Former Bay City Rollers manager, Tam Paton, was ‘100%’ involved in operating paedophile ring claims a child abuse survivor in the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry
Thomas ‘Tam’ Paton, the ex- Bay City Rollers manager, has been accused of operating a paedophile ring by a child abuse survivor.
A man, who is now in his 60s and given the pseudonym ‘Murphy’, told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry that he was a victim of a paedophile ring, which was in part run by Paton, when he was a teenager.
This comes years after members of the hugely successful band spoke out about their former manager, with Stuart ‘Woody’ Wood branding him a ‘true monster’, and claiming he was abused. Les McKeown, the late singer in the band, said he was raped and abused by Paton, who gave him drugs to cope with the trauma.
Murphy described attending parties with other children in their early teens where they were given drugs and alcohol and shown indecent films. He said that older men would take underage boys to private rooms and described the men as “professional people” who wore “their suits” and had “fancy cars”.
At the time Murphy was a resident at children’s home, Ponton House, in Edinburgh and told the inquiry that Paton’s associates would regularly come to the facility, with those running the House doing nothing to protect the residents or stop them from being groomed.
Describing one harrowing evening, when he believed he was “going to be killed” Murphy recalled: “I was fed drugs in Tam’s living room, and a guy came and took me to a room.
“I took a knife with me. I took the knife out, and the guy jumped up and told me he was a judge.”
Murphy added that the grooming took place incrementally: “At first, it was drugs, then later it was like we were groomed.”
“It was not like you were taken in and there were guys touching you; it was lots of times through the day, and you got something to drink, then later on it would be at night.”
James Peoples KC, lead senior counsel to the inquiry, asked Murphy: “Are you in any doubt that what was happening was a paedophile ring?”
Murphy replied: “100%.”
Paton managed the Rollers through their most successful period and was jailed for three years in 1982 for sex offences involving teenage boys. He died in 2009 from a suspected heart attack.
Murphy also told the inquiry that he encountered John Wilson, a convicted sex offender who is in his 80s and in prison. He was jailed for over 12 years in 2022 after convicted of sexual offences over the course of 56 years.
Murphy told the inquiry he saw Wilson inside Ponton House, but said that in contrast, Paton would sit outside in his car waiting to pick boys up and take them to his parties.
He said that when he was older, he was threatened with violence and exposing images and forced to become and “enforcer” for Paton, instructed to find young boys for him. He added that he was “terrified” of Paton.
“Tam was a man who liked to tell you what power he had. He didn’t hide who he knew,” he said.
A statement on behalf of the Ponton Trust was given at the opening of the inquiry’s latest phase in January.
It said: “The trustees of the Ponton Trust unequivocally condemn and abhor any such abuse and offer an apology to any young person who was subjected to abuse while residing at the Ponton House Boys’ Residence.”
The inquiry is ongoing.
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