They look like a normal group of pals enjoying a summer day out. But the 14 women smiling happily in the photo are attending a pamper and a BBQ at Scotland’s only women’s jail after being convicted of some heinous crimes.
The snap was taken on a “barbecue and family day” in 2006 at Cornton Vale Prison, near Stirling. And the 14 women you see in the image are actually killers responsible for the deaths of 13 people and two unborn babies.
The day before, the women had a “pamper session” and got their hair and nails done. They were then joined in the afternoon by two family members at a BBQ held in a garden designed by the BBC Beechgrove Garden team.
Front row, third from the right, is Michelle Kelly, then aged 26, smiling in the white crop top and jeans. Five years previous, she stabbed 17-year-old Edward Bell in the stomach and through the spine in front of his mother Denise.
She done this after arriving at his house in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire, with a knife hidden up her sleeve. On the day her photo was taken at the BBQ and pamper session, it would have been Edward’s 23rd birthday.
View 3 ImagesCornton Vale(Image: SWNS)
Beaming in the back right with blonde hair and wearing a white vest top is “house of blood” killer Edith McAlinden, 44. Three men were butchered by the former prostitute, her son and his friend at a flat in Crosshill, Glasgow.
Crouching in the front row wearing a white vest top is Pamela Gourlay, 27.
In 1999, she slit her neighbour Melanie Sturton’s throat with a boning knife in Great Western Road, Aberdeen.
She then went shopping with Melanie’s bank cards and gift vouchers.
Margaret Seymour, 34, is in the front row wearing a denim shirt.
In 2000, she went to her disabled “friend” Geraldine McGinty’s home in Barrhead, Renfrewshire.
The killer has never explained why she twice plunged a kitchen knife into Geraldine’s back. Her victim, who had lost an arm in a road accident, made a harrowing 999 call as she bled to death from wounds to her heart and lung.
In the middle, with brown hair and wearing a white T-shirt, is Isabell Carvill, 42.
In 2003, she and Gemma Valenti, then only 16, became the first mother and daughter in Scotland to be jailed for life.
The pair are locked up for the brutal killing of Kenneth Finnie at a party in Blantyre, Lanarkshire.
Kenneth, 32, was “glassed” in the face, breaking his jaw, and then stabbed in the heart.
As he lay dying, he suffered severe blows to his head.
Valenti is the only female killer locked up in Scotland who is not in the picture. She felt ill the day it was taken and missed the photo session and outdoor feast.
View 3 ImagesCornton Vale women’s prison in Stirling(Image: Daily Record)
Crouched in the front, wearing a red top, is Pamela Reid, 21. She and Shevonne Clarke, then aged 23, who is in the middle row with dyed red hair, went in search of a sex beast in Edinburgh.
Instead, they knifed John Brankin, 39, the flatmate of their intended target, to death.
Reid has her arm round Tracey McInally, 35, who is crouching and wearing dungarees.
McInally, a former prostitute, stabbed one of her clients 13 times as he lay on a bed.
One Cornton Vale source said: “I dread to think what the victims’ families will think about the barbecue and all the pampering the killers had. This picture looks more like a holiday snap than a group of killers.
“These women look too happy and relaxed for most people’s taste. And they’re wearing trendy high street gear. Cornton Vale is known among inmates as ‘Butlins with bars’ and this photo gives you an indication why.
“They’re all smiling and looking so relaxed and at ease yet everyone of them is responsible for brutally taking away someone’s life. It’s a killers’ day out. They all look happy that the person next to them is a killer, just like they are.”
The photo is from late 2006 when Cornton Vale held its first family day for women who were serving life. There were also special “presentations” at the jail’s St Margaret’s Family Centre.
Four of the lifers gave presentations about different “areas” of their sentence. Topics covered included employment in the jail, education and integrated case management.
The source said: “Maybe it would have been better to get relatives of those murdered along to listen to the presentations and see how the pampering went.
“To see these beaming faces is unbelievable and will make the pain even worse for the relatives of those who died.”
Robertson, 40, a mum-of-three, set neighbour Gail Ross’s home in Ratho, Edinburgh, on fire after a feud.
Gail, who was pregnant, raised the alarm in a distressing 999 call which lasted more than two minutes but died in the fire.
Robertson was told by trial judge Lady Smith in 2002 there would be no guarantee of parole after serving her 14-year minimum term.
McNab, 42, carried out a horrific knife attack on widow Maggie McLennaghan, 74. Maggie died on Christmas Day, seven months after the attack. She was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in 1999.
Reid murdered John Brankin, 39, known as the “Stockbridge Beggar”, in an Edinburgh flat.
Reid was 15 when she knifed him to death. She and Shevonne Clarke argued about who should do the stabbing.
They said they were going to stab a “beast” or pervert but instead killed John, their target’s flatmate.
She was sentenced to a minimum of eight years in 2002.
Heroin addict McInally butchered Stephen Lindsay on his bed then stole from his flat.
The vice girl went with her 39-year-old victim to his flat on Dumbarton Road, Whiteinch, Glasgow, for sex.
She agreed to perform a sex act. But, as he lay on his bed, she stabbed him 13 times in the chest and twice in the hand with a potato knife she had taken from the kitchen. She was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in 2003.
Pamela slit neighbour Melanie Sturton’s throat with a boning knife on Great Western Road, Aberdeen.
A 2006 appeal against length of sentence thrown out.
Appeal Court judges described the killing of Melanie as a “horrific crime”.
The victim had only recently moved into her own flat and had told friends that she loved the feeling of independence. She was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years in 1999.
Seymour, then 26, twice plunged a kitchen knife into 33-year-old Geraldine McGinty’s back in Barrhead, Renfrewshire. Seymour and friend Susan Tracey had gone to Geraldine’s home at around 8.20am on May 22, 2000.
Seymour later admitted murder, while Tracey was jailed for a year for hitting Geraldine with a crowbar.
Geraldine, whose arm had been amputated as a result of a road accident, bled to death after the knife sliced into her heart and a lung. No motive was ever established for the brutal killing. Margaret was sentenced to life in 2000.
A former high-class call girl, charging £500 a night, and a millionaire’s ex-girlfriend, Francis was jailed for stabbing Sri Lanakan Prabo Wanigasuriya, 28, to death.
Prabo, a civil engineering graduate from Glasgow Caledonian University, was stabbed at Francis’s flat in Townhead, Glasgow. He had never mentioned any relationship with Francis, now 41, to family or friends.
She has never broken her silence about how she knew him. In court, she claimed self-defence. She was sentenced to a minimum of nine years in 2002.
Mary lured Manny O’Donnell, 53, to Tinto Firs Hotel in Newlands, Glasgow. He was shot in head then stabbed 22 times. His car and body found in East Kilbride. Mary was sentenced to 15 years in 1999.
McAlinden was a serial mugger, thief and prostitute. She had just finished a jail term for assault when she, her son John, then 17, and his friend Jamie Gray,16, butchered her ex boyfriend David Gillespie and two other men.
The three accused each pleaded guilty to one murder. Two of the victims were pensioners.
McAlinden had called her son and asked him and his friend to help dispose of the body of her ex, who she had stabbed to death. The pair then realised the other men were witnesses and attacked them too.
Edith was a handed a minimum of 13 years in 2005.
Michelle stabbed Edward Bell, 17, in front of his mother. Kelly, 21 at the time, gained access to his house in Alexandria because she was known by Edward’s family, but had a knife hidden up her sleeve.
Kelly carried out the appalling attack because her brother had just been beaten up. She was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years behind bars in 2003.
Bassi, 42, and a hired hitman killed her ex-husband’s pregnant new wife Rajwinder at the victim’s home in Woodlands, Glasgow. Rajwinder was almost decapitated and stabbed 30 times.
Bassi, from Cambuslang, near Glasgow, then tried to blame her ex-husband and 14-year-old son for the slaying.
Rajwinder’s frail mother travelled to court all the way from Punjab in India to look Bassi in the eye. She was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years in 1998.
Hughes, who was a lesbian, from Glasgow, fatally stabbed a man who she claimed had tried to sexually assault her as she lay on a bed. She was sentenced to a minimum of eight years in 1998. Parole was refused in 2011.
Isabell was caged along with daughter Gemma Valenti, then 16.
Victim Kenneth Finnie, 32, was stabbed in the heart, glassed – breaking his jaw – and battered about head as he lay dying. Carvill’s sister Frances was previously jailed for murder and hanged herself in Cornton Vale.
Isabell was given a minimum of 12 years in 2003.
Clarke 23, plunged a 15-inch kitchen knife into John Brankin’s chest after going to his flat in Edinburgh along with Pamela Reid to confront Keith Connor, 36, who was also stabbed and slashed.
Clarke, who was pregnant at the time of the attack later boasted about the murder to friends in the pub. She was given a minimum of 10.5 years in 2002.
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