Paedophile scoutmaster told to sell house

An ELDERLY scoutmaster has been told to sell off his home to pay “very, very significant” compensation to the children he abused 40 years ago.

David McDonald, 78, was also warned that he would have to pay any fine and compensation quickly to avoid him dodging justice by dying before his victims are compensated.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis took the extraordinary step of telling McDonald he was prepared to leave him homeless and virtually penniless as an alternative to sending him to prison. He told McDonald he was considering ordering him to hand over tens of thousands of pounds to the three middle-aged men he abused in the 1960s.

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The pensioner has been given less than a month to collate the full worth of his property, pension and other assets before reporting back to Perth Sheriff Court.

Sheriff Foulis told him he was not ruling out jailing him for a “gross breach of trust” by abusing members of his scout troop, but was investigating the only other option for sentencing him.

“It seems to me a way of dealing with this is by finding out exactly what your client is worth,” he told solicitor Rosemary Scott, adding: “And I mean everything.

“I would put consideration to making very significant compensation orders. In addition, I would make a very significant fine.

“If it means your client has to sell his house, then so be it – because these offences may be old and your client may have little recollection, but he knew only too well when he was committing these offences that he was acting against the law.

“He knew very well he was abusing the trust of the boys and their parents. There was planning and this was a calculated act on his part. This was a gross breach of trust.

“If he is going to avoid a custodial sentence, then society demands a very significant alternative sentence. In regard to the third victim, I am inclined to say compensation in five figures – and quite significantly into five figures … and I don’t wish to appear morbid, but if I were to make a compensation order my concern first and foremost is for the victims. We are all mortal, but folk who are 78 are perhaps more mortal than those who are 55 or younger, if you get my drift.”

Sheriff Foulis said the victims had been left with significant “emotional baggage” as a result of carrying what McDonald had done to them.

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McDonald, a senior scout for several decades, was still on the executive committee when police began investigating his reign of abuse. The frail pensioner, from Coupar Angus, Perthshire, admitted charges of sexually assaulting boys in his care.

The victims were aged between 11 and 15 and had contact with McDonald in his role as the scoutmaster in Coupar Angus.

Sentence was deferred for information on his financial position and bail was continued.

David Sinclair of Victim Support Scotland said: “We’re happy in any situation where victims of a crime see justice being delivered by the courts.”