Celtic Boys Club manager 'stuffed banknotes in boy's mouth'

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Scottish football delaying child abuse report, rape victim claims

 

The SFA doing, appropriately enough, sfa.

Of course, a number of victims are suing it, which might mean that issuing its findings would prejudice any case it is able to make in defence. 

But really, is anybody surprised at such tarrying from this mob?

 

I notice that Rangers is being dragged into this, and I suspect that, over the piece, as the full horror of Separate Entity Boys' Club is made clear and public, some, perhaps even the SFA's Report,  will endeavour to suggest equivalence, on the basis of a variation of the old canard : one sex crime is a tragedy, scores of sex crimes a statistic.

 

From today's Times:

 

Scottish football delaying child abuse report, rape victim claims

Marc Horne

Thursday December 24 2020, 12.01am, The Times

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/scottish-football-delaying-child-abuse-report-rape-victim-claims-mh5p2pvjw

 

A rape survivor who was abused by an assistant referee after being invited to the Scottish Cup final has demanded that Scottish football’s governing body release its delayed report into child sexual abuse within the sport.

Pete Haynes, 54, alleges that he was abused by Hugh Stevenson, a top-flight linesman and coach, after attending the match at Hampden in 1979.

Mr Haynes reported the allegations to the police in 1993 and 1996 and informed the Scottish Football Association (SFA) but Stevenson died in 2004 without facing any charges.

 

The report of the Independent Review of Sexual Abuse in Scottish Football was due to be released in 2018 but has been held back on several occasions.

Martin Henry, chairman of the review, handed over the finalised report to the SFA, which commissioned it, in August. He was assured that it would be made public in September but it remains under wraps.

 

Mr Haynes, who gave evidence to the review claiming he was abused over a four-year period, wrote an open letter to Ian Maxwell, the SFA chief executive.

In it he claimed he had been “fobbed off” by the governing body for more than 20 years. He wrote: “As you are well aware, I have been seeking answers from your organisation for many years in relation to the abuse I suffered as a young boy, at the hands of one of your former members, now deceased.”

Mr Haynes said he felt a degree of optimism when Stewart Regan, Mr Maxwell’s predecessor, commissioned the independent inquiry in 2016.

“For Mr Henry to compile as accurate a picture as possible, it required the bravery of many, many people,” he said. “Something to this day, you and your organisation, have failed to acknowledge. Indeed Mr Maxwell, my own experience of your handling of this subject has been humiliation and astonishment.”

He added: “Your refusal to release our stories, and the constant broken promises of a release date, many of which have come and gone, reinforces my point. You have absolutely no idea of the damage this is causing to individuals and families. Either that, or you do not care. So, which is it Mr Maxwell?”

 

Last month The Times disclosed that the SFA was facing a series of court cases over alleged historical failures to protect young players from abusers.

The final report is expected to recommend that the SFA and clubs, including Celtic, Hibernian and Rangers, acknowledge failing to protect vulnerable young people.

Mr Haynes, who is taking legal action against the SFA, believes this is at the heart of the protracted delays, a claim the association denies.

“There is huge potential for these clubs to face litigation once the report is released,” he said.

Holyrood’s cross-party group on adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse has unanimously called on the SFA to publish the document in full.

Mr Maxwell previously acknowledged that the delays were causing distress but added: “There is absolutely no desire to delay publication. We have commissioned a report and to not publish the outcome would render all that work useless.”

The SFA said: “We cannot comment given the ongoing civil case.”

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"There is a vast amount of character in the men in whose hands the youngsters are placed", 

said Sir Robt Kelly.

Was he a bad judge?

Or was there something more sinister?

Or, to be scrupulously fair, was he another Knight of the Realm, involved with football, who was "Duped" ?

 

Jim Torbett: Celtic chief vouched for abusive coaches in 1970s

Marc Horne

Wednesday January 06 2021, 12.01am, The Times

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/celtic-chief-vouched-for-abusive-coaches-in-1970s-tc797vrgn

 

The man who authorised the creation of Celtic’s scandal-hit feeder club assured parents that their children would come to “no harm” if they joined.

As chairman of Celtic FC Sir Robert Kelly vouched for the coaching staff at Celtic Boys Club, describing them as men of “vast character”.

Jim Torbett, whom Kelly allowed to launch and lead the boys’ club in 1966, was later convicted of sexually abusing young players between 1967 and 1974.

However, it has emerged that in 1971 Kelly, a former president of the Scottish FA, told parents that their boys were at no risk of harm if they signed up. The fact that he felt obliged to say so suggests that concerns for child welfare at the club had been circulating at the time.

 

Kelly made the comments in his book Celtic, which was published weeks before his death, aged 68, in September 1971. He wrote: “I feel that no father or mother should have the slightest diffidence about letting a youngster come to join us at Celtic Park.

“There is a vast amount of character in the men in whose hands the youngsters are placed.

“We make bold to say that whatever good can come of youngsters joining up they will certainly come to no harm through their association with Celtic.”

In 1966 Kelly and Jock Stein, the Celtic manager, gave permission for Torbett to start the boys’ club using Celtic’s name, crest and colours.

In 1998 Torbett was jailed for molesting players including the future Scotland striker Alan Brazil. He was imprisoned for another six years in 2018 for sexually abusing boys between 1986 and 1994. The youngest was aged five.

Last year it emerged that Torbett ran Celtic FC’s chain of club shops in the early 1990s and organised testimonial events for first-team players.

In the past two years Jim McCafferty, a former Celtic FC kit man and boys’ club coach, has admitted 12 child sexual abuse charges and Gerald King, a one-time boys’ club chairman, was convicted of abusing four boys and a girl while working as a teacher.

Last year Thompsons Solicitors, which represents 25 people who claim they were molested at the boys’ club over three decades, lodged papers on behalf of one survivor who is seeking damages from Celtic FC. The test case will be heard in the next few months.

Celtic FC strongly contests the claims, insisting that the boys’ club was an entirely separate entity with which it had “historic connections”. In 2018 Celtic claimed that abuse allegations within the boy’s club “first emerged in the 1990s”. It was later revealed that in 1986 the senior club had held an investigation which exonerated Torbett and other coaches after serious concerns were raised by parents and boys.

Celtic FC did not respond to a request for comment.

Football

 

Edited January 6, 2021 by Uilleam

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1 hour ago, ian1964 said:

 

You dont want him pleading guilty if it goes to a trial it all comes out names dates and times 

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