Child abuser Jim Torbett ran Tommy Burns and Sean Fallon testimonials for Celtic FC

——atb

Well-Known Member


A prolific sexual predator organised lavish official events with guests including a future cardinal and a bishop to celebrate the careers of Celtic FC players, The Times can disclose.


Jim Torbett, founder of Celtic Boys Club, was found guilty of abusing boys between 1986 and 1994 and jailed for six years in 2018. He was given a two-year sentence a decade earlier for molesting players at the feeder club between 1967 and 1974.


It has now emerged that Torbett, 72, organised testimonial events for Tommy Burns, the former Celtic player, coach and manager, and Sean Fallon, a long-serving assistant manager and player, further undermining claims that Torbett had no connection with the Parkhead club.


Guests who accepted his invitation to honour Fallon — Jock Stein’s right-hand man and confidant — included an archbishop, a bishop, the Lisbon Lions European Cup-winners, and Celtic FC’s directors, players and management team. Being given responsibility for such prestigious events suggests he was highly regarded by senior figures within Parkhead at the time.


While expressing sympathy for his victims Celtic have sought to distance themselves from Torbett’s crimes, insisting that the boys’ club was an “entirely separate organisation”.


However, The Times has also revealed that Torbett was hired by Celtic to run their club shops, in addition to his coaching duties, in the early 1990s.


A report on Fallon’s testimonial dinner, held in November 1993, in the club’s official magazine, thanks “Jim Torbett and his associates for organising such a wonderful occasion”. The Celtic View confirmed the guests of honour included “the Celtic directors, Archbishop Thomas Winning of Glasgow and Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell”.


In 2018 the Scottish child abuse inquiry heard evidence that Winning, who in 1994 became the second Scottish cardinal since the reformation, offered money to a woman in exchange for her silence over sexual abuse that took place in a Catholic-run residential home for children in the Sixties.


After being elevated to cardinal he caused outrage by asserting that the church had no obligation to report alleged paedophile priests to the police.


In 2013 Devine, who died last year, told a man seeking an apology for being raped by a priest as a child: “Can you not let him off with it? He’s an old man.”


A programme for the Burns testimonial match with Liverpool, which took place at Parkhead in 1987, confirms that Torbett was vice-chairman of the organising committee.


Burns played for the boys’ club from 1970-73 and frequently attended club functions and prizegivings when he went on to play for the senior club and served as manager. He died of skin cancer, aged 51, in 2008.


Torbett was kicked out of the boys’ club by Stein, then the Celtic manager, in 1974 after hearing claims of abuse — but the police were not informed. Stein, who died while Scotland manager in 1985, had given Torbett permission to start the boys’ club.


In March 1984 The Glasgow Evening Times reported that Stein would be making a “personal appearance” at a branch of Torbett’s Trophy Centre on Kilmarnock Road in Glasgow.


After his sacking Torbett was allowed to return four years later and went on to molest more boys, remaining there until 1996 when claims of abuse appeared in the press. Passing sentence in 2018 Lord Beckett said: “You used the club as a front and a recruiting ground for boys who you could sexually abuse.”


In February Celtic said it was “very sorry” the abuse had happened but insisted the boys’ club was a separate organisation.


After Torbett’s 2018 conviction the club issued a statement which said that allegations of abuse at the boys’ club “first emerged in the 1990s”. It subsequently emerged that Celtic launched an internal investigation in 1986 which “cleared” Torbett and his colleagues and stated their intention was for the claims to be “buried once and for all”.


Celtic did not respond to a request for comment.



 
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Disgusting, but you expect nothing else from that scum club. You kick someone out the club (who you apparently don't employ or have any connections with) for abusing weins only to welcome him back and ask him to run events for you among other things while paying him handsomely for doing it. Were all these business opportunities handed to Torbett 'payment' for other services he was quietly providing?

Interesting section on Thomas Winning. I haven't been reading every article around this so I may have missed it, but is this the first we've seen the press connecting some dots and hinting at a wider network that Celtc were, at the very least, a part of?
 
He ran a testimonial for the blessed St Thomas?
The same guy who described Cairney as "a wonderful human being".

One can only imagine the esteem in which he held previously sacked from paedo fc Torbett, if he was chosen for the testimonial events above wonderful Cairney.
 
The cover up and denials are a disgrace. Everyone involved to this very day in trying to lie and deflect Celtic's culpability in the abuse and subsequent cover up should be bloody ashamed of themselves.
If they'd took ownership of this years ago admitted what went on and just apologised they'd at least come out of this sordid episode with some respect.
They are still at it 30/40 years after the events still lying still denying.Shame on them all.
 
When do the people in power say enough is enough? And I don’t mean just Celtic here. People cannot keep being exempt from punishment for believing and worshipping something that cannot be scientifically proven to be real. The Scottish and British governments as well as other major governments around the world have to be held accountable for allowing these atrocious acts to continue while being covered up.
 
Just watch and listen to it being debated over the coming months.

Spin is already underway

It’s underway by the type of people who would stab their granny in the back if they though it’d get their sordid club off with something.

I know this is easier said than done but we really need to start ignoring these crackpots because as soon as you get in a debate or take anything they say seriously you grant them a stage.
 
The cover up and denials are a disgrace. Everyone involved to this very day in trying to lie and deflect Celtic's culpability in the abuse and subsequent cover up should be bloody ashamed of themselves.
If they'd took ownership of this years ago admitted what went on and just apologised they'd at least come out of this sordid episode with some respect.
They are still at it 30/40 years after the events still lying still denying.Shame on them all.
This is just the start.
 
How willing do these media outlets appear to be with reporting on this? Is there an appetite to right these wrongs or is more a case of some strong-arming from you guys?

Well done to you and the other for all your hard work
I personally think that most of the Scottish press don’t have the appetite to take this on. So we did. Like I mentioned in the other thread, journalist’s from outside Scotland are now taking notice.
 


A prolific sexual predator organised lavish official events with guests including a future cardinal and a bishop to celebrate the careers of Celtic FC players, The Times can disclose.


Jim Torbett, founder of Celtic Boys Club, was found guilty of abusing boys between 1986 and 1994 and jailed for six years in 2018. He was given a two-year sentence a decade earlier for molesting players at the feeder club between 1967 and 1974.


It has now emerged that Torbett, 72, organised testimonial events for Tommy Burns, the former Celtic player, coach and manager, and Sean Fallon, a long-serving assistant manager and player, further undermining claims that Torbett had no connection with the Parkhead club.


Guests who accepted his invitation to honour Fallon — Jock Stein’s right-hand man and confidant — included an archbishop, a bishop, the Lisbon Lions European Cup-winners, and Celtic FC’s directors, players and management team. Being given responsibility for such prestigious events suggests he was highly regarded by senior figures within Parkhead at the time.


While expressing sympathy for his victims Celtic have sought to distance themselves from Torbett’s crimes, insisting that the boys’ club was an “entirely separate organisation”.


However, The Times has also revealed that Torbett was hired by Celtic to run their club shops, in addition to his coaching duties, in the early 1990s.


A report on Fallon’s testimonial dinner, held in November 1993, in the club’s official magazine, thanks “Jim Torbett and his associates for organising such a wonderful occasion”. The Celtic View confirmed the guests of honour included “the Celtic directors, Archbishop Thomas Winning of Glasgow and Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell”.


In 2018 the Scottish child abuse inquiry heard evidence that Winning, who in 1994 became the second Scottish cardinal since the reformation, offered money to a woman in exchange for her silence over sexual abuse that took place in a Catholic-run residential home for children in the Sixties.


After being elevated to cardinal he caused outrage by asserting that the church had no obligation to report alleged paedophile priests to the police.


In 2013 Devine, who died last year, told a man seeking an apology for being raped by a priest as a child: “Can you not let him off with it? He’s an old man.”


A programme for the Burns testimonial match with Liverpool, which took place at Parkhead in 1987, confirms that Torbett was vice-chairman of the organising committee.


Burns played for the boys’ club from 1970-73 and frequently attended club functions and prizegivings when he went on to play for the senior club and served as manager. He died of skin cancer, aged 51, in 2008.


Torbett was kicked out of the boys’ club by Stein, then the Celtic manager, in 1974 after hearing claims of abuse — but the police were not informed. Stein, who died while Scotland manager in 1985, had given Torbett permission to start the boys’ club.


In March 1984 The Glasgow Evening Times reported that Stein would be making a “personal appearance” at a branch of Torbett’s Trophy Centre on Kilmarnock Road in Glasgow.


After his sacking Torbett was allowed to return four years later and went on to molest more boys, remaining there until 1996 when claims of abuse appeared in the press. Passing sentence in 2018 Lord Beckett said: “You used the club as a front and a recruiting ground for boys who you could sexually abuse.”


In February Celtic said it was “very sorry” the abuse had happened but insisted the boys’ club was a separate organisation.


After Torbett’s 2018 conviction the club issued a statement which said that allegations of abuse at the boys’ club “first emerged in the 1990s”. It subsequently emerged that Celtic launched an internal investigation in 1986 which “cleared” Torbett and his colleagues and stated their intention was for the claims to be “buried once and for all”.


Celtic did not respond to a request for comment.
This is typical of their club and Catholic roots, Devine is certainly not alone in his ideology of their C@ltic minded people who have absolutely no concern or compassion for the victims of these crimes.
These people from the cult are supposed to be men of god, when in actual fact their words and actions are evil.
They are vile despicable creatures whose actions and shameful conduct should be recorded for posterity so that no one is allowed to forget.

In 2013 Devine, who died last year, told a man seeking an apology for being raped by a priest as a child: “Can you not let him off with it? He’s an old man.” :eek:
 


A prolific sexual predator organised lavish official events with guests including a future cardinal and a bishop to celebrate the careers of Celtic FC players, The Times can disclose.


Jim Torbett, founder of Celtic Boys Club, was found guilty of abusing boys between 1986 and 1994 and jailed for six years in 2018. He was given a two-year sentence a decade earlier for molesting players at the feeder club between 1967 and 1974.


It has now emerged that Torbett, 72, organised testimonial events for Tommy Burns, the former Celtic player, coach and manager, and Sean Fallon, a long-serving assistant manager and player, further undermining claims that Torbett had no connection with the Parkhead club.


Guests who accepted his invitation to honour Fallon — Jock Stein’s right-hand man and confidant — included an archbishop, a bishop, the Lisbon Lions European Cup-winners, and Celtic FC’s directors, players and management team. Being given responsibility for such prestigious events suggests he was highly regarded by senior figures within Parkhead at the time.


While expressing sympathy for his victims Celtic have sought to distance themselves from Torbett’s crimes, insisting that the boys’ club was an “entirely separate organisation”.


However, The Times has also revealed that Torbett was hired by Celtic to run their club shops, in addition to his coaching duties, in the early 1990s.


A report on Fallon’s testimonial dinner, held in November 1993, in the club’s official magazine, thanks “Jim Torbett and his associates for organising such a wonderful occasion”. The Celtic View confirmed the guests of honour included “the Celtic directors, Archbishop Thomas Winning of Glasgow and Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell”.


In 2018 the Scottish child abuse inquiry heard evidence that Winning, who in 1994 became the second Scottish cardinal since the reformation, offered money to a woman in exchange for her silence over sexual abuse that took place in a Catholic-run residential home for children in the Sixties.


After being elevated to cardinal he caused outrage by asserting that the church had no obligation to report alleged paedophile priests to the police.


In 2013 Devine, who died last year, told a man seeking an apology for being raped by a priest as a child: “Can you not let him off with it? He’s an old man.”


A programme for the Burns testimonial match with Liverpool, which took place at Parkhead in 1987, confirms that Torbett was vice-chairman of the organising committee.


Burns played for the boys’ club from 1970-73 and frequently attended club functions and prizegivings when he went on to play for the senior club and served as manager. He died of skin cancer, aged 51, in 2008.


Torbett was kicked out of the boys’ club by Stein, then the Celtic manager, in 1974 after hearing claims of abuse — but the police were not informed. Stein, who died while Scotland manager in 1985, had given Torbett permission to start the boys’ club.


In March 1984 The Glasgow Evening Times reported that Stein would be making a “personal appearance” at a branch of Torbett’s Trophy Centre on Kilmarnock Road in Glasgow.


After his sacking Torbett was allowed to return four years later and went on to molest more boys, remaining there until 1996 when claims of abuse appeared in the press. Passing sentence in 2018 Lord Beckett said: “You used the club as a front and a recruiting ground for boys who you could sexually abuse.”


In February Celtic said it was “very sorry” the abuse had happened but insisted the boys’ club was a separate organisation.


After Torbett’s 2018 conviction the club issued a statement which said that allegations of abuse at the boys’ club “first emerged in the 1990s”. It subsequently emerged that Celtic launched an internal investigation in 1986 which “cleared” Torbett and his colleagues and stated their intention was for the claims to be “buried once and for all”.


Celtic did not respond to a request for comment.
You can find some of these on YouTube. I'm sure one is on a page called Giro Productions.
Sure this is it
Guy that runs this page is the son of a well known prison escaper from Glasgow. He also has videos of Republican scum walks. You see him telling the police to jail protesters against one of the recent ones along the barras. Typical mentally challenged basically
 
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I honestly can't believe that no one in power can see the need for an investigation! Ignoring what happened doesn't make it go away. It makes me sick that abuse and the cover up of this just keeps getting ignored.
The evidence becomes more and more damning every single day!
It's without doubt the biggest scandal in sport anywhere and largely ignored, its baffling!

They need shut down and the victims given the justice they deserve!
 
I honestly can't believe that no one in power can see the need for an investigation! Ignoring what happened doesn't make it go away. It makes me sick that abuse and the cover up of this just keeps getting ignored.
The evidence becomes more and more damning every single day!
It's without doubt the biggest scandal in sport anywhere and largely ignored, its baffling!

They need shut down and the victims given the justice they deserve!
I’ve said it previously on another thread. The stories we’ve heard will stay with me for the rest of my life.
What’s gone on at that club is absolutely sickening and also heartbreaking.
I’ll also say this again. There will be more to come out on what’s gone on for over 50 years at that club. These perpetrators were well organised and they have many apologists who don’t want the truth to come out.
There are individuals still alive to this day that were employed at that club who know exactly what was going on and decided to turn a blind eye.
 
I'm sat here just now reading the times report and I am amazed that the poets can keep claiming seperate entity in every response that they give. If the daily rhebel and all the other rags in scotland stopped protecting what they think as the good name of that rancid club and the Roman Catholic church and investigate the link between other well known paedofiles then we might see some justice for the victims sooner. But I wouldnt hold my breath!
 


A prolific sexual predator organised lavish official events with guests including a future cardinal and a bishop to celebrate the careers of Celtic FC players, The Times can disclose.


Jim Torbett, founder of Celtic Boys Club, was found guilty of abusing boys between 1986 and 1994 and jailed for six years in 2018. He was given a two-year sentence a decade earlier for molesting players at the feeder club between 1967 and 1974.


It has now emerged that Torbett, 72, organised testimonial events for Tommy Burns, the former Celtic player, coach and manager, and Sean Fallon, a long-serving assistant manager and player, further undermining claims that Torbett had no connection with the Parkhead club.


Guests who accepted his invitation to honour Fallon — Jock Stein’s right-hand man and confidant — included an archbishop, a bishop, the Lisbon Lions European Cup-winners, and Celtic FC’s directors, players and management team. Being given responsibility for such prestigious events suggests he was highly regarded by senior figures within Parkhead at the time.


While expressing sympathy for his victims Celtic have sought to distance themselves from Torbett’s crimes, insisting that the boys’ club was an “entirely separate organisation”.


However, The Times has also revealed that Torbett was hired by Celtic to run their club shops, in addition to his coaching duties, in the early 1990s.


A report on Fallon’s testimonial dinner, held in November 1993, in the club’s official magazine, thanks “Jim Torbett and his associates for organising such a wonderful occasion”. The Celtic View confirmed the guests of honour included “the Celtic directors, Archbishop Thomas Winning of Glasgow and Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell”.


In 2018 the Scottish child abuse inquiry heard evidence that Winning, who in 1994 became the second Scottish cardinal since the reformation, offered money to a woman in exchange for her silence over sexual abuse that took place in a Catholic-run residential home for children in the Sixties.


After being elevated to cardinal he caused outrage by asserting that the church had no obligation to report alleged paedophile priests to the police.


In 2013 Devine, who died last year, told a man seeking an apology for being raped by a priest as a child: “Can you not let him off with it? He’s an old man.”


A programme for the Burns testimonial match with Liverpool, which took place at Parkhead in 1987, confirms that Torbett was vice-chairman of the organising committee.


Burns played for the boys’ club from 1970-73 and frequently attended club functions and prizegivings when he went on to play for the senior club and served as manager. He died of skin cancer, aged 51, in 2008.


Torbett was kicked out of the boys’ club by Stein, then the Celtic manager, in 1974 after hearing claims of abuse — but the police were not informed. Stein, who died while Scotland manager in 1985, had given Torbett permission to start the boys’ club.


In March 1984 The Glasgow Evening Times reported that Stein would be making a “personal appearance” at a branch of Torbett’s Trophy Centre on Kilmarnock Road in Glasgow.


After his sacking Torbett was allowed to return four years later and went on to molest more boys, remaining there until 1996 when claims of abuse appeared in the press. Passing sentence in 2018 Lord Beckett said: “You used the club as a front and a recruiting ground for boys who you could sexually abuse.”


In February Celtic said it was “very sorry” the abuse had happened but insisted the boys’ club was a separate organisation.


After Torbett’s 2018 conviction the club issued a statement which said that allegations of abuse at the boys’ club “first emerged in the 1990s”. It subsequently emerged that Celtic launched an internal investigation in 1986 which “cleared” Torbett and his colleagues and stated their intention was for the claims to be “buried once and for all”.


Celtic did not respond to a request for comment.
The Celtic account manager at Hollicom must be shitting himself to have a paper as respected as The Times running a series of damming stories on your client. I think they could bat this stuff away if it was coming from press of the calibre of The Record or The Digger but the whole country takes notice of the Times. Keep it coming, they’ve been deflecting this for too long and controlling the narrative.
 
The Celtic account manager at Hollicom must be shitting himself to have a paper as respected as The Times running a series of damming stories on your client. I think they could bat this stuff away if it was coming from press of the calibre of The Record or The Digger but the whole country takes notice of the Times. Keep it coming, they’ve been deflecting this for too long and controlling the narrative.
That's the whole point Celtic did not respond just like the rest of the Press and Media up here all ignoring the facts,they are all complicit in this wrong doing they are now as guilty as the Celtic people past and present in this cover up of the biggest Child abuse scandal not in Scotland but the UK.You cant tell me the Times can run with this detailed account of what went on at Celtic yet no one else in Scotland thinks it doesn't merit a report in the news outlets up here,as for the Scottish Government we know why they wont alienate themselves Catholic votes Matter is why they can join the rest of them in the cover up.
 
Dirty disgusting sick fks. Giving him job after job after they knew. Throw the book at them and strip the titles.
 
It's genuinely mind blowing that their abhorrent 'separate entity' lie hasn't been completely ripped to shreds by the Scottish media by now. Good on the Times for continuing to expose them.

What a slap in the face to every boy who played for CBC them trying to say you weren't actually playing for Celtic. Laughable.
 
Call me a cynic but this has been talked about for decades. A brief flurry of articles and then it disappears for years. Then another brief mention in one or two tabloids then it disappears for years again.

The Scottish mhedia simply don't have the appetite to run with this the way they should be. There's a reason behind this and we all know what it is. If this scandal had been linked to us rather than the scum, we would have been battered from pillar to post for years and it would still be going on.

I've heard it all 15 years ago, 10 years ago, 2 years ago etc etc and now I'm hearing it all again. Aye sellik and their separate entity of a boys club must be really crapping themselves - I don't think so.

Cover up then, cover up now
 
I honestly can't believe that no one in power can see the need for an investigation! Ignoring what happened doesn't make it go away. It makes me sick that abuse and the cover up of this just keeps getting ignored.
The evidence becomes more and more damning every single day!
It's without doubt the biggest scandal in sport anywhere and largely ignored, its baffling!

They need shut down and the victims given the justice they deserve!
Independence.
Whilst the snp's core support is catholic and celtc minded they will ignore these events for their votes.
 
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