BBC News
July 7, 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8138462.stm
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| McFadden used threats to keep his young victims quiet |
A former police officer who claimed he was a "black magic" high priest while sexually abusing three children has been jailed for seven years.
John McFadden, 42, from Bearsden, was found guilty of abusing a boy between 1988 and 1992 in Kirkintilloch.
He was also convicted of abusing two other youngsters at various addresses in Kirkintilloch between 1983 and 1990.
At the High Court in Glasgow, judge Lord Matthews also placed McFadden on the sex offenders register.
The court heard how McFadden had been running a martial arts club when he began abusing a 12-year-old boy who had joined.
He befriended the boy, invited him to stay overnight and told him that demons and spirits would kill him and drag him to hell unless he carried out sex acts.
He dressed in a black cloak and used a crucifix with a skull and crossbones and an onyx ring, which he claimed gave him power, to terrify the youngster into keeping the abuse a secret.
The victim, who is now 32, told how McFadden abused him almost every day for four years, using threats to keep him silent.
The victim said: "He started to get us into this black magic. He described himself as a high priest with this black magic circle.
"He said he could have out of body experiences and could talk to demons and spirits.
"One day he said he was going to initiate me into the circle and this became the main driver for my silence.
"He had a cast iron bowl and he pricked my finger and put some blood in it, then he took some of my hair and said that he had to have some of my semen and then it all had to be burned."
The abuse came to an end when the man joined the Royal Marines and moved away.
Devil mask
The court was also told that another man came forward in 1999 to complain that he had been indecently assaulted by McFadden at the age of seven.
McFadden resigned from the police that year but was not convicted at that time.
He was finally charged several years later after two others came forward to report similar incidents.
When police searched McFadden's home they found a devil mask and two wands alongside sex toys and lubricants.
He tried to claim that his victims were making up the abuse but a jury refused to believe him.
Passing sentence, Lord Matthews told McFadden: "This was a fairly monstrous breach of trust. You ran a martial arts club and were well regarded.
"You effectively took people off the street and taught them how to defend themselves, but then abused that trust."
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