Crime: Teenage thug who fathered a child during sentence is back behind bars

A teenage thug who fathered a child while serving a jail sentence for his part in a vicious attempted murder is back behind bars.

Billy Stewart was a part of a six-strong gang who punched, kicked and stamped on victim Rhys Reynolds during a horror attack in Musselburgh, East Lothian, in 2018.

The feral gang left Mr Reynolds, then 26, with a series of injuries including 35 facial fractures, bleeding on the brain and multiple stab wounds.

Stewart, who was just 16 at the time, was sentenced to an extended 10 year jail term for his part in the murder bid which was reduced to five years following an appeal.

Behind bars again - thug Billy Stewart

And then while serving his sentence inside a children’s unit near Glasgow the yob began a relationship with a vulnerable teenage girl who subsequently fell pregnant with his child.

Stewart, now aged 19, was released from custody on May 6 this year but was arrested just four weeks later in connection with assault on an inmate at Polmont YOI last year.

The thug, from Prestonpans, East Lothian, appeared from custody at Falkirk Sheriff Court where he pleaded guilty to the attack on Drew Anderson within the facility.

Sheriff Derek Livingston jailed Stewart for four months after he admitted to a charge of assaulting Mr Anderson by punching him on the body to his injury on June 11 last year.

The Care Inspectorate launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Stewart fathering a child while he was being detained at the secure unit on the outskirts of Glasgow in June 2020.

The unit houses children aged between 11 and 18 with social, emotional and behavioural issues from across the UK.

A Care Inspectorate spokesman said: “We were notified of an incident of concern in June and have been in close contact.

“We are satisfied that the service has investigated this appropriately.”

Stewart and his gang were jailed for a total of 47 years following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh for the brutal attack on Mr Reynolds in Musselburgh on December 31, 2018.

The six thugs subsequently had their sentences reduced following successful appeals for the assault on Mr Reynolds that Judge Gordon Liddle had branded as “cowardly and vicious”.