Channel 4 News: Child Abuse Scandal in Scottish Football

[Blue Moon 1,105]

8 hours ago, Bluedell said:

So you want the SFA to get involved although "it’s a matter for the police & prosecutors"?.

 

The Scottish Government are happy enough to get involved when it's a touch line argument between ally and Lennon but shouldn't when it's a paedophile ring? There's no excuse for Sturgeon and Humza ignoring mothers who have had their sons sexually abused and then committed suicide. they should be launching independent public enquiries that don't exclude football clubs.

 

It's a national scandal and it's shameful that the Scottish Government are avoiding it just because of the organisations involved.

They have also chosen, quite rightly, to have a public enquiry into care home child abuse but refused other requests from very angry members of the public , such as investigate the abuse in the Catholic Church and haven't even made a comment on the football situation.  That's why I mentioned the Scottish government.  

[RANGERRAB 3,253]

13 hours ago, Bluedell said:

So you want the SFA to get involved although "it’s a matter for the police & prosecutors"?.

 

The Scottish Government are happy enough to get involved when it's a touch line argument between ally and Lennon but shouldn't when it's a paedophile ring? There's no excuse for Sturgeon and Humza ignoring mothers who have had their sons sexually abused and then committed suicide. they should be launching independent public enquiries that don't exclude football clubs.

 

It's a national scandal and it's shameful that the Scottish Government are avoiding it just because of the organisations involved.

If there are still live investigations ongoing(and it seems there are) I’d say it unlikely there could be a public enquiry

[Bluedell 5,329]

10 hours ago, RANGERRAB said:

If there are still live investigations ongoing(and it seems there are) I’d say it unlikely there could be a public enquiry

It's been ongoing for almost 40 years. Whilst there's  a lot of people involved, you'd have thought that at some point during that time that there would have been a period that there wasn't a live investigation going on where there could have been a public enquiry.

[Rick Roberts 246]

1 hour ago, Bluedell said:

It's been ongoing for almost 40 years. Whilst there's  a lot of people involved, you'd have thought that at some point during that time that there would have been a period that there wasn't a live investigation going on where there could have been a public enquiry.

Rotherham had a public enquiry and then subsequent prosecutions? 

[Doc 280]

It's interesting to see David Steele being castigated and vilified for his version of the "separate entity" defence with respect to his inaction over expelling Cyril Smith from the Liberal Party over his years of child abuse. Will the same people tearing Steele's argument and reputation to shreds be willing to hold Celtic and their relationship with the child abusers at their "separate" boys club to the same standard? I'm not holding my breath.

[compo 6,079]

When and at what time will this show be on our television's so I can record it .

[Frankie 8,136]

2 hours ago, compo said:

When and at what time will this show be on our television's so I can record it .

I'd keep an eye on Alex Thomson's Twitter account.  Could be used at any time - depends on the news of the day/week really.

[stewarty 1,876]

Someone posted on FF who is the centre of stories being broken today in the Times suggest that it is tonight that C4 will begin their "exposé"

[Bluedell 5,329]

Victim claims football abusers worked together

 

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.

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/victim-claims-football-abusers-worked-together-w8q05dg2n

[Bill 13,717]

All we're missing is the branch of this paedophile ring that extended into the SFA/League organisation itself. Because I've no doubt it's there somewhere.