Too little, too late from the imbecile...... I am writing this as a father of three little children, two of whom love their sport. One plays football, the other rugby, and every week I see the freedom and joy and character-building that their training and playing gives them. I also see adult volunteers — kind men and women — who give up their time to make it happen. In its own way children and sport is one of life’s cherished rites of passage.
So I cannot imagine the pain in hearing that, through sport, one of my children had been the victim of a paedophile. The sheer agony of it doesn’t bear thinking about. Sport is supposed to be a place of joy, not of degradation and evil.
Gruesome cases of historic child sex abuse are now reported almost on a daily basis and, in Scotland at least, Celtic FC finds itself deep in the mire. The jailing of three former Celtic Boys Club coaches — Jim Torbett, Frank Cairney and now Jim McCafferty — has placed the club in an excruciating position. There are calls for a public inquiry into the Boys Club scandal, yet Celtic have so far remained silent on the issue, no doubt taking their own legal advice.
I remain dumbfounded at the sheer negligence that persisted at Celtic in those years between the 1970s through to the 1990s when these scandals were taking place. I recently spoke with Kenny Campbell, one of Torbett’s victims, who told me that it simply became routine for him to be taken back to Torbett’s home in the west end of Glasgow to be abused. Campbell was young, he was impressionable, he was sworn to silence and no doubt scared, all of which allowed the despicable Torbett to carry on with his activities.
Now we have the case of McCafferty, today a shambling and pathetic old man, who pled guilty to 12 counts of abuse involving ten boys in the years between 1972 and 1996. This depraved man was somehow handed jobs with the Celtic youth team as well as the Boys Club, and his abuses were said to take place in shower rooms, minibuses and hotels. A physically intimidating man, McCafferty did the same as Torbett: he gained control of a boy’s mind and emotions in order to carry out the abuse.
One of the most pathetic things I have witnessed over this whole particular scandal was McCafferty’s glib and faux-sincere apology for it all, delivered recently to a TV camera, and spoken as if he had been caught stealing some loaves. Last week, for his toll of crimes, McCafferty was sent down for six and half years, a bare minimum I should think.
Other cases involving the Celtic Boys Club ended even more tragically. Andrew Gray, another young boy abused by Torbett, came to be suicidal in later life, suffering a series of mental health issues before dying in a swimming pool accident in Australia in 2017. Gray’s sister, Michelle, has spoken movingly and painfully of memories of seeing her brother as a youngster cowering inside their home, with Torbett waiting in his car outside to take him somewhere. “Don’t tell him I’m here!” Andrew would beseech his family, hiding in a room. Michelle and her mother, Helen, are both campaigning vigorously for justice for their brother and son.
The whole Celtic Boys Club tragedy throws up unanswered questions. Torbett, monster that he was, was somehow apparently still a friend and business associate of Jack McGinn and Kevin Kelly, two Celtic FC directors in those key years between 1986 and 1994, a period when Torbett’s later abuses took place. He had actually already been booted out of Celtic under suspicion in 1974 before somehow being allowed to return to the Boys Club in 1978.
Did McGinn and Kelly have no suspicions at all about him? Did they genuinely know nothing of what was going on? If the answer to both these questions is “yes” then only utter negligence and stupidity can explain it. One former Celtic player from that time told me: “There was a lot of talk about things going on back then. You heard comments about it. Many people around the club had their suspicions.”
Did Kelly, the former chairman, have no suspicions at all about Torbett?Did Kelly, the former chairman, have no suspicions at all about Torbett?
SNS
I think Celtic owe it to the victims of the Boys Club scandal. The club holds the view that it was a completely separate entity from the Boys Club, but too much evidence appears to weaken this claim. Whatever the legal hairlines, Celtic should reach out to the victims, set up a compensation fund and express unequivocal regret for what happened.
Money can’t change things. The pain and suffering has been inflicted. But apology and contrition might make a small difference to the victims and their families.