Man jailed for abusing children in his care loses royal honour

ELIE: ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ character is stripped of his MBE

An “upstanding citizen” given an MBE for services to a Fife town has been stripped of the honour by the Queen after he was jailed for battering and sexually abusing young children in his care at a notorious children’s home.

Trevor Francis was given an MBE at Buckingham Palace by Prince Charles in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to the community in Aberdour, Fife, where he worked as a station master.

But yesterday, in a notice published in the London Gazette, the official public record of awards, it emerged the award had been rescinded by Her Majesty.

It stated: “The Queen has directed that the appointment of Trevor George Francis to be a Member of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, dated 15 June 2012, shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order.”

Francis’s community spirited facade hid the reality of the abuse he doled out to vulnerable kids in his care at the St Margaret’s children’s home in Elie, Fife, in the mid-1970s.

After his conviction in 2014 a sheriff told him: “This was a gross breach of trust.”

Francis was described as “creepy” and a “Jekyll and Hyde character” who subjected kids there to brutal physical attacks and sickening sexual assaults.

Three girls – aged 14 to 16 at the time – told a jury that Francis would creep into the girls’ dormitory at the home in the night and sexually assault them.

A male resident at the home told how he had once run away and got as far as Kirkcaldy where he was picked up by police and taken back.

Francis took him into a laundry room and attacked him as punishment.

Fiscal depute Eilidh Robertson told the jury: “He is a manipulative, violent and predatory person who abused the trust of these vulnerable people who he was paid to protect.”

Francis was given the MBE for his services to the community in Aberdour, where he was station master for more than 20 years.

As well as manning the ticket office in the village he spent up to six hours a day maintaining floral displays at the station, winning awards for his work.

The Queen has directed that the appointment shall be cancelled and that his name shall be erased from the Register. LONDON GAZETTE OFFICIAL NOTICE

Picture: Alan Richardson. Trevor Francis was station master at Aberdour station for over 20 years.