Thomas Dougal "Tam" Paton (5 August 1938 – 8 April 2009) was a pop group manager, most notably of the Scottish boy band the Bay City Rollers, and convicted child sex offender.
Biography
Born in Prestonpans, Scotland,
he was the son of a potato merchant.[1] Paton initially[when?] drove a truck to aid the Bay City Rollers financially. He guided the band through to their period of success during the mid-1970s, nurturing their image of being the "boys next door". He was responsible for beginning a myth that the band members preferred drinking milk to alcohol, in order to cultivate a clean, innocent image. However, vocalist Les McKeown later said Paton introduced the band members to drugs. "When we got a wee bit tired, he'd give us amphetamines," McKeown recalled in 2005. "He'd keep us awake with speed, black bombers. You end up almost showing off to each other what stupid drugs you've taken."[1]
In the late 1970s Paton managed the band Rosetta Stone, and had a romantic relationship with the guitarist Paul Lerwill, who later changed his name to Gregory Gray.[2]
In his autobiography I Ran With The Gang: My Life In And Out Of The Bay City Rollers (2018), Alan Longmuir suggests Paton benefited from friendships with politicians, police officers and senior members of the justiciary, and wrote of his fears that more will emerge about Paton that will show “his depravity ran deeper than we currently know”.
Longmuir states:
He had friends in high and low places. The friends in high places included politicians and senior members of the police and judiciary. The friends in low places included scum that would slash your face for a bag of Tam’s finest Colombian cocaine. A dangerous combination.
...
I could not help noticing boys drifting around the house.
'Who are all these boys, Tam?' I asked.
'They’re Edinburgh's waifs and strays'.
My brow furrowed.
'Alan, the police bring them here. It's all above board. The police find them on the streets and to keep them out of trouble they bring them here.'
Criminal convictions and child sex abuse allegations
Paton, who was openly gay, was involved in a number of legal controversies.[3] In 1982 he was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to the sexual abuse of 10 boys over a three-year period.[4]
He was arrested on child sexual abuse charges in January 2003, but was later cleared of all allegations.[5] In April 2004, Paton was convicted of supplying cannabis and fined £200,000.[6] In 2003, he was accused of trying to rape the Bay City Rollers guitarist Pat McGlynn, in a hotel room in 1977.[7] The police decided there was insufficient evidence for a prosecution.[8]
In 2016, Bay City Rollers singer Les McKeown accused Paton of raping him.[9] In the documentary Secrets of the Bay City Rollers (2023):[10][11]
Presenter Nicky Campbell uncovers a near inconceivably sadistic and far-reaching network of cruelty that the young men comprising Scottish pop rock band Bay City Rollers were forced to endure – as their manager Tam Paton controlled every aspect of their lives, sexually and emotionally abused them and facilitated their abuse by others. Those triggered by sexual violence and child abuse should give this programme the widest possible berth as it unflinchingly lays bare not just the abuse of the band, but also the widespread sexual abuse of children in Scotland in the 1970s.[12]
In 2023, Gert Magnus, who had lived at a children's home, claimed that Paton blackmailed him into taking other youngsters to his house so he could sexually abuse them. In the 1970s Magnus had lived at Paton's Little Kellerstain home near Edinburgh, and had been told by Paton that, if he procured other boys for him from care homes, he would stop raping him. While at Paton's house, he said, "There were always parties and lots of young boys and lots of producers... Going to the room and coming out. Big party." He also recalled Jimmy Savile being present. "I was so young. And I thought that's normal in this business," he said. The band's original singer Nobby Clarke elsewhere said that Paton once told him the band would get better promotion on BBC Radio 1 if a member slept with DJ Chris Denning, who was later convicted of paedophilia.[13]
In October 2022 John Wilson was convicted of sexually assaulting children, with Paton, at Paton's home.[14]
Death
Paton died of a suspected heart attack aged 70 at his Edinburgh home on 8 April 2009.[15] At the time of his death he weighed 25 stone (350 lb; 160 kg).[8] On the night of his death, drugs and cash worth £1.5m were stolen from his house.[16]
^ abSweeting, Adam (9 April 2009). "Obituary: Tam Paton". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2018 – via www.theguardian.com.
Stambler, Irwin (1974). Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock & Soul. St. Martin's Press, Inc. ISBN0-312-25025-8.
Longmuir, Alan and Knight, Martin (2021). I Ran With The Gang: My Life In And Out Of The Bay City Rollers (2nd ed.). Luath Press Ltd. ISBN1-910-02275-6.
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