April 1998

BURNEY’S PERVERT UNCLE GETS 7 YEARS

The pervert uncle of Wee Burney star Eric Cullen was jailed for seven years yesterday. 

Cullen unmasked gay paedophile Jack Williams, 65, before dying aged just 31. 

The tiny Rab C Nesbitt actor told police Williams molested him with two other perverts. 

Williams never faced trial for preying on Cullen, who blamed his own jail sentence for possessing child porn on the abuse he suffered as a lad. 

But thanks to Cullen’s evidence, the pensioner was convicted of abusing three other boys. 

As Williams began his sentence, Cullen’s mum Mary, 60, and dad Eric, 65, accused him of “torturing” their son. 

Mary said: “Eric can rest in peace now. 

“He was brave enough to name Williams and the other men who ruined his childhood and his life. 

“We always thought Eric would be safe with his uncle Jack. How wrong we were. 

“Williams was a Scout leader and a member of the Congregational Church. He took a boys’ football team and appeared to be a normal, caring father. 

“Only now do we know he was destroying the lives of these children with his sickening activities.” 

Cullen’s close pal, sports presenter Bill McFarlan, said he was disgusted Williams had never been charged with abusing the shamed star. 

He added: “Eric was jailed while Williams and others who raped and abused him walked around free.” 

McFarlan said the child porn Cullen was jailed for hoarding had been “dumped” on him by his boyhood abusers. 

Williams denies abusing Cullen. 

At the High Court in Glasgow, Lord Johnston told Williams he’d committed monstrous crimes which left the victims deeply scarred. 

He said Williams had shown no remorse. 

Williams admitted abusing the three boys years before dumping his wife for a gay lover. 

The offences dated back to 1974. One lad was molested on a camping trip. 

The court heard one victim’s marriage had fallen apart because of what he suffered as a child. 

Norman Ritchie, defending, said Williams was a man with two faces. 

He added: “One was a respectable public face of a man with a good work record, who had done his National Service and was involved in religion. 

“The other, hidden, face was of a man who discovered he was homosexual 20 years ago, at a time when this was not tolerated.” 

Former steel worker Williams, of Highfield Crescent, Motherwell, Lanarkshire, will be placed on the national register of paedophiles. 

Social workers say he could still be a risk to children. 

Mr Ritchie insisted the danger was “minimal” because of Williams’ age, poor health, and the fact he’d been with the same boyfriend for six years. 

Cullen was jailed for nine months in 1995 after police found a huge stash of child pornography at his home. 

He served 15 days in Barlinnie prison before the sentence was branded “inappropriate” by appeal judges and reduced to probation. 

Cullen died of a heart attack less than a year after his release. 

He had told police how Williams passed him on to a paedophile friend, scout master Frank Currens. 

Currens was later caged for 14 years for vile sex acts against boys.