Unmasked... ‘pillar of community’ was secret child abuser
A FORMER station master awarded the MBE has been exposed as a child abuser who battered and sexually attacked youngsters in a home.
Trevor Francis, 71, was honoured in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday List for his services to the community in Aberdour, Fife, where he lived.
But this hid the reality of the abuse to which he subjected vulnerable youngsters in his care at St Margaret’s children’s home in Elie in the mid-1970s.
At Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday, he was found guilty of child abuse and is now facing jail when he is sentenced next month.
Francis, a qualified nurse, took over as a manager at the home in 1973 after paedophile David Murphy was forced out after allegations were made against him that were not pursued by police at the time.
Murphy was finally jailed for 15 years in 2002 after admitting 14 charges of lewd and libidinous practices and 16 abuse charges spanning 30 years at St Margaret’s and another home.
Francis was part of a new regime at the home that should have removed children from the threat of abuse. But instead he subjected them to brutal physical attacks and sexual assaults.
Francis’ name came up during the probe into Murphy in the late 1990s.
But it was only when a victim came forward in 2014 that police were able to build a case against him. They then visited former residents of the home, who told their stories of abuse at his hands.
Three girls, aged 14 to 16 at the time, told the court Francis would creep into their dormitory at the home at night and sexually assault them.
A male resident 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.
Other victims told how he slapped them and beat them with a slipper.
Francis denied nine charges.
But a jury found him guilty of two offences of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour towards young girls and three assaults.
One further lewd and libidinous charge and three assaults were found not proven.
Defence solicitor Kerr Sneddon asked that Francis be released on bail ahead of sentencing.
Sheriff Alastair Brown deferred sentence until next month for social work background reports and released Francis on bail.
But he told him: ‘A prison sentence is a serious possibility.’