Disgraced Edinburgh businessman and convicted domestic abuser, Alexander Galpin, left behind a trail of emotional and financial misery when he dumped two young women who have given birth to his children.
The Edinburgh Reporter has spoken to the victim and mother of his two year old daughter, who he tried to coerce into having an abortion, and a second woman who also fell pregnant at the same time to “narcissist” Galpin.
Galpin, 24, owner of the failed Luxford Burgers chain, was placed on a two year supervision order and must attend a domestic abuse rehabilitation course, after admitting to a horrendous campaign of abuse against a former partner and was banned from approaching or contacting her for two years.
Fantasist Galpin claimed to run a hospitality sector business with an annual turnover of more than £6 million but the two women revealed that he pays them as little as £200 each per month in child support after claiming to the Child Maintenance Service that he earned only £26,000 a year.
He is known for flashing wads of cash, enjoying the good life, and is immensely proud of his £20,000 Rolex watch which he wore in the dock of Edinburgh Sheriff Court while his lawyer told Sheriff John Cook that his client was £30,000 in debt.
Galpin’s harassment campaign to force the victim into an abortion started immediately on discovering she was pregnant: “His attitude from the start was – we are just going to have to get rid of it – there was no other option for him,” she said.
The woman said Galpin forced her to phone private abortion clinics to secure an appointment as he was unhappy waiting for an NHS appointment. When that failed, he insisted on driving her to St John’s Hospital in Livingston and sitting in on a meeting to discuss a termination.
On another occasion he entered her flat while she was not at home and left abortion pills on her bed as part of a concerted effort to pressure her to end the pregnancy.
In October 2023, the woman gave birth to their daughter and while she was recovering from a difficult birth she received the shock news that a second woman was also expecting Galpin’s child.
She said: “I’m lying in a hospital bed, totally exhausted, and receive a text from a woman telling me she is pregnant and Alexander is the father. He denied it of course, and told me they have never had sex, but that was just another lie.”
The woman said Galpin also prevented her from having contact with her family and friends, she was prevented from volunteering at the street-work charity where they first met, and she was also discouraged from completing a college course because “it didn’t fit in with his life and career plans”.
“He would tell me that I was selfish and manipulative and at one point he sent a message which said the baby I was carrying was ‘nothing more than a cancer to him’. Those kind of comments just became normal to me.”
In May 2024 the other woman gave birth to Galpin’s second child but she too revealed that he wanted her to have an abortion. She told The Edinburgh Reporter: “When I told him I was pregnant he starting bawling his eyes out and asked ‘why do all the bad things happen to him?’
“When I refused to have an abortion he told me he didn’t want to have anything to do with the baby and he completely withdrew from any parental responsibilities. Since then he has cut off all contact and he hasn’t set eyes on his child.”
She added: “He is pleading poverty and it has been a struggle to get him to pay child maintenance but he always had thousands of pounds lying around in cash, stuffed in his bedside table, left in his car, all over the place. He paid in cash for everything, I presume so he didn’t leave a paper trail of what he was doing.
“He presents himself as a successful businessman but he’s anything but. In my experience he is an absolute narcissist.”
Galpin had previously been championed as a business success story by the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, who presented him with its 2024 Rising Star Award. The Chamber also shortlisted Galpin in its 2025 High Growth Business Award category, despite The Edinburgh Reporter revealing just weeks earlier that Luxford Burgers’ parent company, Secure Kitchens Ltd, had been placed into liquidation with debts of more than £120,000.
