HI guys
I posted on here last month and I thank everyone of you for the comments etc. Tonight you will get the chance to hear how the sex abuse problem in Scotland effects every football supporter in the land. Tommorrow nights program is the more damming evidence of how Keoghs have been instructed by the SFA;s insurers to quash all claims of responsibility. On BBC Radio Scotland on Thursday afternoon with John Beattie there is supposed to be an interview of the same subject with me.
I support my team as passionately as everyone on here however what we chant about on the terraces and what happened in changing rooms 35 yrs ago are two different subjects altogether. There are Celtic fans who have suffered like me. I ask that you remember that in every case of sex abuse within football - we were just kids, not adults with a pro contract - the duty of care was held by the SFA and the SAFA.
Today in the Times Marc Horne writes a feeder article of what will be shown on TV tonight and I have put in bold below the article.
Marc has been beside me on this for some time and without his encouragement I would not have come forward probably. Some on here may not have agreed with his previous articles however keeping in mind the hundreds of victims in Scotland alone - this is not a time to think this story is only about one side of Glasgow. He is a fine journalist and does do the hard yards to earn the respect within the media world - something that does happen easily.
We both sat down with the SFA head honcho in a meeting and they read my statements of what happened to me in the most graphic detail. I have decided to take my gloves off due to the response I got from their solicitors Keoghs last week -
Compelling evidence for the existence of a cross-border paedophile network will feature in an official report commissioned by the Scottish Football Association, it has emerged.
An independent review into sexual abuse within Scottish football is expected to deliver its final report within weeks. However, Martin Henry, chairman of the review panel, has told Channel 4 News that “substantive” new evidence has emerged which suggested that some notorious predators worked together to traffick young players.
Last month The Times published allegations that Barry Bennell, a former scout with Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra, and Jim McCafferty, a former Celtic kitman and boy’s club coach, were part of an organised abuse ring.
Bennell, 66, is serving a 30-year sentence for abusing boys on an “industrial scale”. McCafferty, 74, was jailed last year for molesting youngsters over a 24-year period.
One survivor, Malcolm Rodger — who has waived his right to anonymity — has presented new evidence, claiming that he was abused separately by McCafferty and Bennell after being introduced to them by Bill Kelly, a former coach with the now defunct West Lothian team Uphall Saints.
Kelly, 84, was jailed in 1987 for sexually assaulting at least 12 players, including Mr Rodger, at the club over a 22-year period. He served one year in prison.
Mr Henry confirmed that his inquiry had received information which suggested that prominent abusers in Scotland and England had been working together.
“We do have substantive information to suggest that has been the case,” he said. “If you’d asked me that question a month ago I would have said no.
“There was no substantive information that we had at that time that suggested any kind of organised abuse between Scotland and England under the auspices of football.
“We have had recent accounts that suggests that was very much the case. These have been passed to the English FA inquiry.
“I’m fully confident that the English FA inquiry will come up with recommendations every bit as detailed and robust as my own.”
Mr Rodger, 49, from Glasgow, was subjected to two years of abuse in the mid-1980s after attending games, trials and tournaments in Scotland, England and Spain.
He said that Kelly and McCafferty, whom he recognised as the trainer of the neighbouring Fauldhouse United, abused him together many times.
A year later Mr Rodger accompanied Kelly on a trip to Blackpool, where he was introduced to Bennell.
Mr Rodger told Channel 4 News that the abuse he received at the hands at Bennell made him physically sick.
“The following day Bill Kelly told me, if anybody was to ask anything, just to say that I’d eaten something that hadn’t agreed with me at dinner,” he said.
Mr Rodger, a decorated former serviceman who served in Bosnia, Northern Ireland and in the first Gulf War, said that he hoped his decision to speak out would convince others to come forward.
“Everybody in Scotland knows that abuse has taken place but it’s different when there’s a face, there’s a name that’s telling them that I was abused.” he said.
Kelly, a former secretary of the West Lothian Association of Youth Football Clubs, denies having any connection with Bennell or McCafferty.
The SFA said that it was awaiting the findings of the independent review.
keoghs.co.uk
www.pressandjournal.co.uk
www.heraldscotland.com
footballtaxhavens.wordpress.com
