BBC Scotland is launching a new podcast exploring the life of Margaret Haney, known as Big Mags, who rose to fame in the late 90s as an anti-paedophile campaigner.
The six-part series, presented by award-winning journalist Myles Bonnar, tells the story of Margaret from the Raploch estate in Stirling, who grabbed the headlines in 1997 as a self-styled protector of her community, but behind the headlines lay a darker reality.
She was actually the head of a notorious criminal gang while claiming she “just wanted to help folk”, and her dramatic fall from public favour became a huge media story in Scotland and beyond.
Over twenty years later, she continues to divide opinion, and in this new series Myles speaks to people who knew her closely and were involved in the events that unfolded in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Myles said: “Mags Haney’s rise to prominence and her dramatic fall after revelations of her criminal activities, was a story which played out in the media over years.
“The series not only examines her contradictory life but also wider issues of mob justice, community dynamics, poverty, and the creation of the so-called media personality.
“Many people only partially know the story of this controversial figure and this series will give a full account of how she rose to fame and became a source of fascination to the media and public before her criminal life was exposed.”
The podcast will also feature archive material from BBC Scotland to tell the definitive story of Big Mags. It will be available on BBC Sounds from 8 August.
