Tam Paton

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Thomas Dougal "Tam" Paton (5 August 1938 – 8 April 2009) was a convicted child sex offender and pop group manager, most notably of the Scottish boy band the Bay City Rollers.

Biography

Born in Prestonpans, Scotland, he was the son of a potato merchant.<ref name="Sweeting">Template:Cite news</ref> Paton initiallyTemplate: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."<ref name="Sweeting" />

In 1979, Paton was fired as manager, and subsequently developed a multi-million-pound real estate business based in Edinburgh, Scotland.Template:Citation needed

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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: Template:Blockquote

Criminal convictions and child sex abuse allegations

Paton was involved in a number of legal controversies.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1982 he was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to the sexual abuse of 10 boys over a three-year period.<ref name="scotsman">Template:Cite web</ref>

He was arrested on child sexual abuse charges in January 2003, but was later cleared of all allegations.<ref name="bbc1">Template:Cite news</ref> In April 2004, Paton was convicted of supplying cannabis and fined £200,000.<ref name="bbc2">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2003, he was accused of trying to rape the Bay City Rollers guitarist Pat McGlynn, in a hotel room in 1977.<ref name="scotsman1">Template:Citation</ref> The police decided there was insufficient evidence for a prosecution.<ref name="scotsman.com">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2016, Bay City Rollers singer Les McKeown accused Paton of raping him.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the documentary Secrets of the Bay City Rollers (2023):<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Blockquote 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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In October 2022 John Wilson was convicted of sexually assaulting children, with Paton, at Paton's home.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Death

Paton died of a suspected heart attack aged 70 at his Edinburgh home on 8 April 2009.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the time of his death he weighed Template:Convert.<ref name="scotsman.com"/> On the night of his death, drugs and cash worth £1.5m were stolen from his house.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Jimmy Savile
• Edgardo Díaz

Bibliography

• Allen, Ellis (1975). The Bay City Rollers. Panther. Template:ISBN.
• Coy, Wayne (2021). Bay City Babylon: The Unbelievable but True Story of the Bay City Rollers. Wheatmark. Template:ISBN.
• Jonsson, Hannes A. (2022). Don't Stop the Music: The Bay City Rollers on Record (2nd ed.). Independently published. Template:ISBN.
• Stambler, Irwin (1974). Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul. St. Martin's Press. Template:ISBN.
• McKeown, Les; Elliott, Lynne (2019). SHANG-A-LANG: My Life with the Bay City Rollers. Mainstream Publishing Company. Template:ISBN.
• Paton, Tam; Wale, Michael (1975). The Bay City Rollers: Tam Paton’s Sensational Inside Story of Britain’s No. 1 Pop Group. Everest Publishing. Template:ISBN.
• Rogan, Johnny (1988). Starmakers & Svengalis: The History of British Pop Management. Macdonald. Template:ISBN.
• Spence, Simon (2016). When the Screaming Stops: The Dark History of the Bay City Rollers. Omnibus Press. Template:ISBN.
• Longmuir, Alan; Knight, Martin (2021). I Ran With The Gang: My Life In and Out of the Bay City Rollers (2nd ed.). Luath Press. Template:ISBN.
• Wood, Stuart; Stoneman, Peter (2025). MANIA: Tartan, turmoil and my life as a Bay City Roller. Blink Publishing. Template:ISBN.