Celtic face threat of multimillion pound compensation claim(The Times)
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The Goalie
Well-Known Member
Celtic are poised to pay multimillion-pound damages within months after agreeing to settle legal claims over systematic child abuse at their feeder club.
More than 20 former boys’ club players joined a class-action lawsuit that was due to be heard in court.
Thompsons Solicitors Scotland, which is representing the players, has paused its legal action after the club indicated that it wanted to negotiate a settlement.
The firm has been gathering evidence on each of the cases to present Celtic with amounts to pay for each individual. It now expects that process to be completed by the end of the summer.
“We are pleased to confirm that the process of valuing all individual cases has made significant progress in the last six months,” a Thompsons spokesman said.
“We do not yet have all necessary evidence to commence settlement negotiations and so the court has granted a further short sist (pause) of four months to allow opportunities to do so given the complexities of this task.”
A source close to the case claimed that the latest development was a significant breakthrough. “Celtic will pay out within four months,” the source said.
It is not yet clear whether any settlement agreements will involve non-disclosure agreements.
Four senior figures connected with the boys’ club, including its founder, have been convicted of dozens of sexual offences against young players, prompting claims that it represents the largest child abuse scandal in British football.
Celtic previously contested the claims, insisting that the boys’ club was a separate entity with which it had “historic connections”.
However, an investigation in 2019 by The Times contradicted and undermined Celtic’s insistence that it had no formal links to the club.
It found that Celtic funded the boys’ club and employed the predatory paedophile Frank Cairney, who ran the feeder team between 1974 and 1991.
It also disclosed that Jim Torbett, who was jailed three times for molesting boys after Jock Stein, then Celtic manager, granted him permission to launch and lead the club in 1966, ran Celtic’s chain of shops selling official merchandise.
Lawyers acting for the former youth players argued that the boys’ club and Celtic were “intimately connected” and that the senior club was “vicariously liable” for assaults carried out in the youth set-up.
In January last year a sheriff found that Cairney indecently assaulted a teenage player in the changing rooms and tea room at the Parkhead ground and at a training facility used by the first team. He exploited his position to prey on three boys between July 1978 and June 1989.
In 2019 Cairney was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for abusing seven boys over 20 years.
During the latest hearing a police video was shown in court where Cairney said he had been directly installed as head coach of Celtic Boys Club by Stein in 1970.
Cairney said: “[Stein] says, ‘You will take the Celtic Boys Club under-16s. I will put s-forms [schoolboy players] in there and you are responsible.’ It was called Celtic Boys Club but it was Celtic under-16s.”
In 1990 Celtic View, Celtic’s official magazine, said that Cairney was on its payroll. It congratulated him “in his 20th year on the Celtic staff” and said that the Celtic board had decided to “increase their support and investment in the boys’ club”.
A year later Cairney stepped down after returning from a team trip to New Jersey.
Jack McGinn, then chairman of Celtic, accepted his resignation and “pressure of work” was given as the reason for his sudden departure.
It later emerged that a 16-year-old player had accused Cairney of abusing him in the United States.
Last year Torbett was found guilty of sexually abusing a 13-year-old player, causing “incalculable harm”.
Before jailing him for three years, the judge, Andrew Cubie, told Torbett that he had used the club as “an elaborate front for recruitment of young victims”.
He had been imprisoned in 1998 for abusing three boys, including Alan Brazil, the broadcaster and former Scotland international.
Torbett was jailed for another six years in 2018 for molesting boys between 1986 and 1994.
Torbett ran Celtic FC’s chain of club shops in the early 1990s and organised testimonial events for first-team players and coaches, including Tommy Burns and Sean Fallon.
In 1986 Celtic opened an investigation after concerns were raised about the welfare of young players.
It cleared Torbett and other boys’ club coaches, describing the claims as “false and scurrilous”.
In 2019 Jim McCafferty, a former boys’ club coach and Celtic kit man, was jailed for six years after admitting 12 charges relating to child sexual abuse. He died, aged 76, in prison in 2022.
In 2018 Gerald King, a former chairman of the boys’ club, was convicted of abusing four boys and a girl.
Three other men with ties to Celtic and Celtic East Youth Club, a now-defunct feeder team in Edinburgh, have also been found guilty of serious offences against boys.
Celtic FC have been contacted for comment.
In September the club released a statement which said: “Celtic’s lawyers continue to investigate and discuss these cases with the lawyers acting for those who suffered abuse at Celtic Boys’ Club. Those discussions are ongoing.
“It would not be appropriate for Celtic Football Club to comment any further while there are ongoing legal proceedings”.
More than 20 former boys’ club players joined a class-action lawsuit that was due to be heard in court.
Thompsons Solicitors Scotland, which is representing the players, has paused its legal action after the club indicated that it wanted to negotiate a settlement.
The firm has been gathering evidence on each of the cases to present Celtic with amounts to pay for each individual. It now expects that process to be completed by the end of the summer.
“We are pleased to confirm that the process of valuing all individual cases has made significant progress in the last six months,” a Thompsons spokesman said.
“We do not yet have all necessary evidence to commence settlement negotiations and so the court has granted a further short sist (pause) of four months to allow opportunities to do so given the complexities of this task.”
A source close to the case claimed that the latest development was a significant breakthrough. “Celtic will pay out within four months,” the source said.
It is not yet clear whether any settlement agreements will involve non-disclosure agreements.
Four senior figures connected with the boys’ club, including its founder, have been convicted of dozens of sexual offences against young players, prompting claims that it represents the largest child abuse scandal in British football.
Celtic previously contested the claims, insisting that the boys’ club was a separate entity with which it had “historic connections”.
However, an investigation in 2019 by The Times contradicted and undermined Celtic’s insistence that it had no formal links to the club.
It found that Celtic funded the boys’ club and employed the predatory paedophile Frank Cairney, who ran the feeder team between 1974 and 1991.
It also disclosed that Jim Torbett, who was jailed three times for molesting boys after Jock Stein, then Celtic manager, granted him permission to launch and lead the club in 1966, ran Celtic’s chain of shops selling official merchandise.
Lawyers acting for the former youth players argued that the boys’ club and Celtic were “intimately connected” and that the senior club was “vicariously liable” for assaults carried out in the youth set-up.
In January last year a sheriff found that Cairney indecently assaulted a teenage player in the changing rooms and tea room at the Parkhead ground and at a training facility used by the first team. He exploited his position to prey on three boys between July 1978 and June 1989.
In 2019 Cairney was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for abusing seven boys over 20 years.
During the latest hearing a police video was shown in court where Cairney said he had been directly installed as head coach of Celtic Boys Club by Stein in 1970.
Cairney said: “[Stein] says, ‘You will take the Celtic Boys Club under-16s. I will put s-forms [schoolboy players] in there and you are responsible.’ It was called Celtic Boys Club but it was Celtic under-16s.”
In 1990 Celtic View, Celtic’s official magazine, said that Cairney was on its payroll. It congratulated him “in his 20th year on the Celtic staff” and said that the Celtic board had decided to “increase their support and investment in the boys’ club”.
A year later Cairney stepped down after returning from a team trip to New Jersey.
Jack McGinn, then chairman of Celtic, accepted his resignation and “pressure of work” was given as the reason for his sudden departure.
It later emerged that a 16-year-old player had accused Cairney of abusing him in the United States.
Last year Torbett was found guilty of sexually abusing a 13-year-old player, causing “incalculable harm”.
Before jailing him for three years, the judge, Andrew Cubie, told Torbett that he had used the club as “an elaborate front for recruitment of young victims”.
He had been imprisoned in 1998 for abusing three boys, including Alan Brazil, the broadcaster and former Scotland international.
Torbett was jailed for another six years in 2018 for molesting boys between 1986 and 1994.
Torbett ran Celtic FC’s chain of club shops in the early 1990s and organised testimonial events for first-team players and coaches, including Tommy Burns and Sean Fallon.
In 1986 Celtic opened an investigation after concerns were raised about the welfare of young players.
It cleared Torbett and other boys’ club coaches, describing the claims as “false and scurrilous”.
In 2019 Jim McCafferty, a former boys’ club coach and Celtic kit man, was jailed for six years after admitting 12 charges relating to child sexual abuse. He died, aged 76, in prison in 2022.
In 2018 Gerald King, a former chairman of the boys’ club, was convicted of abusing four boys and a girl.
Three other men with ties to Celtic and Celtic East Youth Club, a now-defunct feeder team in Edinburgh, have also been found guilty of serious offences against boys.
Celtic FC have been contacted for comment.
In September the club released a statement which said: “Celtic’s lawyers continue to investigate and discuss these cases with the lawyers acting for those who suffered abuse at Celtic Boys’ Club. Those discussions are ongoing.
“It would not be appropriate for Celtic Football Club to comment any further while there are ongoing legal proceedings”.
TonyAtTheBing
Well-Known Member
They will get away with it, they being the actual people involved in a clear ring within UK football, not just a few coaches who needed jailed but those who ran the institutions they were hired and even rehired into.
This scandal has nearly put me off Scottish football on numerous occasions tbh, fucking disgusting.
SFA have gotten off lightly and the inquiry, led by one of the most dodgy and compromised individuals possible was all about ensuring the real people behind this never see punishment.
Look at how the Police handled Lawrence Haggart's murder also, there are far bigger people who let this continue than the names behind bars, in my opinion that's why this has been swept up.
I am happy the victims will be awarded money and hope they live a better quality of life with it, but anyone who says that these cases are individual and solved by jailing unrelated individuals only is at it, it's a collective and deliberate enabling of child abusers over decades.
This scandal has nearly put me off Scottish football on numerous occasions tbh, fucking disgusting.
SFA have gotten off lightly and the inquiry, led by one of the most dodgy and compromised individuals possible was all about ensuring the real people behind this never see punishment.
Look at how the Police handled Lawrence Haggart's murder also, there are far bigger people who let this continue than the names behind bars, in my opinion that's why this has been swept up.
I am happy the victims will be awarded money and hope they live a better quality of life with it, but anyone who says that these cases are individual and solved by jailing unrelated individuals only is at it, it's a collective and deliberate enabling of child abusers over decades.
Sensiblesteve
Well-Known Member
When can we start talking about sporting sanctions and potential punishments for the “ Club like no other “
They surely can’t get away with just paying off the victims, moral integrity should decide otherwise
They surely can’t get away with just paying off the victims, moral integrity should decide otherwise
Hopefully, it looks like it would be the only real punishment dished out to the club. They have plenty of money in the bank so will survive the financial hit they will take in the UK.
