Bay City Rollers boss sex inquiry dropped

LONDON, UK (Nostalgia & Oldies Website) - Police have dropped their investigation into an allegation of child sex abuse against former Bay City Rollers manager Tam Paton. Surrey Police has told the 64-year-old that no further enquiries will be carried out into an allegation that he abused an underage boy in the late 1970s.

Mr Paton was taken in for questioning at the same time as the TV presenter Matthew Kelly, who was cleared last month. Another man, 52-year-old songwriter Stephen Jolley, was also cleared.

Mr Paton, who said he has suffered abuse and insults since the allegations came to light, was informed by his lawyer, Donald Ferguson, that the investigation had been terminated.
He said: "I was in my house at the time, because really since all this started I have not been able to go out. "Last week I went through to a restaurant in Falkirk where I was meeting my lawyer and my accountant. When I walked in the manager came running up to me and asked me to wait for a few moments. When he came back he asked if I was Tam Paton. I told him I was and he said, 'We don't want your kind in here. Please leave immediately and remove your vehicle from the car park'.

'Wrongly accused'

"That is the kind of reaction I have been getting because of this."
Mr Paton added: "The first thing I did after my lawyer told me the news was to phone my sister Jessie in London. She just burst into tears."

Mr Paton said he and Stars in Their Eyes presenter Mr Kelly had shared the same ordeal following their arrests as part of the same operation. He said: "I won't be getting in touch with Matthew Kelly because I don't know him. Likewise I don't think he would want to contact me, because apart from being wrongly accused, we have nothing in common. I wish him every success and am truly sorry for what has happened to him. Nobody knows better than me what he has gone through."

Mr Paton managed the tartan-clad chart topping Bay City Rollers until 1979 and then went on to become a property developer in his native Edinburgh.