25 February 2024 , 11:26
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A convicted paedophile exploited a "dangerous loophole" to change his identity and work directly with kids after his vile abuse of children.
Marc Sherland, 67, became president of the World Burns Federation, organising children's poetry competitions and saying he was safe to work with vulnerable children. But the paedophile, who rubbed shoulders with the elite at lavish events, was unmasked as disgraced community worker Douglas Stuart Hammond who had sexually assaulted two boys after luring hundreds of children to his home.
After changing his name, the paedophile was able to go under the radar for years until his identity was exposed. He has now been forced to resign and there have been calls for an urgent investigation into how Sherland, who was convicted in 1991 and was not on the sex offenders register, went unnoticed.
Sherland, who used to go by the name Douglas Hammond, was convicted of child abuse offences in 1991 (Jamie Williamson)Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay MSP, who is calling on the government to fast-track legislation to stop sex offenders changing their names, said: "This chilling case will be of concern to every parent in Scotland. Only an investigation can establish the exact circumstances of this deeply concerning case. While this individual was free to change his name, his past crimes should still have shown up in background checks working with children.
"If checks were done, did they reveal his offending history? If they did not, was that because of his name change? Sex offenders should not be able to hide their identities by changing their names and I would again urge SNP ministers to reconsider their inexplicable opposition to closing this dangerous loophole."
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Scottish Labour's Justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill said: "Concerns will be rightly raised over this situation. Action needs to be taken to close the loophole of offenders who committed their crimes before the register was created going undetected."
Hammond was convicted of the indecent assault of an eight and 10-year-old boy when he was an educational community worker at Strathclyde Regional Council, reported the Daily Record. He assaulted the youngsters during "dummy fighting" at his home and claimed the "games" helped the boys break down emotional barriers, according to court reports at the time.
Paisley Sheriff Court trial heard that as many as 200 children had visited his home and during questioning, the sick 35-year-old said: "I took the boys to my flat to talk about their personal and family problems. These were boys with serious social behavioural problems."
One child had to punch him to get him to stop the abuse while another confessed to his grandmother what was happening. In the years since his conviction, Hammond changed his name to Marc Sherland and rose through the ranks of Robert Burns clubs and literary groups throughout Scotland.
An author profile for him on the Scottish Book Trust website stated that he could work with adults and children including care-experienced people, vulnerable adults, people with mental health problems, prisoners and young offenders, despite having been convicted of abusing vulnerable boys. In 2020, he became the president of the World Burns Federation and has been president of the Lanarkshire Association of Burns clubs, Glasgow Haggis Club and a Vice President of the Glasgow and district Burns association, among others.
Through these roles, he worked with children presenting awards and judging competitions with images of his attendance at one Glasgow primary school shared on social media. But his past caught up with him in December when he was confronted by another member and was forced to resign from all the clubs. His profile as an author with the Scottish Book Trust has been removed.
A source at the club said: "A conviction from over 30 years ago came to light, Bridgeton Burns Club President confronted him around Christmas time. We did background checks and it showed a name change. Inquiries were made and the president alongside another Trustee met him to confront him about the name change and the convictions. As far as I'm aware he admitted it, apologised and resigned in writing."
Sherland during the annual Commemoration of the Death of Robert Burns (Andrew Neil)
Sherland was forced to resign from his role (Andrew Neil)The Sex Offenders' Register was set up in 1997 but it is not retroactive meaning Sherland would never have been placed on it. Any checks done on him using his new name would not have shown that he had a conviction for child abuse and no safeguards were in place as he was not on the register.
The Sunday Mail confronted Sherland at his home in Erskine where he admitted he should not have been working with children - but he claimed he changed his name due to his work as an author. Sherland said: "I am a writer and the reason I changed my name was because, as a writer I realised that my given name was relatively common and changing it to a name that was not relatively common was a good idea. I’m now suffering because of that I have to say, but that's the reason.
"It wasn't because of my convictions. I was registered with the Scottish Book Trust but I've now removed myself from that as well as I don't want to bring them into disrepute."
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When asked if he accepted that working with children would be a concern to parents and he should not have been doing it, he said: "Yes I think that probably is the case. I thought that the distance in time was so great and the change in my personality was so great that it wasn't such an issue. On reflection, yes I believe that's true.
"I've never been in a situation where I have been one-to-one with a child, nor would I put myself in that situation in a school." Sherland confirmed he had been confronted by Bridgeton Burns club about his previous convictions and said: "I felt that I wasn't going to put the Bridgeton Burns Club or any other club in a position which would bring it into disrepute so I resigned immediately and got in contact with all the other organisations to do the same thing."
The Robert Burns World Federation was formed in 1885 to educate, celebrate and promote the life and work of the poet. Based in Kilmarnock it has over 250 affiliated Burns Clubs around the world - reaching as far afield as New Zealand, Ukraine, Canada and the USA.
A Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) spokeswoman said the Aye Can event was commissioned by the Glasgow and District Burns Society and Sherland didn't teach children during the summer school. The spokeswoman said: "The safety and well-being of young people at RCS is and has always been a primary priority with stringent safeguarding policies and processes in place to underpin the work we do."
Online adverts for the Aye Can event taking place at RCS were posted by the Glasgow Burns and District Association in 2022 and 2023 listing Sherland as the point of contact. RCS insisted the event only took place in 2017 and 2018.
A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: "For safeguarding reasons, pupils are never left alone with school visitors and remain supervised at all times by staff. School staff regularly invite visitors in from partner organisations for learning and teaching purposes.
"Pupil safety is always our priority. We have no statutory obligation to request disclosure checks for all visitors entering school premises."
The Scottish Government said the issue was for Disclosure Scotland to address. A Disclosure Scotland spokesman said: "We cannot comment on individual cases." The Mirror has contacted the World Burns Federation for comment.