Burns scholar unmasked as convicted paedophile jailed for historical abuse

A convicted paedophile who changed his name and became president of the Robert Burns World Federation has been jailed for five years after more victims of his historical abuse came forward.

Marc Sherland, now 70, was found guilty in May of indecently assaulting three teenage boys at his Paisley home between 1988 and 1990.

He was originally convicted in 1991 of abusing two boys aged eight and 10 when he worked as a council youth worker in Paisley.

Following his earlier conviction, he disguised his past as a sex offender by changing his name, before going on to become a cultural ambassador for Burns’ poetry and the Scots language.

Sentencing him at Paisley Sheriff Court, the sheriff said a five-year prison sentence would be followed by three years of supervision after his release.

Peter – not his real name – is one of three men who gave evidence against Sherland in May.

He was 16 when he came into Sherland’s orbit through his school and community centre in Renfrewshire.

At the time, Sherland was in his 30s and known as Douglas Stuart Hammond.

He worked as an education community worker for the old Strathclyde Regional Council.

Peter, now 52, told a jury during the trial that he was assaulted when he visited the predator’s home in Stock Street, Paisley, in 1990.

He told the BBC that – after 35 years of silence – he reported it to police after discussing the incident with a mental health worker.

“I’ll be honest with you, it’s really hard to explain for me because I’m really just getting a grip of it myself,” he said.

“I had a lot of personal problems, but the counsellor said that maybe [the assault] was at the root of it all.

“She said: ‘The fact that you’ve got all that guilt and all that, I don’t know, shame…’ And she suggested that I report it. So I did.”