Marc Sherland, the former president of the Robert Burns World Federation, has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of multiple historical child sex abuse offenses. The 70-year-old was convicted in May at Paisley Sheriff Court for the indecent assault of three teenage boys at his home between 1988 and 1990.

Sherland’s known history of abuse dates back to 1991 when he was first convicted of sexually abusing two boys aged eight and ten while working as a council youth worker in Renfrew. Following that conviction, he changed his name to Douglas Stuart Hammond in an effort to conceal his identity. Under this alias, he assumed a prominent role in promoting Scottish culture and language, including serving as a cultural ambassador and leading the Robert Burns World Federation from 2020 until his resignation in 2024. His resignation came after his past convictions became public knowledge.

During his tenure as president, Sherland organised school poetry competitions and addressed the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-Party Group on the Scots Language. He also appeared on the BBC in 2014, reciting his own poetry in support of the Better Together campaign.

Sentencing Sherland, Sheriff Gillian Craig described his offences as “appalling” and said he had a pattern of “predatory behaviour” with “evil intent.” She noted that he had actively sought employment involving children to facilitate his grooming. The court imposed a sexual harm prevention order restricting Sherland from contacting children for 20 years and stipulated three years of supervision following his prison term. The sheriff characterized the impact on his victims as “devastating.”

Sherland told the court that he no longer had “deviant sexual interests in male children,” but provided no evidence to support this claim. The social work report referenced during sentencing indicated he showed little remorse or insight into his actions.