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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
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.”
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.”
