johnkp
Well-Known Member
Part 1 of the Scotland on Sunday article ...
The Other Side Of Paradise - 18 Aug 96
Scotland on Sunday
Celtic Boys' Club appealed to the dreams of a generation of football hopefuls, but they have only made the tabloids in a seamy tale of manipulation and abuse.
It all begins in a shrine, the walls adorned with artefacts and relics, all carefully arranged and devoutly displayed, past which the faithful shuffled and nourished their own dreams of immortality. Here, paradise seemed tangible, just a short trip away. But the changing faces who gaped in awe at this display of devotion were gullible young boys who worshipped a team.
They stared at the display of shirts and photographs, testimonials and autographs and believed the man who told them that they could look down from the window, across the city to the football ground in the East End and take all that lay before them.
Jim Torbett was 20 when he set up Celtic Boys' Club in 1966, seeking permission from the then manager Jock Stein to use the team's name. He was only a few years older than the lads who trooped through his living room. Boys who left believing, as he did, in dreams, certain that they were special, marked out for fame. Now 30 years on, those dreams have become nightmares for some, grown men marked forever by the shy but enthusiastic man who took them to the heights and then the depths.
John McCluskey is, in the unimpeachable judgment of former Celtic star Charlie Nicholas, the best young player he ever saw. Last week, McCluskey - who has fought drink, addiction and his own demons - was sitting in an upmarket Glasgow hotel, sipping cappuccino and waiting to make a statement to police that Torbett had sexually assaulted him. He had been so badly affected by the Dunblane massacre, he said, that he felt he had to make a stand.
Just two days before, the Daily Record had spread across five pages allegations that the boys' club founder had abused him. His allegation was supported by Ally Brazil, the former Ipswich and Spurs striker, another graduate of the Celtic academy, who claimed that Torbett kissed and fondled him when he was only 14.
Within hours of the story hitting the streets, and the newspaper setting up its abuse hotline, dozens of calls had come in and another man - Frank Cairney, the man who had been brought in by Jock Stein to get rid of the smears and innuendoes which for years had hung around the boys' club - was also being named as an abuser.
Whispers that something was not quite right with Celtic Boys' Club had been around since its inception. Some boys passed through the ranks unscathed, ducking slaps on the bum and over-enthusiastic spongings when they lay injured on the pitch. But others are alleged to have suffered at the hands of a man who abused his position in pursuit of paedophile perversions.
It seemed some of the weaker boys, those with less skill, less certain of a place on the first team, those with less parental guidance, became easy prey. They would be enticed back to Torbett's house with promises of meals and ice cream and sometimes less innocent pursuits would follow.
When Fergus McCann finally arrived in the halo of television lights at Parkhead in 1994 he knew that he faced a formidable task: rebuilding a stadium, a team and the belief of a support which had seen years of failed promises and dismal performance. What he did not expect - by way of an anonymous letter sent to him almost as soon as he was through the door - was a disturbing report of years of abuse at the boys' club.
Officially, the club was entirely separate from Celtic but McCann appreciated that it was inextricably bound to Parkhead in the minds of the public, and indeed in the hearts of some of the players and former players - like Peter Grant, Paul McStay and Tommy Burns - who had graduated from it to the big time of professional football.
McCann quickly went about trying to establish the truth, or not, of the accusations. He called in Jim Torbett and asked him to meet Celtic's lawyers and confirm or deny, in an affidavit which could be passed to the police, the accusations. Torbett repeatedly refused. He asked Ally Brazil and John McCluskey to make their allegations formal. Brazil refused at that stage. McCluskey agreed, but only if his statement was not passed to the police.
Ironically, McCann was playing out, more than three years on, a sad little tableau which had occurred at Parkhead under the old regime, ruled over by the Kelly and White families. In 1991 the boys' club had been to Kearney, New Jersey - an annual tour to the Irish part of the state with players staying at the homes of Catholic families.
One boy, no longer at Celtic but now a professional player in Scotland, had alleged to his hosts and to his own family that he had been assaulted by the team's general manager, Frank Cairney. The boy's father took him to Celtic Park to have it out with Liam Brady who was then only months in the job as team manager. The club's chief scout John Kelman was also present.
It was Brady's first serious and most affecting problem in a troubled time at Parkhead which did not last long. He listened to the boy, believed him, and insisted to the board that Cairney had to be removed, not only from the boys' club but from any association with the main football club. So, overnight, the man who was used to having his run of the place and the ear of the management, was cast out.
It was agreed, by Brady, the boy and his parents and the then Celtic board, that the police would not be informed. The young player was assured that the alleged incident would have no effect on his future career at the club. However, signed statements were taken by Celtic's lawyers from the four adults who had been on the New Jersey trip.
All were sworn to silence. Cairney was now away from the football club and its nursery - business commitments was the given reason - but Jim Torbett was back playing a major role, first as a fund-raiser then back with the boys' club. Torbett had maintained his connections with Celtic. Pre-McCann board member Kevin Kelly, still honorary president of the boys' club, is a fellow director of Torbett's company The Trophy Centre, and current board member Jack McGinn is an employee.
It is not clear why a man widely regarded as a child abuser was allowed back into a position of responsibility at the boys' club. Torbett had been kicked out in 1976 after being confronted by the committee and, according to Frank Cairney's account of the meeting, had broken down in tears and confessed.
