On the 25th of June 2004 the body of eight-year old Mark Cumming was found in a black bag, thrown down a rubbish chute, in a Glasgow tower block.
Murdered…
Mark Cumming was a happy eight year old boy who lived with his mother, Margaret Ann, on Charles Street, Roygate in Glasgow.
On Friday, the 25 th of June 2004 he was playing football nearby his home with school friends. A neighbour was repairing his car when he struck up a conversation with the friendly youngster about computer games and convinced the boy to come back to his flat in the same tower block to play the games they discussed. This would be the last time Mark was seen alive.
At this point Margaret Ann was panicking – her son had not returned home from playing so she frantically phoned the police to report him missing. Police launched a full scale search for the boy which involved a helicopter, dog search teams and a large number of police officers.
The police recovered little Mark’s murdered body soon after. He had been stripped naked, brutally sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled with his own trousers before being dumped in a black bag down a rubbish chute in the very tower block he lived in.
The neighbour Mark had unwittingly followed was Stuart Leggate. Leggate was 28 years old and had previous convictions for sexually assaulting children. He most recently had served four-years in prison for sexually assaulting young boys between the ages of three and 10 and was released September 1999. Leggate was on the Sex Offenders’ Register at the time.
The legislature – Keeping Children Safe, introduced by the Justice Secretary Kenny McAskill, has been dubbed Mark’s Law. Parents can apply to the local police for background checks on people who have access to their children. The scheme has its drawbacks however – the majority of applications have been rejected. Also, if information is released to parents they are obliged by law not to reveal what they have been told and can be prosecuted if they even tell another parent that their neighbour is a paedophile.
Police officers soon recovered CCTV footage which showed Leggate talking to Mark and leading him away.
Leggate immediately admitted the offence when quizzed by the police. He told the police and later the court in detail how he lured, beat, raped and strangled the eight-year old boy to death and dumped his body like a piece of rubbish.
In October later that year Leggate was sentenced to spend at least 20 years behind bars. Mark would have been only 28 years old when his killer is eligible for parole. He told the court he murdered Mark because he refused to go back to jail for sexually assaulting a child.
“It was like the old me had come back … It was like I actually heard myself saying ‘you let the last one go – I am not letting this one go…’ ”
The judge said that Leggate is a very dangerous man and the public must be protected from him for a very long time.
Preventable…
The truth is that Mark’s death was preventable. It should not have happened. His murderer was a convicted paedophile who was paroled and left to molest and murder the little boy.
Questions must be asked -
Questions must be asked -
- Why was a serial child molester allowed to live in a tower block full of families with young children?
- Why weren't the residents of Roygate made aware that a dangerous child predator had moved in next door?
- Why was he released from prison in the first place when he had committed three previous child sex offences?
- What is the purpose of the Sex Offenders' Register if it doesn't protect children like Mark?
If Margaret Ann been aware that a paedophile was living in the same building as her and her son then she would have been able to protect him from Leggate’s wrath. Most mothers let their children play outside without thinking twice, at the age of eight many children are allowed to play near home unsupervised. Children should be allowed to play outside without worrying about being sexually assaulted.
Mother’s search for change… ‘Mark’s Law’
Margaret Ann has become an ambassador for change in the sex offender disclosure laws in Scotland. The heartbreaking, awful death of her son has made her want to transform the system in Scotland so that preventable tragedies like Mark’s death cannot be repeated.
Margaret continues to campaign now – seven years after Mark’s death and last year there was a bittersweet victory for the mourning mother – a disclosure scheme was launched across Scotland that allows parents to find out if sex offenders have access to their children
The legislature – Keeping Children Safe, introduced by the Justice Secretary Kenny McAskill, has been dubbed Mark’s Law. Parents can apply to the local police for background checks on people who have access to their children. The scheme has its drawbacks however – the majority of applications have been rejected. Also, if information is released to parents they are obliged by law not to reveal what they have been told and can be prosecuted if they even tell another parent that their neighbour is a paedophile. Margaret Ann welcomed the change but highlighted that the fact that parents have to be the ones to make the first move is a problem. Also, the fact that only individuals who have regular contact with children of the parents applying means that it doesn’t reveal the details of even paedophiles that may be living on the same street.
Not over…
Margaret Ann is still campaigning for more information to be released by authorities about sexual predators living within our communities. She fights for parents to be alerted if a paedophile moves within one mile of their home. She is not letting Mark’s death be in vain. She refuses to let another parent go through the heartache she has and won’t rest until the law protects the rights of children above the privacy rights of convicted sex offenders.
Margaret Ann is still campaigning for more information to be released by authorities about sexual predators living within our communities. She fights for parents to be alerted if a paedophile moves within one mile of their home. She is not letting Mark’s death be in vain. She refuses to let another parent go through the heartache she has and won’t rest until the law protects the rights of children above the privacy rights of convicted sex offenders.
Rest in peace, Mark Cumming.
Written by Sarah.
Written by Sarah.
