YES I'M A QUEEN BUT I'D NEVER ASSAULT A CHILD

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Jan 19, 2003 | by FRANK HURLEY

FORMER Bay City Rollers manager Tam Paton last night declared: "I'm may be an old poofter, but I'm not into children."

The millionaire businessman invited the Sunday Mirror into his fortress home on the edge of Edinburgh to refute sex abuse allegations involving young boys.

Tam, 64, has long sought to protect his privacy behind wrought iron gates, barbed wire and closed circuit television at the pounds 500,000 mansion dubbed Paton Place.

But last night - three days after he was arrested and questioned by police about the allegations - he welcomed us into his palatial living room to insist: "Yes, I like attractive young men, but that doesn't make me a bad man."

Twenty-two stone Paton - who is also facing drugs charges which he declined to discuss - has long attracted rumours by taking men into his home.

The world of Mr Paton is a bizarre mix of the eccentric and the lavish.

His ten-bedroomed home, Little Kellerstain, is occupied by young men aged 20 upwards who pay him pounds 100-a-week rent to live in luxury.

The houseguests also include a 42-year-old female Bay City Roller fan.

But Mr Paton stressed: "If anyone thinks we are running orgies here they're nuts. I am an old man who prefers to live with people so I'm not on my own.

"Sure, I have always been attracted to handsome men, and sometimes women. But my sexual libido is pretty low and I haven't made love to anyone for quite a while."

Tam spoke frankly about his nine hour interview with Surrey police officers at Berwick earlier this week.

He was released on bail without charge but subsequently re- arrested on the drugs charges.

Police quizzing him on the sex allegations asked him if he knew men like Stars In Their Eyes presenter Matthew Kelly and others.

Mr Paton said he had never met Matthew Kelly, but felt sorry for him after reading about him in newspapers.

He added: "The cops were suggesting I was involved in some kind of male sex ring - a paedophile ring.

"But that is just so much nonsense. I'm no paedophile. It's about time the public separate paedophiles from men like me who live a different lifestyle."

And he laughed off newspaper reports which claimed he liked to be called Samantha and parade around his home in a dress and high- heels.

The two telephones in Paton's home rang constantly as Tam relaxed on a red sofa in his living room surrounded by his two pet Rottweilers Dusty and Lulu and two Staffordshire bull terriers.

As he chatted house guests were preparing the evening meal in the spacious modern kitchen where Tam often cooks gourmet evening meals for his "family."

The eccentric millionaire was dressed in a pale blue Arabian dish- dash robe.

His lounge has another red sofa, deep red carpeting throughout and is lavishly decorated with antiques, cartoons of showbiz personalities, four atlas globes, a huge gas fireplace and many ornaments he has collected over the 27 years he has lived in the home he bought for just pounds 29,000.

Mr Paton said: "I don't know where these allegations have come from about me.

"There is something political going on here. I feel certain people have got it in for me.

"These allegations seem to be being made by young men who are now not so young and in their 40s.

"Yes, I knew Jonathan King. But only as a business acquaintance because he produced certain records for the Rollers.

"The implication by the police that I am involved in some big paedophile ring with other people is a load of rubbish. If it wasn't so serious, it would be laughable.

"I'm fighting back. I am not going to be beaten. I've hired a team of private detectives, top accountants and the best lawyers to fight my corner.

"Police in England have frozen my bank accounts and assets as well as my house in case I sell it.

"I've got nothing to hide. The police took away my computer, old photographs and other things but there is nothing in all those to incriminate me in anything bad. Nothing goes on in this house that is bad. I like to be surrounded by young people and I don't want to live on my own.

"A lot of the people who are here have had their parents come and visit. So there is no hanky panky going on here."

Tam - now a property developer - said he has always wanted to help people and now makes his money renting 23 flats in the West End of Edinburgh.

He added: "People who stay here come and go as they please. We are one big happy family. People who know me know that's the way it's been here ever since I moved in.

"I have had hundreds of phone calls from friends who've asked me how I am feeling and how I am bearing up.

"It's been a strain, I admit, but I am not going to be beaten by nasty-minded people who for some reason have an axe to grind against me." Last night Paton said his brother David and sisters Jessie and Mary were all supporting him. And his tenants also rushed to his defence.

Kenna Tams, 41, a Rollers fan who has lived on and off in the house since the 1970s, said: "This is home to me. It's great being in Tam's family.

"He's a great cook and nothing bad goes on here."

Another, a 29-year-old man who has a wife and a nine-year-old child living in Edinburgh and wished to remain anonymous, added: "This is a happy place to be when I fall out with my wife."