A convicted child sex offender acted in a “deplorable” manner during a violent confrontation with an angry parent in a primary school playground.
Calum MacFadyen was involved in the heated clash with an angry father after he had been confronted about his deviant past at the school in Musselburgh, East Lothian.
The pair engaged in a physical struggle in front of shocked teachers and children in an incident that was said to have left many young pupils in tears.
MacFadyen, 46, claimed he was defending himself after being “violently attacked” by the man who he said threw a punch and lobbed a cup of coffee at him.
But the child sex offender – who was recently forced to flee his home following angry community protests – was later arrested and charged and he stood trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this year.
The school’s head teacher told the trial she had witnessed the two men shouting and confronting each other in the playground shortly before 9am on 1 April last year.
She said: “My concern at the time was the children’s well-being and I was really worried about the children witnessing it and the effect it would have on them back in the school
“I was very shaken and upset and there were several children crying and I was angry it had happened in my playground.
“I have never experience anything like that in my teaching career.”
MacFadyen told the court the local community had been spreading rumours about his past convictions on social media that he believed was “an incitement to violence” against him.
He said he had acted in self defence after being “violently attacked” by the man and had been punched and had coffee thrown over him during the incident.
But following the evidence Sheriff Frank Gill said he found the the Crown witnesses to be “credible and reliable” and found MacFadyen guilty of committing a breach of the peace.
The sheriff placed MacFadyen on a structured deferred sentence and ordered him to be of good behaviour and he returned to the dock yesterday (WED) where he was admonished on the charge.
Sheriff Gill said: “Mr MacFadyen, a school playground should be a place of fun but above all of safety.
“Your conduct on April 1 2025 was deplorable.
“Whatever provocation you believed you had suffered it is no excuse for behaving in the way you did – you should have walked away from the situation.”
MacFadyen was previously jailed for 100 days and placed on the sex offenders register for five years after being caught with a stash of indecent images of children in 2013.
He was then jailed for 190 days last year after he confronted neighbours while carrying two large kitchen knives after local residents had held protests outside his home in Musselburgh.
Shocking mobile phone footage was posted on social media capturing MacFadyen approaching the terrified neighbours while brandishing the blades in August last year.
He was back in the news last month when he was forced out of the area after further neighbourhood protests turned ugly and windows of his home were smashed.
MacFadyen was later seen being escorted away from the property by police officers on 12 September.
