GUILTY UK - More abuse charges for Celtic coach going back 5 decades

[Scotchcorner]

Founder of Celtic boys club Jim Torbett has been charged again. He’s already served several years in prison for crimes against children. There has been up to 10 predator soccer coaches linked to celtic boys club/Celtic football club.

Torbett had been removed from the boys club and replaced by another child predator(removed his name due to new trial about to commence) Torbett was later taken back into the structure where he continued his behaviour.

'I have been quiet for 50 years': standing up against sexual abuse at Celtic Boys Club

One of the abusers, Jim McCafferty who was a boys club coach and Celtic FC Kitman was linked to Lawrence Haggart, a budding footballer who was murdered in his own home and had received a phone call from McCafferty the day he was killed. There are many questions surrounding that investigation into the murder which many think was bungled at best, or a cover up at worst.

Kitman Jim McCafferty's sordid sex abuse allegations go back 20 years

There are also links to paedophile priests.

Paedophile priest forged links with Celtic Boys Club — The Times and The Sunday Times

And a Spotlight account appeared on Twitter to highlight the crimes and cover up.
https://twitter.com/spotlight_cfc66/status/1393200454243336196?s=21
while one of the abuse survivors speaks out about his experience of the abuse and decades of cover up.
https://twitter.com/gordonw09225415/status/1395737166613995528?s=21

Celtic boys club travelled to Kearny, NJ to football tournaments where child abuse took place in the USA.
Celtic to be sued in US amid claims paedo Frank Cairney abused kids there

 

[Scotchcorner]

Casefile podcast has an episode on the Lawrence Haggart murder case.

Check out Case 162: Lawrence Haggart
Casefile True Crime - Case 162: Lawrence Haggart on Stitcher

 

[Scotchcorner]

Here’s an article from May 2019 on Jim McCafferty, Celtic boys club coach and Celtic FC kitman.

Marc Horne
May 16 2019, 12:01am, The Times
Jim McCafferty sentence: Legal action over child abuse is imminent, Celtic warned


Celtic FC will face a multimillion pound compensation claim “within months” unless it accepts responsibility for the paedophiles who preyed on young players, a senior lawyer has said.
The warning from Patrick McGuire, who has represented some of the victims, comes after Jim McCafferty, 73, a former club kitman and Celtic Boys Club coach, was jailed for six years and nine months after admitting that he had molested boys over 24 years.
The jail sentence is the third to be handed down to former Celtic Boys Club staff after Jim Torbett, 71, its founder, and Frank Cairney, 83, a coach, were imprisoned for sexually assaulting youngsters.
Gerald King, 66, the former chairman of the boys’ club, was convicted of abusing four boys and a girl while he was employed as a primary school teacher, but was not jailed.
Mr McGuire, a partner with Thompsons Solicitors, said that court action would be launched imminently unless the club changed its stance.
Celtic has expressed sympathy for the victims but has insisted that the boys club is a separate organisation and not its responsibility.
Mr McGuire said: “We have formally intimated a large number of claims on behalf of survivors of all the four named paedophiles that operated under the guise of the wider Celtic umbrella. We continue to gather evidence and have got a lot of financial information. We have got the evidence of survivors, talking about the links.
“The case is being gathered and we absolutely will be going to court, and probably doing so in a matter of months, unless Celtic’s tack changes.”
Mr McGuire argued that Celtic should follow the precedent set by Manchester City, which has launched a compensation scheme for youngsters abused by Barry Bennell, a former youth coach and serial paedophile.
“Celtic’s board and chief executive should stop hiding behind their lawyers and start looking at what Manchester City has done,” he said.
It has been reported that a claim could amount to more than £5 million.
Celtic FC did not respond to a request for comment.

 

[Scotchcorner]

The spotlight Twitter pages recent tweet lists many of the issues surrounding part of this case.

https://twitter.com/spotlight_cfc66/status/1396537833805033472?s=21

 

[Scotchcorner]

Niel Strachan was secretary of a Celtic boys club in Edinburgh. He had founded a youth gay rights group with Martin Henry(he becomes important in story), who the Scottish FA pinpointed as the person they wanted to carry out a review into child abuse in Scottish football.

Horror upon horror that unfolded in 'worst ever' abuse trial

The court papers for the trial spoken about in the above article. These are not for the faint hearted.

https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/search-judgments/judgment?id=b18586a6-8980-69d2-b500-ff0000d74aa7

 

[Scotchcorner]

I came across this documentary on the scandal although from what I’ve researched so far, it goes much further than this.

 

[Filly]

Following. There's only so much of this ya can take at once.

The "connections" are unbelievable.

Thanks for the information because being from the US I'd never heard of any of these creep, vile, freaks. Also to @Scotchcorner I'm really sorry as I know how passionate y'all are about football. Especially as a great outlet for the kids.

These fr**gers are everywhere. World Flippin wide. Brazen as all get out. Oh BTW Welcome @Scotchcorner . Sorry under these circumstances.

 

[Scotchcorner]

Thank you @Filly. I’ve been into true crime for a few years now and heard the forum mentioned a few times. It’s a great place.

 

[Scotchcorner]

Looking back to 1966 and the founding of celtic boys club. A 19 year old man, Jim Torbett supposedly walked in off the street and asked if he could start a boys club as a feeder club for one of Britain’s biggest football clubs. The chairman and the manager of the club granted him use of the clubs brand, colours, badge and facilities. No questions asked? Think how valuable these things are to sports clubs. You have to wonder who put this 19 year old forward and put in such a good word that the chairman agreed to this. I haven’t found anybody asking these questions and certainly no answers.

Jim Torbett: Celtic chief vouched for abusive coaches in 1970s | Scotland | The Times

 

[Scotchcorner]

Reading more about the murder of 14 (some sources say 15)year old budding footballer, Lawrence Haggart who had his feet literally held to the fire in his home. Jim McCafferty Celtic boys club coach and Celtic FC kitman was very well known to the poor boy and had phoned the day Lawrence was murdered. McCafferty mysteriously left Celtic very soon after the murder.

Kitman Jim McCafferty's sordid sex abuse allegations go back 20 years

McCafferty handed himself in to police a few years ago and confessed to abusing boys.

https://twitter.com/spotlight_cfc66/status/1349410056585039873?s=21

He had travelled to the USA as a coach. I’m not sure yet if McCafferty is known to have committed crimes on US soil but crimes were committed by others there, one of whom is currently in a live court case so can’t be discussed yet.

https://twitter.com/spotlight_cfc66/status/1349408429861986309?s=21

 

[Scotchcorner]

A black bin bag was found in a room at celtic FC’s stadium. It contained 250 images of young boys. John Cullen was convicted(and wasn’t jailed)for taking and possessing these images. None of the boys in the images were identified and it doesn’t appear anybody joined the dots in the number of predators at one place.

Cullen had worked at Celtic from around 1975 until he was sacked in 2002. This is number 4 so far in the same place during the same period.

Father who took photos of nude boys walks free

 

[Scotchcorner]

Gerald King was Chairman of Celtic boys club. He was convicted in December 2018 of abusing children in the 1980s.

Ex-Celtic Boys’ Club chairman sexually abused kids in five-year reign of terror

 

[Scotchcorner]

Hugh Birt was made aware of early abuse at Celtic boys club and fought for action to be taken. He was silenced and eventually forced out by Celtic vice chairman Kevin Kelly. Jim Torbett, boys club founder, also owned The Trophy Centre, an outlet that sold trophies and various football memorabilia. Kevin Kelly was given a “plum job” at The Trophy Centre. While Torbett was in prison the first time, Celtic paid annual payments of £250k each to Torbett’s trophy centre. A massive amount of money in those days. What were these payments for?


Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland); 11/13/1998

HUGH Birt’s 25-year crusade has been to unmask perverts like Jim Torbett.

Today, 12 years after he quit as chairman of Celtic Boys’ Club over the sex abuse cover- up, Hugh is still angry. He is convinced that there are dozens of other Torbett victims suffering in silence. At his home in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, Hugh, 65, spoke of Torbett’s “frightening” power over the youngsters.
He said: “He could make dreams come true – or destroy them………

……..Hugh was made chairman of Celtic Boys’ Club after Celtic FC manager Jock Stein kicked out Torbett amid complaints of abuse.
He said: “Jock said to me to keep its name clean.” ……….

………As more parents complained to Hugh about sex abuse, he informed Celtic vice- chairman Kevin Kelly, on advice from Jock Stein.
He said Kelly, who had just been given a plum job at Torbett’s Trophy Centre, promised to investigate and the claims were reported to the Boys’ Club committee.

But minutes from that meeting have vanished. Hugh claims he finally quit after a row with Kelly over the abuse claims.

 

[Scotchcorner]

Kevin Kelly is a thread running right through this scandal. He’s now an elderly man with a very conveniently selective memory.

Excerpt from the Daily Record:

Many of Torbett’s victims were abused after he had been cleared by Celtic FC...

....When we asked about his directorship of the Trophy Centre – Torbett’s company – he said: “I wasn’t a director.”

We put it to him that he has a legal listing as a director of the company.

Full article which also links through to McCafferty:

Ex-Celtic chairman claims 'no knowledge' of business links to beast Jim Torbett

 

[Filly]

Been looking up every name included in your posts @Scotchcorner.

One leads to another and so on.

Yeah somebody got paid and/or wrangled up these poor kids. A virtual pedophile world.

 

[Scotchcorner]

Been looking up every name included in your posts @Scotchcorner.

One leads to another and so on.

Yeah somebody got paid and/or wrangled up these poor kids. A virtual pedophile world.

They always say to follow the money. Then it all seems to get tangled up from there. Plenty more to go though

 

[Scotchcorner]

A child abuse survivor charity advised the SFA to “think again” about the person they headhunted to carry out their own review into abuse in football. The SFA ignored any concerns over Martin Henry and ploughed on with their man anyway, ignoring concerns that he’d worked with, shared an office, presumably sharing computer equipment, hardware and software with James Rennie one of Britain’s worst ever paedophiles who was partner in crime of Niel Strachan.
Martin Henry supposedly had no suspicion what was going on under his nose and his colleague and friend felt so comfortable in that office that he was using an email address “kplover99” (kiddypornlover) which linked him to Niel Strachan* who had left a USB stick in a computer that went for repair, snaring both after investigation.

*correction to previous post. It was Rennie who ran LGBT youth with Martin Henry rather than Strachan. Strachan had worked for Celtic east boys club. Article and info in post #5.



Concern over child abuse review chairman

 

[Scotchcorner]

I mentioned Gordon Woods, an abuse survivor in the opening post. His case is currently live so details can’t be discussed. Alongside his personal case he’s fighting to expose the cover up which has made and is bound to be making it so difficult for many survivors to come forward. The boys had nowhere to turn to within celtic or their boys club. Whistleblowers were silenced and predators and their “friends” employers and employees covered for each other. Boys careers over before it started because the predator held the power to finish their dreams at the drop of a hat. Or on the other hand, the boy who was abused in the USA, whose parents were sworn to silence, and the boy became a professional player on the Monday they returned from America. Absolute power.

Hard enough fighting to expose this, then you get to the government. Meet Humza, the ex Justice secretary (now health secretary).

https://twitter.com/gordonw09225415/status/1397141824544907264?s=21

 

[Scotchcorner]

In reply to a freedom of information request from police Scotland, it was revealed that there was 33 reports of child abuse at Celtic reported to police Scotland. Police Scotland has undergone changes in recent years and the FOI request stated reports may have been lost due to time and changes. It’s widely accepted that much less than 1/10 of victims of this type of crime report it, and it’s also fair to assume this would be 33 different boys and who knows how many incidents each and over how many years. Rumours are over 100 cases are with a solicitor waiting for the outcome of a test case so they can move to sue Celtic. The numbers of potential victims x predators x incidents are mind boggling.

I don’t know how to upload pictures to show it.

 

[LadyL]

this is unreal
thanks for all your research Scotchcorner