scotland has been released from prison after serving 16 years for sexually abusing a baby. James Rennie, 54, was imprisoned for his role in one of Scotland’s largest pedophile rings.
News of Rennie’s release was reported by The Scottish Sun, which said he was spotted in Edinburgh after being freed from HMP Castle Huntly, a prison near Dundee. Prior to his full release, Rennie had been granted prolonged periods of extended release as part of what appeared to be a community reintegration program.
Since being turned loose, Rennie has frequently been seen in the company of one of his convicted accomplices, Neil Strachan, who has also been released from prison after serving 16 years. The pair were reportedly staying at the same offenders’ hostel.
Rennie and Strachan were convicted in 2009 after being exposed as the ringleaders of what was described as Scotland’s “largest pedophile network.” The network, which involved at least eight other men, collectively possessed over 125,000 pieces of child sexual abuse media. The ring was broken up in 2007 after a lengthy operation by Lothian and Borders police.
Other men arrested include John Murphy, a former journalist with The Gay Times; Neil Campbell, an after-school program instructor who was married with children but led a double life with a male lover; and Craig Boath, who had just applied to become a special constable with police.
Strachan’s much younger boyfriend, Colin Slaven, was also amongst those arrested. Slaven had been a minor when Strachan began a “relationship” with him.
As well as distributing horrific child sexual abuse material, Rennie was also found to have been sexually abusing his godson over a four-year period starting when the child was just 3 months old.
Strachan had also sexually abused an infant boy, attempting to sodomize him while being HIV positive.
During court proceedings it was also uncovered that Rennie had used the e-mail handle “kplover,” standing for “kiddie porn lover,” to communicate with a sick predator in the Netherlands who described how he would like to rape, torture, and murder a child. The trial was labeled the “worst ever” abuse case in Scotland by media.
While soliciting child sexual abuse materials from other perverts, Rennie once sent an email specifically requesting media featuring “young Down’s syndrome or learning difficulty kids.”
Rennie and Strachan, both of Edinburgh, were jailed for a minimum of 13 and 16 years respectively, but judges reduced Strachan’s term to 9 years and Rennie’s to 8.5 years upon appeal. The two spent a total of 16 years in the prison estate from their arrest to their reported release.
Among the many shocking aspects of the case was that Rennie had been a respected gay rights activist in Scotland prior to his arrest.
While secretly operating the pedophile network, Rennie managed to become the CEO of LGBT Youth Scotland, a charity which gave him access to children as young as 13. Rennie had been a strong proponent for gay adoption, and, under his leadership, LGBT Youth Scotland lobbied the Government to allow same-sex couples to adopt children.
In 2005, LGBT Youth Scotland received a Phillip Lawrence Award for community safety, and Rennie was welcomed in parliament.
While LGBT Youth Scotland as an organization insisted it had no knowledge of Rennie’s activities, Scotland’s charity regulator never publicly investigated the organization to see if Rennie abused his power to access vulnerable children. At the time of the arrest, LGBT Youth Scotland claimed there was “no evidence” that the young people assisted by their agency were assaulted by Rennie.
In 2022, two survivors came forward to allege they were groomed and sexually abused after joining the charity as youth members. The two young men spoke with Reduxx and claimed there had been a culture of exploitation present during their time as members.
One of the young men, Sam Cowie, revealed that he had been “plied with alcohol free of charge, encouraged to sleep with older men and given money to perform sexual acts” by older male members of the charity when he was just 15.
EXCLUSIVE: Two survivors have come forward to allege they were "groomed" and sexually exploited as minors while using the services of LGBT Youth Scotland.
— REDUXX (@reduxx) December 22, 2022
The charity was formerly run by a gay rights campaigner convicted of raping an infant.https://t.co/fLESmMs5vi
But the controversies surrounding the charity have continued over the years.
In 2024, a Scottish drag queen who helped co-author an LGBT Youth Scotland guidebook was convicted of distributing child pornography that depicted infants being sexually abused.
Andrew Easton pleaded guilty in court in August of 2024 to communicating online with someone he believed to be a child, downloading indecent images of children, and distributing indecent images of children. The sexual abuse materials, which included images and videos, featured newborn babies, toddlers, and prepubescent children. Easton was caught by one of Scotland’s National Online Child Abuse Prevention (NOCAP) units in a September 2023 sting that identified his IP address. Police then obtained a search warrant and raided Easton’s home.
In a Telegram chat labeled “Extra Excitement,” Easton hoarded 132 images and 1,119 videos with newborn infants and children up to age 10. Police found that Easton also had a chat log with a user claiming to be 13 years old; Easton referred to this user as “baby boy,” and sent him photos of his genitals. He also requested the user call him “daddy.”
Following news of his arrest, journalist Marion Scott revealed that Easton had previously worked with LGBT Youth Scotland.
According to Scott, Easton co-authored the charity’s “coming out guide” for “trans young people” which was distributed to public schools across the country and is still available on the East Ayrshire Council website. The guide, which heavily promotes LGBT Youth Scotland services, “looks at the various stages of the coming out process” in a youth-accessible tone, presenting different scenarios and considerations for minors interested in changing their gender identity.
Following the disturbing revelations, the BBC’s Children in Need charity pulled its funding from LGBT Youth Scotland, citing concerns about the organization’s ongoing controversies.
According to a recent Freedom of Information request, the Scottish Government has admitted to continuing to provide LGBT Youth Scotland with funding through various programs.
This has included £290,871 through the Equality and Human Rights Fund, £55,773 through the Delivering Equally Safe Fund, and £78,750 through the Children, Young People, Families Early Intervention & Adult Learning and Empowering Communities (CYPFEI & ALEC) Fund.
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