Edinburgh man faces tower block 'drug slaves and waterboarding torture' charges

An Edinburgh man forced four people into ‘drug-dealing slavery’ by controlling their lives and subjecting them to torture ordeals including waterboarding, prosecutors have claimed.

Shaun McKinnon, 34, allegedly held the alleged victims in ‘peonage’ - which also known as debt servitude - for 19 months in offences aggravated by serious and organised crime.

Court papers also claim McKinnon carried out waterboarding, tried to start a chainsaw while pinning a man down during an abduction and stood on another man’s neck until he fell unconscious.

McKinnon has appeared at the High Court in Glasgow charged with drug dealing and criminal offences under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act.

Alleged torture scene: Forteviot House in Moredun

Prosecutors at the Crown Office in Edinburgh claim McKinnon carried out the offences between January 2019 and July 2020 at addresses in Moredun, Edinburgh, and Castlemilk and Maryhill in Glasgow.

The charge reads: “You did require Steven McWilliam, Kevin Patterson, Scott Peters and Sarah Armstrong to perform forced or compulsory labour in that you did take control of their homes, exert control over their finances, prevent them accessing their bank accounts, order them to collect, store and distribute controlled drugs, hold them in peonage, threaten them and their families with violence and use violence towards them if they did not carry out the work.”

Several men were also allegedly attacked at Forteviot House, a high-rise in Moredun, say prosecutors.

McKinnon is accused of tying Mr McWilliam’s hands behind his back, forcing him to stand and pouring boiling water over him, forcing him to lie on a table in a bath and placing a towel over his face, and showering his face with water.

Mr Patterson was subjected to similar alleged assaults on the same day, last May 14.

Between January and July last year, McKinnon is accused of punching and bottling Scott Peters, tying his hands behind his back and threatening to waterboard him and scald him with boiling water.

McKinnon is also accused of punching Robert Stewart so he fell and smashed a glass table, and putting his foot on his neck until he lost consciousness.

He’s also accused of abducting David Airlie in April last year, pinning him down on the ground and trying to start a chainsaw before stealing his BMW car.

Three co-accused were also listed on the long indictment.

Samantha McCafferty, 34, from Pilrig, Edinburgh is charged with buying, supplying and selling drugs, aggravated by a connection to serious and organised crime between January 2019 and July 2020.

McKinnon and McCafferty are also charged with supplying heroin while the pair – along with Lee Raeburn, 34, from Pilrig - are charged with supplying cocaine in Edinburgh and Glasgow between the same dates.

McCafferty is also accused of possessing cocaine, amphetamine, methadone, flubromazolam and diazepam at an address in Leith in June 2020 and giving a false name to Police Scotland officers.

Alexander Casey, 57, from Buckie, Banffshire, is charged with acting as McKinnon’s personal driver to collect money and drugs.

The four accused denied the offences last month at the High Court in Glasgow.

McKinnon his co-accused are scheduled to re-appear in court in April.

This story has been updated to correct the age of the co-accused Alexander Casey

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