Head of World Burns Federation unmasked as paedo given access to schoolkids

A convicted paedophile changed his identity and lied his way to become President of the World Burns Federation where he had direct access to school children.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay MSP who is calling on the government to fast track legislation to stop sex offenders changing their names said: “This chilling case will be of concern to every parent in Scotland. Scottish Labour’s Justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill said: “Concerns will be rightly raised over this situation. Action needs to be taken to close the loophole of offenders who committed their crimes before the register was created going undetected.”

In the years since his conviction, Hammond changed his name to Marc Sherland and rose through the ranks of Robert Burns clubs and literary groups throughout Scotland. In 2020, he became the president of the World Burns Federation and has been president of the Lanarkshire Association of Burns clubs, Glasgow Haggis Club and a Vice President of the Glasgow and district Burns association, among others.

But his past caught up with him in December when he was confronted by another member and was forced to resign from all the clubs. His profile as an author with Scottish Book Trust has been removed. The Sunday Mail confronted Sherland at his home in Erskine where he admitted he shouldn’t have been working with children.Sherland said: “I am a writer and the reason I changed my name was because, as a writer I realised that my given name was relatively common and changing it to a name that was not relatively common was a good idea. I’m now suffering because of that I have to say, but that’s the reason.

Sherland confirmed he had been confronted by Bridgeton Burns club about his previous convictions and said: “I felt that I wasn’t going to put the Bridgeton Burns Club or any other club in a position which would bring it into disrepute so I resigned immediately and got in contact with all the other organisations to do the same thing.”

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