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.
Sherland 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.
Sheriff Gillian Craig sentenced Sherland to five years in prison, followed by three years of supervision after his release. She also imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which prohibits him from having any contact with children for a period of 20 years.
Peter, one of the victims who gave evidence against Sherland, reported the abuse after 35 years of silence. He told the BBC that he had a lot of personal problems, but a mental health worker suggested that the abuse may have been at the root of them.
Sherland's previous conviction was in 1991, a year after his assault of Peter. He was convicted of abusing two boys and had as many as 200 children visit his home. In the mid-1990s, he changed his name to Marc Sherland and reinvented himself as a poet, becoming president of the Robert Burns World Federation in 2020.