Organisers of an Angus Remembrance event were shocked to learn the musician they booked to perform the Last Post was a convicted sex offender.
Disgraced music teacher Dean Bromage was earlier this year found guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman at a Salvation Army concert.
On Friday night, seven months on, he played the bugle at Carnoustie Legion’s Remembrance ceremony to a crowd of more than 20 people.
It was held to honour First World War Victoria Cross recipients, Lance Corporal Charles Jarvis and Seaman George Samson, whose memorial sits beside the town’s championship golf course.
The group behind the Armistice commemoration says it did not know about the 36-year-old’s conviction.
Davie Paton, chairman of Carnoustie Legion said: “At the time that Dean was engaged to play the bugle at the Carnoustie Acts of Remembrance, we were unaware that he had been convicted of sexual offences and that he was on the sex offenders register.
“We will not be using Dean at Carnoustie Legion events again.”
Dundee Sheriff Court conviction
In April, Bromage was found guilty at Dundee Sheriff Court of assaulting the woman in two separate incidents between May 2018 and February 2019.
The court heard Bromage had leaned back and touched the woman between her legs during a Salvation Army band performance in Edinburgh before saying she “probably enjoyed it”.
On another occasion, he touched the woman’s breast while she was warming up her instrument ahead of a concert in Aberdeen.
Bromage denied the offences and claimed his accuser had committed perjury.
He was found guilty and placed on the sex offenders register for two years.
First offender Bromage, of Monifieth, was also ordered to complete 180 hours of unpaid work and complete a sex offender rehabilitation programme.
The woman he assaulted came forward after reading how he was cleared by a jury three years ago of engaging in sexual activity with pupils at a school in Fife.
After his 2021 acquittal, Bromage said he was “very relieved” and added that the case had been hanging over him for more than two years due to delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said: “I want to get on with my life. It’s a big, wide world out there.”
When contacted by The Courier on Tuesday, Bromage – subject to supervision for another 17 months – confirmed he was engaged by a third party to play at Friday night’s event in Carnoustie.
He made no further comment.
Seafront Carnoustie memorial marks WWI heroism
The VC memorial ceremony is held annually ahead of Carnoustie’s main Remembrance Day commemoration.
The striking monument was unveiled in 2015.
It sits beside the Links House HQ of Carnoustie Golf Links Management Committee.
Lance Corporal Jarvis was awarded one of the first VCs of World War One in August 1914.
He was serving with the 57th Field Company Royal Engineers near Mons at the outbreak of war.
Royal Naval Reserve seaman Samson received the nation’s highest gallantry award for his heroism during the Gallipoli campaign.
Both men survived the conflict.
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