Sadist who tortured FIVE girlfriends finally brought to justice after 30 years - The Daily Record

Sadist who tortured FIVE girlfriends finally brought to justice after 30 years - The Daily Record

(His picture looks like the "Michael Meyers" mask from the "Halloween" movies.)

A SADIST who tortured FIVE girlfriends over 30 years has finally been brought to justice.

Joseph Loughran, 51, tried to strangle his victims, burned them with cigarettes, cut them with knives and beat them unconscious.

He attempted to drown one girlfriend in the bath, threw two women down flights of stairs and attacked another with a bow and arrow and a spear gun.

Loughran isolated the women from their friends and families. And despite his jealous, savage rages, fuelled by alcohol, they were too terrified to leave him.

One of the women, Suzanne Small, said: "I feel so stupid, but I felt like nothing.

"I had no confidence left, no personality. I was terrified of him."

Suzanne told how she was once due to go to hospital to have stitches removed after an operation.

But Loughran, of Glasgow, had beaten her viciously and didnt want the doctors to see her bruises.

So he took all 32 of the staples out of her chest and back himself, with a knife.

The Walter Mitty thug claimed to have served in the Army medical corps, but in fact had never been in the forces.

Suzanne said: "It was agony, but he told me he knew what he was doing and I couldn't go to hospital because I was so covered in bruises from a beating.

"He was a sick man.

Loughran's terror campaign finally ended after a crack team from Strathclyde Polices Domestic Abuse Task Force spent months piecing together his crimes.

He was charged with five counts of attempted murder but pled guilty yesterday to the reduced charge of assaulting the women to the danger of their lives. He will be sentenced later.

Loughran's first victim, Janice Allan, suffered 12 years of torture from 1980.

He threatened to shoot her with an air rifle before beating her with it, and attacked her with a bow and arrow and a divers spear gun.

Loughran beat Janice with a chair, tried to push her into a car boot, and pinned her to the ground with a knife to her throat.

The brute enjoyed humiliating his victims.

He threw a plate of food in the face of Ann Webster, his partner between February 1993 and December 1995, and hurled a dinner against a wall before forcing her to clean it up.

He choked Ann, cut her leg with broken pottery and a knife, burned her skin and hair with cigarettes, bit her, spat at her and threw her down a flight of stairs.

Loughran subjected his next girlfriend, Mary Matthew, to dozens of attacks while she was with him between April 1996 and February 1997. He once choked her with a chain until she passed out.

Victim number four, Lynn Robertson, was brutalised between July 2004 and July 2007. Loughran choked her with a flex, punched her and threw her down stairs.


Suzanne Small met Loughran, who ran a successful roofing company, in an upmarket bar in Glasgow in 2007. She said: I couldnt believe my luck.

He was charming, kind and generous. He was nice-looking with a good business and I fell for him.

Suzanne, a former manager in the plastic surgery business, was typical of the kind of woman Loughran targeted attractive, articulate and successful.

After five months, she moved in with Loughran. And within two weeks, the violence began.

Loughran broke Suzanne's wrist in two places when she tried to stop him smashing her over the head with a bottle of whisky.

He was always drunk when he attacked her, but it was often premeditated.

One morning, Loughran ran a bath while Suzanne was sleeping, dragged her out of bed and threw her in it, holding her up by the ankles to submerge her head.

She said: "I remember struggling at first and then just giving in and relaxing because I thought that was it.

"I was going to die and there was no point fighting it."

When Loughran thought Suzanne had passed out, he went to the kitchen and made a fry-up.

It was typical of him. He often beat his girlfriends until they were unconscious and then abandoned them, not caring if they woke up.

Loughran encouraged all his victims to move in with him before the abuse began in earnest.

At first, he would use anything to hand to inflict his violence, but he then began using weapons.

Loughran once brandished a petrol can and lighter at Suzanne, threatening to set her on fire.

He was arrested and spent five months in prison, but she went back to him after he got out.

Loughran constantly accused Suzanne of having affairs, and stabbed her through the leg with a knife in one fit of jealous fury.

She had to wrap the wound in two bath towels to stop the blood. She waited two weeks before going to hospital, by which time her leg was badly infected.

Suzanne had to go to accident and emergency nine times over six months. Loughran went with her each time to stop her speaking out.

He fractured Suzanne's skull, perforated her ear drum, bit her nose, kicked and punched her. He never once said sorry.

Loughran banned Suzanne from seeing relatives and friends. And when illness forced her to give up her job and flat, she became reliant on him.

It seemed she would never escape. But Loughran was finally nailed after a close pal of Suzanne became suspicious during a phone call that something wasnt right. The woman called police.

It was New Years Eve 2009. Police arrested Loughran after finding Suzanne at his home, covered in bruises.

She said: "The task force took the case so seriously and I cant thank them enough.

"The other victims were so brave to help. I hope no one ever has to go through what we have gone through."

DC Chris Hamill and PC Suzanne Stewart led the inquiry that brought Loughran to justice. The task force uncovered his evil past after he was arrested for attacking Suzanne, tracing the other victims and finding out what they had suffered.

Chris said: "This is a classic example of how the task force can pro-actively track women believed to be victims and
use their evidence to build a solid case.

"We want to praise the courage of the women who helped us by revisiting some of the darkest times in their lives not just because they wanted justice, but also to protect other women from becoming victims."

At the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, Lady Clark deferred sentence on Loughran, now unemployed, for reports.

He will learn his fate later this month.

Users' Comments (12)


LawandOrder wrote:
Again I say - why does a judge need to a defer the sentence? She had enough evidence in front of her to know after being a predator for thirty years he will never change. He is 51 at the moment so give him a 30 year minimum sentence.

Let not the Scottish Judiciary talk tough - let them be seen to be tough.
8/6/2011 9:26 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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Plainspeaking wrote:
I'm not one or violence, but people like this should have the same punishment in jail. The reduced charge to assault beggars belief tho. Surely it is attempted murder.
8/6/2011 9:45 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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ralphybough wrote:
Joseph is going to be wearing lots of lipstick in his jail cell.....
8/6/2011 9:54 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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xerxes wrote:
So Joe fancies himself as a bit of a tough guy ?
I think he's about to get a rude awakening.
8/6/2011 10:47 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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calmdoon wrote:
Lawandorder..............I do not know if Loughran has ever served time in jail. I assume he has not. This being the case the judge must, under Scots Law, call for reports if he is considering a custodial sentence. The judge has the power to remand him in custody pending these reports and hopefully he has done so. Plainspeaking on the surface of this article I agree that attempted murder was the appropriate charge, however sometime these poor woman are so traumatised that they have been assessed as to being liable to fall apart in the witness box and their evidence becomes unreliable and the case can be lost. The assaults would appear to have taken place in private with no corroborating witnesses and the Crown Office was relying on the "Moorov Doctrine" where seperate incidents are held to be so similar that they corroborate each other. So if one or two of the witnesses break down the whole case could be lost in a domino effect. Under some circumstances the Crown Office are forced into plea bargaining to ensure a conviction. I hope this helps explain the technicalities behind calling for reports and lest anyone thinks I am on the side of Loughran and his like let me say string him up by his privates for the full length of his sentence.
8/6/2011 11:00 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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gandalff wrote:
Reduced charge ....deferred sentence......Blah Blah ....it goes on....I trust he had a lawyer present when interviewed and this animals "human rights" weren't abused.....and he escapes whatever is coming to him....And how does it take a "crack team from Strathclyde police" months to piece together evidence???
The policing of domestic abuse is in the dark ages...and the legal process greviously weighted towards the perpetrators. The police are very lucky none of these women were killed.
8/6/2011 11:17 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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InvernessJoiner wrote:

Feed him to the Rats.
8/6/2011 11:40 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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calmdoon wrote:
gandalff.............I agree that the legal process is heavily weighed in favour of the culprits and I share your obvious frustration. That being said your post is lashing out at the wrong people. As I previously explained the trial judge must, I repeat MUST, call for reports before committing anyone to a custodial sentence for the first time. Strathclyde Police were faced with an enquiry of events which had taken place over a 31 year period. Witnesses move house, get married and change names etc. and under the circumstances months seem a reasonably short time to complete the enquiry. Why are the police "very lucky none of these women were killed". All of the assaults took place BEFORE the police became involved in the crimes. Where does the luck come into it. Your claim the policing of domestic abuse is in the dark ages is a victory for certainty over substance. As domestic abuse takes place , almost exclusively, in private it cannot be policed. It can be investigated and unlike the 60s and 70s when it was not rigorously investigated and cases were not pursued. The reason being that women invariably withdrew their complaints because they had to continue to live in the same house as their abuser and were naturally afraid. Nowadays support features such as housing shelters are available to distressed families and special police units ensure the crime is properly investigated.
8/6/2011 11:59 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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Johnniebhoy wrote:
gandalff wrote:
Reduced charge ....deferred sentence......Blah Blah ....it goes on....I trust he had a lawyer present when interviewed and this animals "human rights" weren't abused.....and he escapes whatever is coming to him....And how does it take a "crack team from Strathclyde police" months to piece together evidence???
The policing of domestic abuse is in the dark ages...and the legal process greviously weighted towards the perpetrators. The police are very lucky none of these women were killed.
----------------------------
Policing domestic abuse is NOT in the dark ages. In its first year of operation officers from the Domestic Abuse Task Force have arrested 105 dangerous offenders for a total of 370 crimes including attempted murder, rape, serious assault, breach of the peace and stalking cases.

The Task Force works pro-actively to tackle offenders. Out of those 370 crimes, 320 had previously never been made known to the police.

The Cops also ivestigate the perps for other criminal activity, you know thing like dealing, gang violence, disqualified driving, etc, all with a means to reducing their opportunity to commit domestic abuse & violence.

This particular unit also deploy tactics/skills that were previously only used in murder or other serious crime investigations because this crime often has no independant witnesses and forensic evidence can be limited, as this case shows. That's why Cops place reliance on forensic awareness & sound investigative techniques.

In short, they know what they're doing, so less of the criticism for the people working in this unit.
8/6/2011 12:16 PM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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Baltiblue wrote:
What goes 'round comes 'round and wee Joe will be very popular with "The Real Hard Men".
He won't be riding a bike when he surfaces again.
You have to feel for his victims and it's heartbreaking how many lives he's destroyed
8/6/2011 12:33 PM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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