FORMER Bay City Rollers Pat McGlynn and Les McKeown were today to meet with police to lodge an allegation of attempted rape against former band manager Tam Paton.
The two men were due at an Edinburgh police station this afternoon where it was expected they would make a formal complaint against the group’s ex-guru.
Today Mr McKeown, 47, said he and Mr McGlynn, 45, will also spearhead a campaign against thos
e who are calling for a time limit on allegations of child abuse. Mr McKeown claims he stopped band-mate Mr McGlynn from being raped by Paton in a hotel room in Melbourne, Australia, during a tour.
He claimed he had to jump on Paton and pull him off Mr McGlynn, who now lives in Edinburgh with his wife and daughter.
Mr McKeown claimed: "I had to jump on Tam
and get him round his neck and pull him off him. He tried to make it out it was just a bit of fun, but if I hadn’t gone back when I did Pat would have been raped."
Mr McGlynn said today: "I have tried for 20 years to get someone to believe me that Paton pounced on me and tried to rape me.
"Les has always known about the incident but has kept quiet because he felt intimidated by Paton but now realises he has nothing to worry about."
Mr McKeown reveals the alleged incident in a book which will lift the lid off Rollermania. Shang-a-Lang, Life as an International Pop Idol - is to be released next month by city publishers Mainstream Publishing and will be exclusively serialised in the Edinburgh Evening News starting on Thursday.
Mr McGlynn, the group’s ex-guitarist, has claimed in the past the millionaire businessman repeatedly tried to touch him during his time with the group.
The guitarist left the band in 1977 when Paton allegedly tried to attack him in a New York hotel room. He claims he stabbed Paton in the shoulder with a bread knife he had hidden under his pillow. Now his bandmate Mr McKeown is set to tell police what he saw that day in the Melbourne hotel room.
Today Mr McKeown said: "Everybody knows that victims of abuse can take decades to get over the guilt they experience as a result of the abuse they have suffered, if in fact they ever do.
"The only reason abusers want that [a change of law] is because they think they can protect themselves and their kind by trying to get the law changed. They mustn’t be allowed to get away with it."
Mr McKeown, who walked out on the band 25 years ago in the middle of a tour of Japan, said he was "very" embarrassed by the connections between the Rollers and paedophilia. He said: "I knew he [Paton] was up to things with various members of the band."
Mr McGlynn, who lives in Liberton with his daughter and wife, Janine Andrews, said victims of sexual abuse are "left to suffer". He added: "We hope to save more lads from abuse, especially in the music industry and we intend to expose those who we know about because we met so many in our time. The whole business is full of them."
Paton was jailed for three years for gross indecency towards two teenage boys in the 1980s and insists his conviction was a miscarriage of justice.
He has previously denied ever trying to have sex with or making advances to the Rollers, saying: "They weren’t my type at all."
He said he was an easy target for Mr McKeown and others seeking publicity.
He said: "The Rollers spent all their money and are writing books. Who better to pick on than me? They were a load of rubbish. The only thing they had going for them was an image."
Paton is currently awaiting trial for drug offences.
A police spokesman said: "If Mr McKeown wishes to make a complaint it will be dealt with in the appropriate manner."
The Bay City Rollers were a major worldwide hit in the 1970s with a following of thousands of mostly girl fans.
A spokesman for Mainstream said: "It is a no-holds-barred account of Rollermania and beyond and provides a candid insight into the less savoury aspects of the music industry."
