Outlander actor Scott Kyle has revealed that poverty may have saved him from being abused by a paedophile youth football coach, and how his mother's warnings about the predator were ignored. Kyle encountered Craig Menzies in the 1990s when he played for a boys' club in Glasgow where Menzies was a coach and physio. Menzies was jailed for 12 years in 2024 after pleading guilty to abusing seven boys between 1986 and 2004. Last week at Glasgow Sheriff Court, he was ordered to serve an additional two years for sexual offences against two boys between 1999 and 2002.
Actor recalls creepy behaviour dismissed as banter
Kyle, 42, was not a victim but recalled how Menzies' inappropriate behaviour was brushed off as locker room banter. His mother raised the alarm after discovering letters Menzies sent, but was ignored, and the physio continued to abuse children for years. Kyle, who dreamed of a football career, now believes he may have avoided abuse because he was too poor to go on overnight trips. It emerged during Menzies' court case that one of his tactics was to abuse boys while they slept.
Kyle said: 'When I was between 12 and 14 Menzies was a coach at the club I was playing for. He acted as the personal physio for the team, which for a young boy like me meant he was a figure of unquestionable authority. None of the other boys' football teams had a medic that would run on with a magic sponge, it was just one of their dads. We thought we were much better, more professional, because we had a 'proper medic'.'
Menzies' grooming tactics described
Kyle added: 'Menzies didn't fit the stereotypical image of some dirty old man in a raincoat. He was young, albeit more than twice our age, which meant he was able to say and do things that were laughed off as a joke. He was the one who would come into the dressing room and rub muscle-warming cream on our legs before a match. When his hand strayed to the top of a boy's leg the lad might shout out, 'He's trying to touch my balls' and somebody else would pipe up with 'Aye, he did the same to me'. Menzies would laugh and say something like, 'Aye right. There's nothing there to touch'. It was laughed off and explained away as dressing room banter.'
Kyle, who plays Ross the blacksmith in Outlander, included his memories in his autobiography 'It's Not Where You Start' after hearing Menzies had been jailed. He could not speak further until now as Menzies faced additional historic charges and has now been sentenced.
Mother's warnings ignored
Kyle told of his frustration that nothing was done to prevent Menzies earlier, which might have spared some victims. On one occasion, youngsters were encouraged to write to Menzies 'to cheer him up' after he was hospitalised with injuries put down at the time to a fall. Kyle said: 'At first the replies from Menzies were innocent enough but over time they became more suggestive. He would write things like 'looking forward to rubbing your legs. Nobody rubs your legs like me.'
Kyle's mother was shocked to find a dozen letters while cleaning his room and flagged her concerns to the club. He writes in the book: 'I sometimes think that if she had been the wife of a doctor or lawyer instead of just the wee woman who cleaned the shopping arcade she might have been taken more seriously. Menzies could have been stopped there and then instead of being able to carry on his campaign of abuse.'
Poverty a 'blessing in disguise'
Kyle added: 'I remember being invited by Menzies to go with him and four other boys to Newcastle to an overnight swimming event. I really wanted to go but my mum didn't have the money to pay for the trip so I wasn't able to attend. Only later did I think our lack of money may have been a blessing in disguise.'
Police Scotland Detective Constable Victoria Leak said: 'He's a callous predator and is now being held accountable for his depraved actions.'
