Police are investigating whether TV weatherman Fred Talbot committed offences in Scotland, it has emerged, after he was found guilty of abusing boys south of the Border.
The Edinburgh-born former celebrity was branded an "opportunistic sex offender" as he was jailed after a jury found him guilty of indecently assaulting two Altrincham Grammar School for Boys pupils in the mid-1970s during his former career as a biology teacher.
The Crown Office said it has been passed a report on the circumstances of the alleged offences. It has yet to be sent to the procurator fiscal.
A spokesman said: "In 2009 the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) set up the National Sexual Crimes Unit (NSCU). The NSCU has built up an expertise in dealing with all types of historical sexual abuse, including abuse within institutions. COPFS will continue to work with a wide variety of partners to ensure that all crimes, including historic sexual abuse, are dealt with in a professional, sensitive way they deserve.
"The fact that a crime took place in the past is not a barrier to raising criminal proceedings."
Talbot, 65, had resigned in disgrace from the school in 1984 after making indecent comments to two 15-year-old pupils, but hid the indiscretion when his big TV break came a year later.
The weatherman, who shot to fame as a regular on the floating map in Liverpool's Albert Dock for ITV's top-rating This Morning show, will be sentenced next month but is also the subject of a historical abuse inquiry by police into complaints of offences said to have been committed in Scotland.
Talbot continued to cover his tracks when police first investigated him in 1992 and lied again to detectives in the current investigation when they uncovered a host of diaries which were littered with references to sexual encounters.
He looked surprised as Judge Timothy Mort told him his sentence would start immediately but politely nodded to the jury of nine women and three men at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court as he left the dock. Sentence will be passed on March 13.
The jury in Manchester heard that Talbot's modus operandi was to first establish his "good guy credentials" and then to break down the proper teacher-pupil boundaries, leaving his victims confused as he made his advances.
Prosecutor Neil Usher said he was "a weak and selfish man who regularly drank too much" and this led to temptation when boys were in his care.
Both of Talbot's victims, said to be 14 or 15 at the time, were assaulted on school canal barge trips in the Cheshire area in the mid-1970s. Each boy was abused by Talbot as they slept in a partitioned area.
Senior investigating officer Detective Constable Chris Doggart said: "Often fuelled by drink he seized upon opportunities he had orchestrated to indecently assault young boys he gambled would find it impossible to speak out."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article