Child murderer due for release but his own dad wants to ’keep monster in jail’
Stuart Leggate killed eight-year-old Mark Cummings after abducting him from the block of flats where they lived and stuffing his body in a bin chute in Royston, Glasgow
A murderer who killed an eight-year-old boy is due for release from jail - but his own dad says he is too dangerous to return to society.
Stuart Leggate was sentenced to life for killing Mark Cummings, eight, who he had abducted from the block of flats where they lived. Leggate, 48, stuffed the boy’s body in a bin chute in Royston, Glasgow in 2004.
Now, having served 20 years of his sentence, Leggate is soon eligible for parole - but his father has begged prison bosses to keep him behind bars. The father, who was also called Stuart Leggate until he changed his name to distance himself from his son, said: “I will object to him being given parole at any stage because in my opinion he is still a danger to children. Mark Cummings would have been 28 years old this year but he never got a chance to see life. My ex-son should never be released. He was born in 1975 so he is almost 49 and has still a few years in front of him."
The killer sexually assaulted and strangled Mark, who had been reported missing after going out to play football with his friends in Glasgow. Leggate had been housed in the same high-rise building as Mark and the fiend dumped his victim’s body in a bin bag before throwing it down a rubbish chute in Royston.
Judge Lord Dawson told the High Court in Glasgow that Leggatt was “highly dangerous” when caging him in October 2004 - but took account of his guilty plea by recommending he serve a minimum of 20 years of his life sentence behind bars.
The beast had previously been released in September 1999 after serving a sentence for assaulting boys aged three to 10. Last night dad, Stuart, who has asked not to reveal his new identity, told how he plans to write to the parole board to ask them to keep him in prison. Stuart told Daily Record: “I would hope he would serve much longer than 20 years.”
At the time of the murder Stuart Snr was staying with Leggate, sleeping on his son’s couch. His wife June, Leggate’s mum, had died when their was son was on remand before being sentenced to four years in jail for child sex offences in 1997.
He was released after serving just half his sentence and changed his surname to Main, his mum’s maiden name. Speaking about his horror at Mark’s murder, Stuart Snr recalled: “Everything was going well for Stuart at the time. He had a job with a scaffolding company and he had a big motor.
“That evening I had been out and got back at 9.30pm to Royston. I had picked up a fish supper and a bottle of Irn-Bru on the way back to the flat knowing he would be away out with his boyfriend.
“When I got near the flat I noticed a big contingent of police in the area but didn’t pay much attention. I got in the house and sat on the couch and within 10 minutes there was a chap at the door, and there was a big polis man.
“He asked if he could come in and I said of course. He said my son had been seen coming in the building and the wee boy hadn’t been seen since.
“By that time it was well after 10 o’clock. Then an inspector came in, took off his hat and sat down. He asked what I had been up to and I said ‘just living my life’ then it came over the radio that human remains had been found.”
Stuart stated: “At that point I had to run to the toilet with two police officers and was violently sick. After I sorted myself out I said to them ‘my son has murdered that wee boy’.
“He had already done a prison sentence and I had always known he had a bad bit in him. I assisted police in arresting my son. That’s not right in anyone’s life.”
Stuart told how his son had a long-standing sexual interest in children. He said: “At 13 or 14 he started touching children up, lewd and libidinous practices, gross indecency.” The pattern of behaviour continued and he served short sentences before his four-year-stretch.
Stuart said: “I am a retired overhead linesman on the railway. I spent a lot of time at work and half the time I didn’t know what was going on at home.”
He added: “Since he was jailed I have had a full change of identity. I am in my seventies and have bowel cancer. I am having chemotherapy for a tumour but I hope I will be away before he gets out. My life over the past 20 years has been destroyed.”
He told how he was threatened with assault in his regular pub in Glasgow after his son was jailed but he insisted: “I am not responsible for my son’s actions.”
Stuart said while he has not maintained any contact with his “ex-son” and has no idea what prison he is currently in, he knows he spent time inside with fellow child killer Steven Leisk, who strangled nine-year-old Scott Simpson in Aberdeen in July 1997, and now-dead triple murderer Peter Tobin.
He believes they were all housed in Peterhead Jail before it closed. He said: “He was with those other animals, that’s what my son is, an animal.”
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