Canada Loyal
Well-Known Member
They should 100% be banned from ever having a youth team or signing any player under 18.
Agree. No one was up for demoting Saville to Channel 5 or Harris to BBC Alba.Full expulsion, get them to f&ck for good. There’s no coming back from what they’ve done.
Imagine living in a society where an institution guilty of such crimes has to be called for to make an apology for ruining so many young boys lives.Sadly cannot see any other media organisation being as truthful or as critical.
Celtic ‘must issue full apology’ over paedophile scandal.
Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservative justice spokesman, accuses club of compounding the pain of victims with protracted legal battle.
Marc Horne
Celtic ‘must issue full apology’ over paedophile scandal — The Times and The Sunday Times
Celtic FC must apologise for harbouring a paedophile ring and delaying justice for individuals who suffered “unimaginable horrors” while under their care, a senior MSP has said. The Times disclosed on Monday that the Parkhead club were poised to pay multimillion-pound damages within months after...apple.news
Celtic FC must apologise for harbouring a paedophile ring and delaying justice for individuals who suffered “unimaginable horrors” while under their care, a senior MSP has said.
The Times disclosed on Monday that the Parkhead club were poised to pay multimillion-pound damages within months after agreeing to settle legal claims over systematic child abuse at their feeder club.
More than 20 former players at Celtic Boys Club joined a class-action legal action which has now been put on hold to allow individual compensation packages to be assessed.
Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservative justice spokesman, has called on the senior club to issue an unequivocal apology over its handling of the scandal. “Youngsters who lived for football suffered unimaginable horrors at the hands of this paedophile ring, yet their pain was cruelly compounded by this protracted legal battle,” he said.
“For far too long, the club shamelessly denied abundant and incontrovertible evidence of deep-rooted connections with these abusers. While this reported settlement will be welcome, it should be accompanied by a sincere and unequivocal apology.”
Child welfare charities have also urged Celtic to accept responsibility.
“An apology or acknowledgement of the harm caused, is the most important action that Celtic Football Club can take to help survivors recover from their horrific experiences of childhood sexual abuse,” said Mary Glasgow, chief executive of Children 1st.
“We know from our experience of helping survivors recover from abuse that children are often made to feel they were responsible for the abuse they suffered.
“To fully recover from their horrific ordeal, survivors need a clear and heartfelt apology which acknowledges that what happened to them at Celtic Boys Club was wrong and that they are not to blame for it.”
For years Celtic insisted it was an entirely separate organisation to the boys’ club and, as such, argued it was not legally culpable for the abuse.
While opening negotiations with solicitors representing survivors, Celtic has not admitted any liability, despite four senior figures connected with the feeder club being convicted on multiple sexual offences against children.
The Scottish champions have now apparently abandoned their “separate entity defence”.
It comes after The Times published investigations which contradicted and undermined Celtic’s insistence that it had no formal links to the feeder club.
It found that Fergus McCann, the then managing director of Celtic FC, had declared that the boys’ club was the “basis of the entire Celtic pyramid”. He made the comments in April 1996, days before calling in the police to investigate growing claims of sexual abuse.
A decade earlier an internal Celtic FC investigation cleared the boys’ club staff and concluded the allegations deserved to be “buried once and for all”.
It also emerged that Celtic funded the boys’ club and employed the predatory paedophile Frank Cairney, who ran the feeder team between 1974 and 1991.
Jim Torbett, who was jailed three times for molesting boys after Jock Stein, then the Celtic manager, granted him permission to launch and lead the club in 1966, ran Celtic’s chain of shops selling official merchandise and organised testimonial functions for first team players.
Both Cairney and Torbett have served multiple jail sentences after being found to be prolific paedophiles.
In 2019 Jim McCafferty, a former boys’ club coach and Celtic kit man, was jailed for six years after admitting 12 charges relating to child sexual abuse. He died in prison in 2022, aged 76.
In 2018 Gerald King, a former chairman of the boys’ club, was convicted of abusing four boys and a girl. Three other men with ties to Celtic and Celtic East Youth Club, a now-defunct feeder team in Edinburgh, have also been found guilty of serious offences against boys.
Thompsons Solicitors Scotland, which is representing the survivors, has been gathering evidence on each of the cases to present Celtic with amounts to pay for each individual.
It now expects that process to be completed by the end of the summer. “We are pleased to confirm that the process of valuing all individual cases has made significant progress in the last six months,” a Thompsons spokesman said.
“We do not yet have all necessary evidence to commence settlement negotiations and so the court has granted a further short sist [pause] of four months to allow opportunities to do so given the complexities of this task.”
Celtic did not respond to requests for comment. Last September the club said: “Celtic’s lawyers continue to investigate and discuss these cases with the lawyers acting for those who suffered abuse at Celtic Boys Club. Those discussions are ongoing.
“It would not be appropriate for Celtic Football Club to comment any further while there are ongoing legal proceedings.”
Forever. Every game we play them they will see and hear it.Call them what they are and what they they been for five decades,Peadophiles.
John Swinney should hang His head in shame. His decision for no further Police investigation and Sporting and Religious organisations be exempt from same , also saying it was a waste of time and money and not in the public interest was abominable.
With the well documented cases of historic sexual abuse committed by the Roman Catholic clergy it’s not a stretch to think it happened at the shitpit long before Torbett,There’s no way this abuse started with Cairney, Torbett etc - this will have been going on since that vile club was shat into existence.
This is the question.What the fk are the SFA doing about all this? 7 convicted paedophiles connected to one club and not a peep.
Just waiting till we forget.This is the question.
A coordinated and sensible approach is what’s needed.If it matters, if the eventual outcome doesn't sit right with you then It's up to each and every one of us to call for a full public inquiry. Discussion on how that might be achieved should be encouraged.
MP's should be challenged to do their job, media heads need pressured to ensure the biggest sporting scandal this country has ever known gets the coverage those victims deserve.
This cannot be allowed to be just brushed under the carpet as they have done for Decades. That stops now! You, me and anyone with an ounce of common decency has a collective responsibility to make sure they are not allowed to simply airbrush this from history just because they've been forced into paltry payout.
Agree mate apologies see way too low on the register of the issues involved in this . Subsequent governments, sports organisations , police forces and Procurators , Judiciary , and of course Media have covered and excused all sorts .An apology is the easy way out and won’t bring back the 40 deaths potentially linked to abuse at Celtic.
What genuinely needs to happen is not for MSPs to call for an apology but a full public enquiry instead and for them to face the sporting and non sporting sanctions Penn state faced in America.
Them paying out several million and saying sorry isn’t good enough.
If Rangers carried any power then representations would be made. Perhaps we need to review the actual articles of association and somehow raise it with the sfa. Pretty sure they’ve at the very least failed their duty of care and brought the game into disrepute.Just waiting till we forget.
Just like the scum tried to do with their paedos. Hoping dementia kicked in.
The Fecking SFA are doing SFAWhat the fk are the SFA doing about all this? 7 convicted paedophiles connected to one club and not a peep.
What needs to happen is for them to be shut and closed down.An apology is the easy way out and won’t bring back the 40 deaths potentially linked to abuse at Celtic.
What genuinely needs to happen is not for MSPs to call for an apology but a full public enquiry instead and for them to face the sporting and non sporting sanctions Penn state faced in America.
Them paying out several million and saying sorry isn’t good enough.
They've already held and concluded their inquiry.The Fecking SFA are doing SFA
That....along with no signings for 3 seasons.They should 100% be banned from ever having a youth team or signing any player under 18.
Spot onI assume he’ll raise this in First Ministers Questions?
It’s only right that the public hear what the First Minister has to say about this. Messrs Sawar and Harvie too, as a matter of fact.
The fact that this is being ignored by almost all the mainstream media in Scotland is shameful and exposes the so called journalists for what they are. Liewell's bought and paid for propaganda wing
Government exists to protect its citizens, particularly its most vulnerable - children. If it cannot do this most fundamental of things it is failing in its most basic duties. Surely the country we live in has some politicians (across the divide) who are willing to do their job, and some journalists willing to hold those who are not doing their jobs accountable. We really need some politicians who are willing to get back to the basics…More than 20 former players at Celtic Boys Club joined a class-action legal action which has now been put on hold to allow individual compensation packages to be assessed.
Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservative justice spokesman, has called on the senior club to issue an unequivocal apology over its handling of the scandal. “Youngsters who lived for football suffered unimaginable horrors at the hands of this paedophile ring, yet their pain was cruelly compounded by this protracted legal battle,” he said.
“For far too long, the club shamelessly denied abundant and incontrovertible evidence of deep-rooted connections with these abusers. While this reported settlement will be welcome, it should be accompanied by a sincere and unequivocal apology.”
Child welfare charities have also urged Celtic to accept responsibility.
“An apology or acknowledgement of the harm caused, is the most important action that Celtic Football Club can take to help survivors recover from their horrific experiences of childhood sexual abuse,” said Mary Glasgow, chief executive of Children 1st.
“We know from our experience of helping survivors recover from abuse that children are often made to feel they were responsible for the abuse they suffered.
“To fully recover from their horrific ordeal, survivors need a clear and heartfelt apology which acknowledges that what happened to them at Celtic Boys Club was wrong and that they are not to blame for it.”
For years Celtic insisted it was an entirely separate organisation to the boys’ club and, as such, argued it was not legally culpable for the abuse.
While opening negotiations with solicitors representing survivors, Celtic has not admitted any liability, despite four senior figures connected with the feeder club being convicted on multiple sexual offences against children.
The Scottish champions have now apparently abandoned their “separate entity defence”.
It comes after The Times published investigations which contradicted and undermined Celtic’s insistence that it had no formal links to the feeder club.
It found that Fergus McCann, the then managing director of Celtic FC, had declared that the boys’ club was the “basis of the entire Celtic pyramid”. He made the comments in April 1996, days before calling in the police to investigate growing claims of sexual abuse.
A decade earlier an internal Celtic FC investigation cleared the boys’ club staff and concluded the allegations deserved to be “buried once and for all”.
It also emerged that Celtic funded the boys’ club and employed the predatory paedophile Frank Cairney, who ran the feeder team between 1974 and 1991.
Jim Torbett, who was jailed three times for molesting boys after Jock Stein, then the Celtic manager, granted him permission to launch and lead the club in 1966, ran Celtic’s chain of shops selling official merchandise and organised testimonial functions for first team players.
Both Cairney and Torbett have served multiple jail sentences after being found to be prolific paedophiles.
In 2019 Jim McCafferty, a former boys’ club coach and Celtic kit man, was jailed for six years after admitting 12 charges relating to child sexual abuse. He died in prison in 2022, aged 76.
In 2018 Gerald King, a former chairman of the boys’ club, was convicted of abusing four boys and a girl. Three other men with ties to Celtic and Celtic East Youth Club, a now-defunct feeder team in Edinburgh, have also been found guilty of serious offences against
I might be wrong, did he not convert to (cough) Catholicism in recent years??.John Swinney should hang His head in shame. His decision for no further Police investigation and Sporting and Religious organisations be exempt from same , also saying it was a waste of time and money and not in the public interest was abominable.
Not only MPs and MSPs. The Scottish media have largely chosen to ignore this as they are terrified of getting involved in litigation. As soon as there is a settlement or a Court case the media can report fully without fear of reprisals.Tbf, its been reported on, but what is conspicuous by their absence is MP /MSP's refusing to go near it. They are a huge part of the problem.
Not only MPs and MSPs. The Scottish media have largely chosen to ignore this as they are terrified of getting involved in litigation. As soon as there is a settlement or a Court case the media can report fully without fear of reprisals.
If a Lawyer firm from the USA gets involved in this, it will be the end of cover up fc.I'm sure I've read articles over the last couple of years that have referenced Torbett, Cairney and McCafferty all allegedly abusing kids whilst on boys' club trips to USA, Canada and other countries. If the current litigation relates to 20+ victims of Torbett and Cairney for abusing boys in the UK, surely recent developments must pave the way for similar lawsuits overseas (possibly even in the UK if further victims come forward)?
first minister, ex minister of justice is a rabbit tim (and other things). It’s not a coincidence.Government exists to protect its citizens, particularly its most vulnerable - children. If it cannot do this most fundamental of things it is failing in its most basic duties. Surely the country we live in has some politicians (across the divide) who are willing to do their job, and some journalists willing to hold those who are not doing their jobs accountable. We really need some politicians who are willing to get back to the basics…
They'll be in hiding because they are complicit in this aswell.Has the SFA commented yet?
I might be wrong mate, but I think for Westminster to become involved, apart from their appetite to do so, there has to be evidence of 'cross-border' abuse? There are articles, including a Scottish Daily Express one, from a couple of years ago, that certainly names McCafferty, specifically him taking players from Glasgow to play down south in tournaments organised by Barry Bennell. One can only imagine what went on during these trips!imagine supporting a club
first minister, ex minister of justice is a rabbit tim (and other things). It’s not a coincidence.
It will also go high up in Glasgow council and police scotland (ex Strathclyde police). It has to.
We need Westminster to step in imo.
It’s a corrupt backwater we live in
John Swinney should hang His head in shame. His decision for no further Police investigation and Sporting and Religious organisations be exempt from same , also saying it was a waste of time and money and not in the public interest was
Could be wrong but didn't he at that time change to the catholic church marrying one of themJohn Swinney should hang His head in shame. His decision for no further Police investigation and Sporting and Religious organisations be exempt from same , also saying it was a waste of time and money and not in the public interest was abominable.
Is this the report that seltik wouldn’t let be published until they had seen it first ? (And amended accordingly)They've already held and concluded their inquiry.
They found that abuse had happened at the boys club but praised the main club for their set up since.
I think they also mentioned the abuse at Hibs and Falkirk and tried to link Rangers as well despite the fact that Rangers reported inappropriate comments made to a boy to his Police officer dad who took it no further.
The SFA investigator had links either to Torbett and Co. or some group involved with abuse so basically the inquest was determined to find celtc not guilty whilst finding guilt with other clubs.
Hibs have also been protected as they knew abuse was happening, sacked the culprit who then went to Falkirk and did the same.
The fellas that have been working on all this and posting it would give a better description than me but I'm not way off with my description.
Nah they payments arent for PR, the dirty bastards knew they had no leg to stand on.No chance they will apologise imo. They only make payments for PR. They aint accepting shit.
The guy Gordon Woods seems like he’s going all the way to court think there’s 3 or so go %^*& you celtic were going to courtDoes everyone involved in the joint claim need to accept the payment or can 1 say I want it to go to court?
That’s why the ones that happened in USA get settled there those cunts in the states won’t care who the %^*& they areNo way will that happen, they are far too well protected in this country at every level.
I wouldn't hold my breath, the scum and their disgusting fans never admit to anything.