Channel 4 News: Child Abuse Scandal in Scottish Football

[compo 6,065]

I hope the lads that were molested by the paedophiles operating from within the confines of Celtic park get their day in court and a shedload of compensation anyone found guilty will get a short prison term and that will be that .

So it's up to us to go after them and apply pressure on the authorities in Scotland and at UEFA to look at the removal of anything they won in these years .

[Bill 13,717]

32 minutes ago, Bluedell said:

It allows them to respond on one and not the other. I understand your viewpoint but with a compliant press, the focus on the titles and why it's not correct will be what hogs the headlines.

Is that the same press that's studiously ignored the child abuse issue for 50 years with no call for sporting punishments?

[Bluedell 5,329]

48 minutes ago, Bill said:

Is that the same press that's studiously ignored the child abuse issue for 50 years with no call for sporting punishments?

Of course. At least now it's starting to get traction in the Times. I don't have a clue how it's been covered elsewhere in the written press.

[Doc 280]

3 hours ago, Bluedell said:

Of course. At least now it's starting to get traction in the Times. I don't have a clue how it's been covered elsewhere in the written press.

Nowhere near enough is the simple answer. If Scottish press can't smell Celtic's blood in the water over this then what fucking use are they?

[Bill 13,717]

40 minutes ago, Doc said:

Nowhere near enough is the simple answer. If Scottish press can't smell Celtic's blood in the water over this then what fucking use are they?

As far as I can see there’s no traction at all in Scotland and no sign of it starting any time soon. Far too many people covering far too many backs, all complicit, all mutually dependent on not rocking this particular boat. 

[Uilleam 5,393]

From today's Times (Scottish Edition) (Paywall)

 

Poileas Alba is on the job. 

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/police-inquiry-into-paedophile-network-among-football-abusers-7m557zq3f   

 

Police inquiry into ‘paedophile network’ among football abusers

Marc Horne

Saturday February 29 2020, 12.01am, The Times

Football

 

Police are investigating claims that some of the country’s most notorious predators worked together in a paedophile network which preyed on young footballers.

Earlier this week the Independent Review into Sexual Abuse Within Scottish Football confirmed that it had received “substantive” new evidence of an organised cross-border abuse ring.

It came after 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 a group that trafficked young players.

Bennell, 66, described by a judge as the “devil incarnate” is serving a 31-year sentence for 50 charges of child sex abuse, while McCafferty, 74, was jailed last year for molesting young players over 24 years.

One survivor, Malcolm Rodger has waived his right of anonymity to claim that he was abused separately by McCafferty and Bennell after being introduced to them by Bill Kelly, his former coach at the now defunct West Lothian club Uphall Saints. Kelly, 84, admitted abusing 12 boys over a 22 year period but served just a year in prison when he was sentenced in 1987.

Police Scotland confirmed it was investigating and that inquiries were “at an early stage”. Detective Chief Inspector Laura Carnochan, head of the force’s national child abuse investigation unit, said: “We would like to assure anyone who has been a victim of child abuse, or knows of someone who has been a victim, that if they wish to report we will listen and we will investigate, and will take prompt action to ensure that no one else is at risk of harm.”

Mr Rodger, 49, from Glasgow, a decorated former serviceman who served in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and the first Gulf War, was subjected to two years of abuse in the 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 club Fauldhouse United, abused him together many times. Mr Rodger accompanied Kelly on a trip to Blackpool where he was introduced to Bennell.

He recalled: “Kelly told me he was lead scout for Crewe and his name was Barry Bennell. He said that if I showed my ‘appreciation’ then he could open doors and get me noticed.”

Mr Rodger, who has welcomed the police investigation, alleges he was assaulted by both men again at a youth football tournament in Spain. “Kelly introduced me to Bennell for a second time and basically stood and watched guard as he abused me,” he said.

Martin Henry, chairman of the independent review, confirmed his inquiry had heard accounts suggesting that prominent abusers in Scotland and England had been working together. “These have been passed to the English FA inquiry and they’ve also been reported to the police,” he said.

Kelly, a long serving secretary of the West Lothian Association of Youth Football Clubs, denies having any connection with Bennell or McCafferty.

The Scottish FA said it was awaiting the findings of the independent review.

[ian1964 10,370]

 

[Scott7 5,103]

I think I see where this is going. It wasn’t celtic. It was Uphall and Fauldhouse.
 

Hopeless Useless and the jockish press will be down on them like a ton of bricks.

[Bill 13,717]

Whenever the SNP government thinks there's a risk it might be compelled get involved in something it desperately wants to avoid, it hands it off to its tame police service. That way it knows the matter will be taken out of circulation for a considerable period while simultaneously excusing the SNP from expressing any view on it. The police in Scotland might have an iota of credibility if it had investigated this squalid farce long ago.

 

Being seen to be anything other than protective of the Celtic family is an existential threat to the SNP.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Bill

[compo 6,065]

A family member  quite high up the ranks has recently retired from police Scotland after thirty years service and this subject has been introduced at meetings only to be shot down as a waste of public money  .