Radio Clyde sports presenter faces jail over child sex case

Radio Clyde FM anchor man Dougie Macdonald, 43, bowed his head as he left Hamilton Sheriff Court after admitting the offences. The presenter’s career now lies in ruins as a sheriff considers whether he should be jailed.

Macdonald’s abuse of the two young boys, aged 12 and 13, happened more than 21 years ago in a lock-up garage when he plied them with alcohol and cigarettes before inducing them to perform the sex acts.

Between June and September 1979, in Rockburn Crescent in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Macdonald also induced the boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to perform sex acts with two unnamed girls.

Sheriff Vincent Canavan yesterday deferred sentence for psychiatric reports as well as asking for a social inquiry report and community service assessment to see if there is an alternative to jail.

The court heard that Macdonald has an offence from 1981 of a "similar" nature, and the sheriff said he wanted to consider all the reports before sentencing.

He refused to put the married pundit on the sex offenders register until sentencing later next month and Macdonald was allowed bail.

As he left court, the presenter said: "On the advice of my legal team I have no comment to make at this time."

The former public transport worker is currently the radio station’s chief football commentator .

The commentator, from Airdrie, Lanarkshire, is also well known for his excitable style, which almost always includes frequent bouts of shouting.

Radio Clyde FM said yesterday they are considering Macdonald’s future, but will not make a decision until their employee is sentenced. Spokesman for the station, Richard Muir, refused to comment on suggestions that Macdonald had been suspended since the allegations surfaced.

He said: "The legal process is still ongoing and we cannot make any further comment at this stage. He is still an employee and has been on sick leave for over a year."

Macdonald, whose wife Christine was not in court, was first taken in for questioning about the allegations of child sex abuse after police called on him at his Airdrie home last year.

Macdonald pled guilty to lewd and libidinous practices towards two boys by supplying them with alcohol and cigarettes and inducing them to expose their private parts in his presence in a lock up in Bellshill in 1979, when he was 21.

He also induced the boys to urinate in a bucket and handle the private parts of two girls present and induce the girls to handle the boys’ private parts.