The mother of a victim of serial sex attacker Alexander Thomson claims he “effectively killed her” and should “rot in jail” for life.
Traumatised Bernie Laing, 30, died from an accidental drugs overdose after Thomson subjected her to multiple rapes and physical torture.
Bernie’s mother Margaret said her daughter was so haunted by Thomson’s brutality that she was “destroyed” after a relationship that lasted just 12 weeks, reports the Record.
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Margaret said: “He tore the life from her. She is dead because of him and he should rot in jail. She just gave up and took drugs to numb the horror of that monster.
“She never came back from what he did to her. She told me one day he would kill her and he effectively did.”
In February, Thomson, 42, was convicted of 17 charges of rape and sickening violence against four women.
The abuse, across West Lothian between 2013 and 2019, included knocking one victim’s teeth out and making her swallow them.
Thomson was convicted of raping Bernie and of her attempted murder after he put a plastic bag over her head as she slept and tried to choke her.
On another occasion he stuffed socks into her mouth to muffle her cries for help.
Judge Tom Hughes adjourned sentencing of Thomson for a full risk assessment to establish whether he should be hit with an Order for Lifelong Restriction.
But Margaret has issued a message to the judge, begging him to treat Thomson as a cold-hearted killer.
She said: “I will never see my daughter again because of him. I hope he rots in jail for life.
“I miss my daughter every second of every day and I will never get over losing her. I blame him. She is dead because of him and he should be jailed for life.”
Bernie died in July 2020, before Thomson’s trial, as did another one of his victims.
Detective Sergeant Aisling Corduff from Police Scotland’s Domestic Task force read the two dead women’s testimonies in the witness box of the High Court in Glasgow.
Margaret also gave evidence and stared Thomson down across the courtroom, forcing him to lower his head in shame in the dock.
She said: “I looked straight at that monster and he couldn’t look back.” Bernie was only in a relationship with Thomson for 12 weeks but Margaret said in that time he crushed her spirit.
Her daughter had bipolar disorder and struggled with drug addiction but was stable and clean when she met Thomson in March 2019.
Margaret said: “She was doing really well, she was living her best life and then she met him and he destroyed her.”
She met Thomson, who went by the name Ally, in a neighbour’s house and he won her over with a facade of charm.
Soon Thomson, a petty criminal and drug user, pulled Bernie back into addiction. Before long Bernie was sliding into an abyss of drugs and despair, transformed from a girl who was always groomed and confident to one who was dishevelled and lost.
When Margaret saw her daughter only a month into her relationship with Thomson, she barely recognised her.
Margaret said: “She didn’t look like my daughter any more. She was gaunt, dead behind her eyes, her clothes, her hair were dirty.
“I told her I didn’t know who she was any more. She said, ‘Mum, I don’t know who I am either.’
Margaret was shocked when Bernie FaceTimed her with a bruised, swollen face and she knew her daughter was lying when she said it was an abscess.
Bernie’s sister Shannan went to visit her that night and saw Thomson’s footprint had been imprinted in bruising across her face after he stamped on her.
Shannan, 26, begged her sister to leave Thomson many times but Bernie told her he would kill her if she did. Bernie became isolated, too scared of his wrath to disclose the extent of his abuse.
She would tell her mother Thomson was doing “bad things,” sparing her the details of the beatings, rapes and mental torture.
Margaret became increasingly frantic after reports from friends and relatives who witnessed Bernie in her home town of Bathgate looking scared, downtrodden and with black eyes.
Every element of her life was in Thomson’s grip. He took her money, kept her phone and screened her texts and calls.
He smashed up her home and removed the handles from the doors so he could keep her locked in.
Once Bernie did call her mother and told how Thomson almost killed her.
As she slept, he pulled a plastic back over her head and pinched her nose and she woke up with him choking her as she fought for breath.
He knew Bernie was asthmatic and claustrophobic and it would break her.
On another occasion when he was beating her, he stuffed socks into her mouth to silence her screams for help. Margaret said: “She just fell deeper and deeper under his control in such a short time. We couldn’t get her free.”
After she died, her family found a letter Bernie had written, expressing her love for them but also a desire to die because she was so haunted by her memories of Thomson.
Police began an investigation after a phone call from a concerned cousin who had seen Bernie’s bruised face.
Bernie gave evidence in a statement but she died in July 2020 from an overdose of prescription medicines.
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Margaret praised the Police Scotland Domestic Task Force for their tenacity in the case and said they had brought her daughter justice after her death.
Margaret said: “I believe Bernie was in the court with us.
“It must have been hard for Aisling to read out Bernie’s statement but she gave her a voice and I can’t thank the task force enough for everything they did.”
Thomson will be sentenced.
