Description
A disgraced former boxer has been found guilty of sexually assaulting other amateur athletes throughout the 80s.
David Davidson, 57, carried out attacks on young fighters nearly 40 years ago and was finally brought to justice 24 years after one of his victims first went to police to report the abuse.
Davidson, who now lives in England and runs his own company, and carried out his attacks between 1981 and 1984.
One of his attacks occurred after a boxing fundraiser to raise money for the Doyle family who were victims of a fatal house fire amidst the height of Glasgow’s notorious Ice Cream Wars, the Daily Record reports.
The former fighter denied all wrongdoing at the High Court in Paisley.
A jury heard he attacked his first victim between 1981 and 1983, when Davidson was aged between 17 and 19, at a property in Glasgow’s Ruchill.
He went on to abuse a second victim on a number of occasions in 1984, when the victim was 18, in the Kildrum area of Cumbernauld and different areas of Glasgow.
He said that the man had told police a different version of events in 1997 when he first reported the accused.
Defence advocate Mark Moir asked the jury to acquit Davidson, saying his client claimed the sexual interactions had been consensual.
Moir argued it was “young men of 18, 19, 20 exploring their sexuality – deciding they don’t want to go that way or want to go this way”.
But the jury rejected the claims and convicted Davidson of both indecent assault charges.
Sentencing was adjourned until next month for background reports and for Davidson “to put his affairs in order” due to the prospect of receiving a custodial sentence.
It emerged Davidson was also convicted of a sexual offence in a separate case in 1985.
During the Ice Cream Wars, James Doyle, 53, his sons James, 23, Andrew, 18, Tony, 14, and their sister Christina Halleron, 25, and her 18-month-old son Mark died after a fire ripped through their home in Glasgow’s Ruchazie at about 2am on April 16, 1984.
Thomas “TC” Campbell and Joe Steele were convicted of murder over the blaze but were later cleared.