They would have killed me just like they killed Allison
Brave abuse survivor breaks silence for first time since he helped put away two of Scotland’s most vile killers
Avictim of two killer paedophiles has broken his silence to tell how he put the pair behind bars – and is rebuilding his life through stand-up comedy.
Colin Higgins was repeatedly abused by evil Scots William Lauchlan and Charles O’Neill.
He kicked off the police probe that found them guilty of 31 offences against five young boys.
And he blew the whistle on them murdering Allison McGarrigle, 39, the Rothesay mum they feared would report their abuse of another young boy.
Lauchlan and O’Neill were found guilty of murdering Allison at a trial in 2010, and jailed for life.
Now, two decades after those events, Colin is filling comedy venues and making people laugh.
Colin, 36, said: “Those monsters promised to destroy me if I told what they had done, and I have no doubt they would have killed me like they killed Allison McGarrigle.
“But I’m here today to tell them they didn’t destroy me. I was the one who destroyed them.
“It might have taken me 20 years to overcome everything they did to me, but I’m the one who’s laughing while they remain behind bars.”
“I was at that ‘awful teenager’ stage when you are terribly naive but think you know it all; just ripe for those monsters to come along with their easy offers of a can of beer that most definitely would not be tolerated at home by my strict mum.
“These men were obviously very adept at getting close to young victims, they used other teenagers as bait to lure me into their circle.
“Soon I was bunking off school to have beer with the lads at the out of the way cottage in Skelmorlie where O’Neill and Lauchlan kept an ‘open house’ to the boys they picked up.
“Thinking I was a grown up, of course I had a can of beer. Little did I know that they’d laced the cans with drugs.
“That’s when the abuse began.” It was the start of a 20-year nightmare that left him with PTSD, night terrors and a lifetime on antidepressants.
Colin said: “O’Neill and Lauchlan were vicious, violent predators who used all their skills to entrap vulnerable young boys like me.
“They’d find them at the arcade at Largs sea front, and used the boys to befriend others they managed to trap in their evil web.
“Very quickly I went from being a
‘ These men were very adept at getting close to victims
– Colin Higgins