Angus Cowan, the grandson of notorious crime matriarch Big Mags Haney, is the latest member of her family to be jailed after a “sadistic” attack with a machete and an imitation firearm on a man he wrongly believed had raped his sister.
Cowan's sister provided information to him that turned out to be “lies”, a court was told. The 29-year-old arranged for the 23-year-old victim to pick him up from an address in Tillicoultry and driven to a secluded woodland park on December 4, 2024.
Attack details
Once they got there Cowan produced an imitation shotgun and hit him in the face with it and held up a photograph of his sister sitting with the victim before launching an attack. He grabbed the man by the throat, pushed him back to the car and told him to get inside and bit his right ear. Cowan was filming on his phone as he hit the man with the blunt end of a machete and threatened to gouge the man's eyes out.
The man was ordered to drive back to Tillicoultry, with a laceration to his right earlobe, deep cuts to his head, a cut to his hand and a bleeding nose.
Big Mags' criminal legacy
Margaret Haney was a chain-smoking grandmother-of-dozens who first hit the headlines in the 1990s when she fronted a self-styled anti-paedophile campaign. Appearing on daytime television and portraying herself as a protector of the community, Haney cultivated the image of a fearless local crusader. But behind the public persona she was a big-time heroin dealer who was profiting from misery in the area.
Members of the community grew tired of her and began passing information to the Daily Record through our Shop-A-Dealer hotline, helping undercover reporters expose the extent of Haney’s drug empire in Raploch, Stirling. Undercover reporters uncovered evidence that the grandmother was selling hundreds of £10 wraps of heroin every week while claiming more than £1,200 a month in benefits.
Police moved in and Haney admitted running a heroin network worth around £250,000 a year over an 18-month period at the High Court in Glasgow in 2003. Haney was jailed for 12 years and served half of the sentence at Cornton Vale before being released in 2009 and dying of cancer in 2013.
Other family members
Her daughter Diane Haney was described as a key player in the drug dealing operation in court and jailed for nine years in 2003. She controlled the distribution network that moved massive amounts of class-A drugs through council flats in Stirling. Her daughter spoke out on a BBC Sounds podcast Crime Next Door: The Ballad of Big Mags, claiming that although her gran terrorised the community she also cared deeply for the family.
Catherine Haney, known as Ca-Ca or Crackers, was Big Mags' second daughter. She had a string of court appearances and over 30 convictions. Her son Barry Bradley, 19, was murdered in 2010 when a thug slashed his jugular vein with a piece of broken glass in Alva, Clackmannanshire. Catherine was jailed in 2011 for contempt of court. She had repeatedly tried to get out of a prison term by claiming she was pregnant, but Judge Lord Hardie, who had remanded her to Cornton Vale so she could be given a pregnancy test, said there were fears that someone else had provided a sample for her.
She was found in contempt after the trial of Donna Murphy, 49, who was convicted of murdering Connor Mallon, also 49. Catherine had clashed angrily with defence counsel Donald Findlay QC when he described her as a member of the notorious “Haney clan”. She said: “I’m not wearing a f***ing kilt. I’m wearing f***ing trackie bottoms.” When Mr Findlay questioned Haney’s evidence, she snapped: “What would you know? You weren’t there. You were probably off somewhere singing The Sash.” Catherine died aged 42 in January 2014, just a few months after her mother.
Mags' son Hugh Haney was jailed for five years for his role as a runner in the drug dealing network. He was jailed again in 2015 after threatening to kill a police officer and shouting "You’ll need a f***ing army to get me out" as he was arrested. Hugh also terrorised his ex-girlfriend three weeks later by turning up at her house and screaming abuse. He admitted threatening and abusive behaviour over both incidents.
Roseann Haney, the niece of Big Mags, was arrested alongside other members of her family in the drugs bust. She worked closely with her cousin, being described as Diane's "co-pilot" in the operation. In 2003, she was jailed for seven years for her role. The family appealed their sentences and lost.
