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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Emylie Howie

Paisley couple abducted, assaulted and robbed woman over drugs row

A Paisley couple have been found guilty of abduction, assault and robbery in a row over drugs they thought a friend had “planked” inside her body.

John McNally, 53, and Julie McNally, 46, were standing trial at Paisley Sheriff Court this week and the jury - by majority - found them guilty in around three hours on all charges.

Both McNallys were guilty of abducting a woman on November 5, 2020, detaining her “against her will” and assaulting her.

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They robbed her of her phone and assaulted her by striking her on the head and body and by “cutting her lower clothing and underwear off.”

The horrific duo also attempted to stab the woman with scissors, cut her hair and attempted to penetrate her private parts.

The attack left the woman permanently disfigured, with her telling the jury how she fled John McNally’s Maxwellton Street flat, half-naked and clutching her severed finger.

The brutal attack and abduction took place in a flat in Maxwellton Street (Andrew Neil)

The woman, who we are not identifying, explained how John McNally and Julie McNally locked her in a Maxwellton Street flat before attacking her because they thought she’d stolen their drugs.

The 40-year-old Paisley woman told the court: “John’s girlfriend slapped me across the face.

“He asked what was going on and she said ‘She’s trying to steal f***ing drugs from me’.

“She then pulled me by the hair and John dragged me by the hair to the floor.

“John got scissors and pinned me to the floor. He gave her a pair of scissors too.

“They cut my trousers off me, they cut my underwear off me, they cut the back of my hair.

“My trousers were cut from my ankles to my waist.

“I tried to pull the scissors out of her hands but they slashed through my finger.

“Then their dog came in and bit my hand and my private parts.

“It was attacking my arm.

“I had to get an operation because of where it had bit me and how bad the wounds were.

“John turned me round and said to his girlfriend, ‘Finish her off.’

“I nearly lost my finger trying to fight them both off me and the dog, and I nearly lost my life as well due to them thinking I was trying to do something that I wasn’t.

“They thought I had drugs planked on me.

“They thought I had hid the drugs inside me.”

c (Handout)

John McNally was also found guilty of owning an American Pit Bull dog on September 19, 2020 in Maxwellton Street when it was “dangerously out of control” and attacked a 67-year-old man, and again on November 5, 2020 when it attacked the woman the couple had abducted, assaulted and robbed.

Pensioner John Diver told the jury how he needed plastic surgery to his arm after he was attacked by out-of-control mutt, Bear.

Mr Diver said he was standing waiting on a bus on September 19, 2020 when he was “knocked out”.

Mr Diver, who was 67 at the time of the incident, told how he had no recollection of the night, but could remember seeing a paramedic and a police officer when he regained consciousness.

Mr Diver explained: “I’m assuming I must have been knocked out.

“The ambulance took me to hospital from Maxwellton Street.

“I required stitches to the injury to my head and I was taken to Glasgow Royal the next day as I had to go for surgery on my forearm.

“I needed plastic surgery due to the injury being caused by a dog bite.”

Jury members were shown a CCTV recording captured from the ambulance service on the night of September 19, 2020.

The video shows Mr Diver lying on the ground with a dog repeatedly running to and from him and another male using an orange road barrier to keep a dog away.

While Julie McNally, of Hollows Avenue, sat sobbing in the dock, Sheriff Eoin McGinty told each of the McNallys: “You have both now been convicted of these crimes.

“Charge two is of the upmost gravity where you abducted a woman, assaulted her to her severe injury and permanent disfigurement and attempted to penetrate her vagina.

“You will both be remanded for the preparation of reports.”

Sentencing was deferred for the preparation of a criminal justice social work report until September 30.

Consideration on the destruction of the dog was continued to the same date.

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