1 day Ago By Craig Meighan
An SNP MSP has revealed that he was charged with attempted murder as a teenager. James Dornan said the incident, which happened when he was 15, still sticks to him “like a curse”. Speaking to The National newspaper, the 72-year-old said he was walking the streets of Battlefield in 1968 in the southside of Glasgow when one of his friends ran across the road and challenged two young boys.
He said he then ran over and punched one of the boys, who was later hit with a weapon by one of his friends, leaving him seriously injured. His charge was later reduced to common assault and he received a £15 fine and two years’ probation. The MSP for Glasgow Cathcart said he decided to open up about the ordeal 57 years later due to the release of the hit Netflix drama, Adolescence .
The programme follows a 13-year-old boy arrested over the murder of a young girl and the impact it has on his family. Mr Dornan said he had refused to watch the show because of the traumatic memories it brought up. “I find this quite traumatic and very difficult emotionally to look at something that triggers things that have happened in my past, having just seen the clips,” he said.
“When you’re a young man, you do things without thinking of the repercussions and then the repercussions just expand, and everyone is caught up in it. “I didn’t want to see two actors playing a very emotional role that I could see being my mum and dad. “ Stephen Graham is a magnificent actor.
He acts with his heart, and I think that’s why I would’ve found it very difficult (to watch). He reminds me of my dad.” Mr Dornan said he still feels shame about the incident and the impact it had on his parents.
He said: “The first bad bit was when my dad came down (to the police station) because my dad was straight as a die and this sort of thing was just awful. “I felt shame and fear. I felt shame my mum would be suffering but also that my dad was going to have to go through this and at the same time I felt fear because I had no idea what was going to happen to me.
“I am now 57 years away from that incident and I still feel responsible for lots of things that have happened because of it, how people felt because of that incident. “I don’t think about it all the time but one of the problems I’ve got is I carry guilt about with me. It sticks with you like a curse.
It never leaves you.” The SNP MSP said he supported the show and its message around toxic masculinity, saying: “It astounds me that we’ve now created a society where big sections think the denigration of women is acceptable behaviour.” “That’s what I like about Adolescence,” he added, “I hope it will engender the debate.
” Mr Dornan urged young people not to fall into the life he did as a teen. He said: “When you get into trouble, there’s a way out. You’re not trapped in that moment,” he said.
“If I had gone to prison for this, I would’ve come out a completely different person, and not a better person. “If you get the opportunity, take it and try and move forward and try and make sure you can improve your life and try give something back, even if it’s just to yourself, because very often you’re the person suffering as much as anyone else.”.
