A Scots artist whose mural features a pervert politician convicted of sex offences has refused to change the work.
Alasdair Gray, 83, completed a 40ft mural at Hillhead Subway Station in Glasgow that features David Fagan, 54, who was found guilty of sending messages about incest and child abuse.
Fagan appears in the bottom right corner, extending a hand over the west end of Glasgow, and posing next to the MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Sandra White.
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) had been urged to act over the ceramic creation, All Kinds of Folks, when details of Fagan's sordid crimes emerged in February.
He was convicted after telling an undercover police officer he wanted to rape a child and sending her messages about incest and abuse.
But Mr Gray, of Glasgow, has now revealed he refused to adjust the piece and insisted it should not be changed.
He said: "Someone asked at the time, I think it was Sandra White, for action to be taken and I said I don't think anything should be done about it.
"SPT asked me and I told them the same.
"No one need know about it and I don't intend publicising it.
"I don't want anything done about it. If you had to go around changing everything connected to a controversial person there'd be nothing left in galleries."
Asked if he thought the public would find his views 'controversial', Mr Gray said: "They might but I don't."
He also confirmed he had not been in contact with Fagan.
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Fagan was chairman of SPT’s design advisory group in 2010, when it ordered new art for the modernisation of the Glasgow Subway.
In 2011, Fagan was quoted saying the £23,000 artwork was intended to be 'the standard bearer for all other stations' in the subway network.
The mural was unveiled the following year. Fagan resigned as SPT vice-chairman six months later.
A four-day trial at Airdrie Sheriff Court heard the father-of-two and self-confessed porn addict visited websites to investigate 'taboo' subjects, including having sex with a parent and a child.
He shared his incest fantasies while talking to an undercover policewoman, who told him she was a 40-year-old mother-of-three from London.
Police categorised him as 'high risk' and arrested him after the sting operation in late 2016.
He was ordered to perform 120 hours of unpaid work and be supervised for three years.
He was also put on the sex offenders’ register for three years and banned from the internet for a year.
A London gallery cancelled plans to show a self-portrait by Fagan after it learned he was a sex offender.
He entered his picture and it was accepted for the Pastel Society’s annual exhibition at the prestigious Mall Galleries, London.
But horrified bosses took if down after another Scots artist flagged up the former North Lanarkshire councillor’s conviction.
An SPT spokeswoman said: "There is no update and we have nothing to add."
Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, is also featured on the mural and has called for it to be changed.
She said: "I'm a bit disappointed to hear what's being said by Alasdair.
"The work was commissioned by SPT and is owned by the public and should be removed or adjusted.
"I have to be honest and say I had no idea who this gentleman was but when his offences were made public I was horrified.
"I would call on something to be done to have the mural changed."
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