World-renowned conductor guilty of abusing schoolboy, 9

A WORLD-RENOWNED conductor abused a boy who saw him as a “surrogate father”, a court heard yesterday.

Joseph Cullen, 58, was the choir master and organist at St Andrews Cathedral in Glasgow and choir master at St Aloysius Church in Garnethill between 1976 and 1985.

The father-of-three, who has worked at Westminster Cathedral and with the London Symphony Chorus, abused a nine year-old boy who joined a choir at St Andrews Cathedral. He told him not to tell anyone because it was their secret.

Cullen, from Leeds, Yorkshire, pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to a charge of using lewd and libidinous conduct towards the schoolboy between January 1981 and December 1984.

In July 2015 he was jailed for 12 months at the High Court in Glasgow for two other charges of using lewd and libidinous conduct at both cathedrals against two other boys.

He was a director of the London Symphony Chorus, winning two Grammy awards and conducted at Westminster Cathedral.

Sheriff Martin Jones, QC, deferred sentence until next month and continued Cullen’s bail.