Name Tam Paton | ||
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Died April 8, 2009, Edinburgh, United Kingdom | ||
Thomas Dougal "Tam" Paton (5 August 1938 – 8 April 2009), was the manager and primary spokesman during the 1970s of the Scottish band the Bay City Rollers.
Biography
Born in Prestonpans, Scotland, he was the son of a potato merchant. Paton drove a truck to initially aid the group financially. He went on to guide the band through their peak during the 1970s, nurturing the band's image to be that of the "boys next door". He was responsible for starting a myth that the band members preferred drinking milk to alcohol, in order to cultivate this clean, innocent image.
In 1979, Paton was fired as manager, and went on to develop a multi-million pound real estate business based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Paton was openly gay. In 1982 he was convicted of gross indecency with two teenage boys aged 16 and 17, below the then-legal age of consent of 21, and served one year of a three-year prison sentence. Immediately following his death, numerous allegations of Paton drugging young boys, rape and his involvement in organised paedophile rings came to light.
In later years Paton suffered poor health including two heart attacks and a stroke. He was arrested on child sexual abuse charges in January 2003, but was later cleared of all allegations. In April 2004, Paton was convicted of supplying cannabis and fined £200,000. In 2003, he was accused of trying to rape the band's guitarist, Pat McGlynn, in a hotel room in 1977. However the police decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.
Paton died of a suspected heart attack aged 70 at his Edinburgh home on 8 April 2009. At the time of his death he weighed 25 stone.
