GUILTY: CELTIC BOYS CLUB BOSS ABUSED KIDS
Court convicts football coach of sex offences
A FORMER chairman of the Celtic Boys Club has been found guilty of five counts of sexual abuse against children.
Gerald King, 66, was convicted of using lewd and libidinous practises against five pupils, aged between nine and 13, whilst a teacher in the 1980s.
The decision comes just weeks after club founder Jim Torbett, who King also worked for, was jailed for a second time.
A FORMER Celtic Boys’ Club chairman has been convicted of sexually abusing four boys and a girl while he was employed as a teacher.
Gerald King, 66, taught and coached football at a primary school in the north of Glasgow during the 1980s.
His conviction comes only weeks after Celtic Boys’ Club founder Jim Torbett was jailed for a second time for abusing three boys.
Shamed King, who was also a coach at Celtic boys’ club, was told on Wednesday by Sheriff Johanna Johnston QC: “You have been convicted of serious sexual offences against pupils when you were in a position of trust as a teacher and football coach.”
One man, now 43-yearsold, told how King exposed himself to him when he was getting changed before a football game.
He told prosecutor Adele Macdonald: “I was really embarrassed and uncomfortable”.
He told the jury: “I felt as though it was something I couldn’t escape from.”
After a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court, King was convicted of five charges of using lewd and libidinous practises towards the victims between August 1984 and April 1989.
He was also found guilty of taking indecent pictures of children in February 1987.
King’s victims were between nine and 13 yearsold at the time.
In evidence, he admitted taking two pictures, one of four boys in a shower with no clothes on which was later printed in the school magazine with “censored” over their private parts.
He said he took a second picture of one of the boys with no clothes on, claiming both were entirely innocent.
King denied the rest of the charges.
Another victim, now 41, described King stripping off in front of him before a football game.
Miss Macdonald asked: “How did you feel when you were standing there and he was in front of you in the same room naked?” He answered: “Embarrassed.”
Sheriff Johnston deferred sentence until next year and continued King’s bail.
Defence counsel Gavin Anderson will give defence mitigation then.
King also worked at Torbett’s company, the Trophy Centre, but previously denied being close to him.
During Torbett’s trial he named King as one of the coaches at the boys’ club.
The founder of the club was first put behind bars for two years in 1998 for shocking abuse of three former players.
Torbett was said to have been sacked by Celtic Boys Club in 1974 when allegations surfaced against him, but was later welcomed back in 1980 until 1996.