Sentencing deferred for depraved killers who filmed rape of young dad after he was spiked with street Valium

A judge has continued the sentencing of two depraved killers for the murder of a young father after filming their rape of the defenceless victim to get further reports on the pair.

Dylan Brister and Cameron Allan are facing life sentences after they spiked Calum Simpson’s drinks leaving him unconscious before subjecting him to a horrifying sexual assault that was recorded on a mobile phone before murdering him..

Father-of-three Mr Simpson, 24, died from intoxication with the Class C drug Etizolam and alcohol following the attack on him at Brister’s home in Methil, in Fife. The victim’s youngest child was born 11 days earlier.

The trial judge, Lord Harrower, will have to fix minimum terms – known as punishment parts – which the pair will have to serve before they can apply for parole as part of the mandatory life sentences for murder.

He agreed to adjourn sentencing for further supplementary or fresh criminal justice social work reports to be prepared on Allan and Brister and for reports from forensic psychologists on them.

Michael Anderson KC, for Allan, said he was seeking a supplementary social work report following the appeal court decision in the case of teenager murderer Daniel Haig where his minimum term was reduced from 16 to 13 years. Haig fatally stabbed schoolboy Justin McLaughlin, 14, at Glasgow High Street railway station in October 2021.

Mr Anderson said the appeal case dealt with the sentencing of someone under the age of 25, where sentencing guidelines for young persons apply. Allan was 20 when he was convicted of the murder he carried out as a teenager.

Mr Anderson said a supplementary report on Allan could address more fully the trauma experienced by his client as a youngster and the guidelines.

Michael Meehan KC, for Brister, asked for the sentencing to be continued as the court could benefit from a forensic psychologist’s report and the background report prepared had “a number of deficiencies”.

During the trial of Brister and Allan graphic footage of the assault on Mr Simpson was recovered from Allan’s phone and shown to jurors at the High Court in Edinburgh in a trial where Allan and his former fiance denied murdering the victim.

The jury was also shown photographs of appalling injuries sustained by the Mr Simpson in the sex attack.

Brister, 27, formerly of Methil, and Allan, 21, of Dunfermline, in Fife, were unanimously found guilty of the sexual assault and rape of Mr Simpson and his murder.

They were convicted of murdering him on November 2 and 3 in 2021 by causing him to ingest Etizolam tablets in alcoholic drinks without his knowledge, resulting in him losing consciousness and dying and failing to give or get medical help for him.

They were also found guilty of sexually assaulting and raping him after he was unconscious. The victim’s wrists were bound with rope during the attack.

Prosecutor Angela Gray told the jury: “What you saw on that footage was rape. It was sexual assault. It was committed by both accused acting together.”

The advocate depute said: “This is a plan between both accused to drug Calum Simpson to make sure that he does not get up. They drugged him for their sexual gratification. That drugging was wickedly reckless to the consequences and in so doing that had a complete disregard for the safety and the life of Calum Simpson.”

She said the film footage was “a glimpse into the depravity” of the pair. During it Allan could be heard saying to his accomplice: “At least he is still breathing.”

The court heard that Brister and Allan were seeking a man to make up a threesome with them, but efforts to find a participant failed.

Allan was searching on the gay dating app Grindr, but Brister was aware of the plan which involved seeking a “submissive”. One man who met Allan at an inaugural Pride event in Dundee was told they would be “up for” choking him and wanted to tie him up and abuse him, but he chose not to become involved.

Ms Gray said: “And then Calum Simpson, a complete stranger, arrives by chance.”

Mr Simpson went to Brister’s home in Herriot Crescent with a friend, Dylan Stewart, who knew the pair and later left, leaving him alone with them.

The court heard that there was no evidence that Calum Simpson was homosexual.

During the trial the pair tried to blame each other for spiking drinks with the controlled drug Etizolam, which is commonly found in so-called ‘street valium’, but is up to ten times more potent than diazepam. It is now involved in a substantial number of drug deaths in Scotland. Valium is one of the brand names for diazepam.

Brister claimed that Allan revealed to him he put tablets into drink for Mr Simpson, but Allan maintained that he saw his then fiance spike the drinks destined for the victim.

Brister had won more than £20,000 gambling and bought 1,000 tablets for £200.

He claimed he believed they were genuine diazepam and came in proper packaging inside a pharmacy carrier bag. Allan said he was at the drugs handover and the drugs were in strips in a freezer bag and came with a warning.

He said the woman supplying them told Brister they were strong and added: “That’s why she gave the warning, someone had already died from taking them.”

The court heard that after Mr Simpson was found dead Allan told police that he said a prayer for him. He claimed that he had “bad sexual thoughts because of what happened to me”.

During an interview with police Brister said: “We are not rapists. We are young boys that like a bit of fun.”

Brister told the court that he suffered from a personality disorder and complex post traumatic stress disorder and received antipsychotic medication.

He said on the night of the fatal attack he was “very, very out my face”. He added: “I won’t dispute the fact that Calum passed out and we carried on. I didn’t spike that boy, but yes I gave him drugs. We raped him and continued to have sex. It is what it is, disgusting. It should never have happened. I am not going to make excuses.”

Allan said he was diagnosed with an attachment disorder after watching his mother die in a car accident when he was three. He claimed that he was now disgusted that he took videos of the attack.

He said he had “bad sex thoughts” because of what happened to him when she was younger and added: “This is the first time I have acted on those thoughts.”

Allan said he was in love with Brister but claimed the older man ill-treated him. He said: “I was treated more like a dog than a servant. He was just a violent, angry man.”

Lord Harrower continued the sentencing of Brister and Allan until October 1.