Ex-councillor who abused boys is jailed
A former SNP councillor who groomed and abused a string of teenage boys has been jailed for six years.
Mark Kerr preyed on victims, including attempting to rape one, at his home in Croy, Lanarkshire.
The 40-year-old struck mostly before he was elected as a councillorin2017forthekilsyth ward. But he went on to grope thefinalvictimatafoodbankin the village in May 2020.
Kerr denied the accusations and insisted he had been the target of a vendetta, which saw him forced out of his home of 32 years. He was found guilty of a total of nine charges spanning between December 2010 and May 2020.
The crimes were the attempted rape as well as sex offences against five other male victims.
Hewassentencedonfridayat thehighcourtinpaisley,where Judgedouglasbrownwastoldkerr continues to protest his innocence.
The judge said: "This was a systematic and deliberate course of conduct. You spent time with teenage boys, tried to engage them in sexually chargedconversationsandtook advantage of opportunities to assault them.
"You took advantage of one of the boys while he was asleep and attempted to rape him."
Some of the victims and their relatives were at court for the hearing on Friday. There were cries of "justice" and "yes" as Kerr was sentenced.
Jurors at the trial at the High Court in Glasgow heard how all the boys in the case were much younger than the former nationalist politician.
Kerr,nowofwishaw,lanarkshire,gottoknowthefirstwhen he was in his mid-teens. Thethen boy looked upon openly gay Kerr as a "mentor" as he came out himself.
He said sexual activity with Kerr first took place at a disused quarry when he was 15.
The victim – now in his mid 20s – said the older man then attacked him after they had earlierbeenatalocalsnpfunction.hewasasleepatthetimeat Kerr's home.
Describingthe2015attempted rape, he recalled: "I froze once I understood what was happening. I could not control my body. It did not allow me to do anything."
He later confronted Kerr at knifepoint in the street.
The victim's mother had also turned up and she witnessed her son yelling: "Tell my mum what you done to me."
Kerr claimed he was innocent, but was said not to be able to meet the woman's eyes.
Kerr tormented another boy from around 2012. Referring to accounts of gay sex, he stated to the youngster: "Don't knock it until you have tried it." He went on to grab the worried teenager's bottom.
The court heard Kerr joined two boys on a camping trip pitching a tent near the Boathouse restaurant in Croy. He was guilty of molesting one of them in the tent, but acquitted of raping another at that time.
However, he did sexually assault the rape accuser in 2014 in Croy while he was asleep.
In 2014, Kerr targeted another of the teenagers by groping him and sending him sexually graphic messages online.
But, even after he had been elected to a position of power in thecommunity,kerrcontinued his offending.
Kerr was also put on the sex offenders list indefinitely,