Former chairman of Celtic Boys Club guilty of abusing five children
A FORMER Celtic Boys Club chairman has been convicted of abusing five children while employed as a school teacher.
Gerald King, 66, sexually assaulted four boys and a girl aged between nine and 13 during his time at a primary school in north Glasgow in the 1980s.
King, who previously worked for paedophile Jim Torbett, was convicted yesterday of five charges following a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court. Jurors heard that King exposed himself to two boys and on a different occasion took two lewd pictures of four naked boys in the showers of the changing rooms.
A censored version of the photo was then printed in the school magazine, the court was told.
The pensioner, who formerly worked at the boys club founder Torbett’s company the Trophy Centre in Glasgow, will be sentenced next year.
King previously admitted working for Torbett, 71, but denied being close to him.
Sheriff Johanna Johnston, QC, yesterday told King: ‘You have been convicted of serious sexual offences against pupils when you were in a position of trust as a teacher and football coach.’ King was convicted of using lewd and libidinous practices towards the five victims between August 1984 and April 1989.
One man, now 43, told how King exposed himself to him when he was getting changed before a game and told prosecutor Adele Macdonald: ‘I was really embarrassed and uncomfortable’.
He told the jury: ‘I felt as though it
‘Position of trust as teacher and coach’
was something I couldn’t escape from.’
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.’ King was also found guilty of taking indecent pictures of children in February 1987.
Sheriff Johnston deferred sentence and continued King’s bail.
Torbett was first put behind bars for two years in 1998 for abusing three former players, including future Scotland striker Alan Brazil, between 1967 and 1974.
He was said to have been sacked from the club in 1974 by then Celtic boss Jock Stein when allegations surfaced against him, but was later welcomed back in 1980 until 1996, after Stein’s departure.
Following Torbett’s second conviction last month, legal firm Thompsons announced plans to sue Celtic FC on behalf of ten of its clients after the Scottish Premier League champions appeared to distance themselves from the boys’ club.
The alleged victims, two of whom were targeted by Torbett, including Celtic Boys Club player Kenny Campbell, also demanded a meeting, an apology and ‘acknowledgement’ from club bosses who they claim ‘ignored the impact’ of the crimes ‘committed under their watch’.
At the High Court in Glasgow at the time, judge Lord Beckett said Torbett had used the Boys Club, at which he was a volunteer, as a ‘front and a recruiting ground’ to abuse children.
Sending Torbett to prison, Lord Beckett told him his conduct had a ‘substantial impact’ on his victims, even many years later.