A “horrible” foster mum who abused a group of children has lost a bid to quash her conviction for maltreatment from beyond the grave.
Sandra Harper forced one girl to eat vomit and rubbed a boy’s face in urine-soaked bedding during a two-decade-long campaign of abuse.
Peterhead Sheriff Court heard how Harper hit kids in her care, also shouting and swearing at them – calling them “little b******s, little pigs, little tinks”.
The 63-year-old told Peterhead Sheriff Court that “sometimes it was reprimanding them and sometimes it was in banter”, claiming: “It was like saying God bless you, to me”.
But Harper – who grew up in Dunfermline and fostered 35 children over 23 years – was convicted of eight charges, including four assaults.
Cruel carer’s family thought it was miscarriage of justice
A sheriff said she had been “nasty, verbally abusive, cruel, vindictive, violent” towards her victims and “denied” them a childhood full of love and care and fun.
Sandra’s husband Andrew Harper, 63, was also found guilty by a jury of nine women and six men of three assault charges.
Sandra Harper died following her trial which ended in her receiving 300 hours community service for her crimes.
In January 2024, it emerged that her non-suspicious death was the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal from Police Scotland.
However, her family believed that she was a victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Her lawyers were allowed to go to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh in a bid to quash her conviction.
On Wednesday, defence advocate Ximena Vengoechea addressed judges Lord Doherty, Lord Matthews and Lord Beckett.
She told them that their colleague who presided over Harper’s trial – Sheriff Ian Wallace – hadn’t explained the law properly when addressing jurors at the trial.
However, the appeal court couldn’t find any fault with how Sheriff Wallace spoke to the jury.
Lord Doherty said: “The appeal is refused.”
Abusive carer claimed children were lying
During proceedings, the court heard how the offences against five victims were carried out by the Harpers between 1985 and 2002 in their home in Cairnbulg.
The jury heard Sandra Harper repeatedly struck some of them on the head.
One boy, who’d wet his bed and had his face rubbed in the soaked linen, fell and struck his head on a wardrobe following one such assault.
She denied any wrongdoing during her trial. Prosecutor Ruairidh McAllister asked Sandra Harper: “Your position would be that it’s all made up?”
She replied: “Yeah”.
Sentencing Harper, Sheriff Ian Wallace acknowledged that she had “suffered some mental and physical issues” over the period in question.
He told her: “As a foster carer, you were entrusted to look after and love the children. You were nasty, verbally abusive, cruel, vindictive, violent.”
Andrew Harper was given 180 hours of community service.
Now Sandra Harper’s convictions remain in place.
